It is considered one of the best permanent colours for your hair. It doesn’t fade easily. Henna is literally just some ground up leaves from a plant called Lawsonia inermis. It has been used for hundreds of years to colour hair and for body-art. Henna will not ‘lift’ your natural hair colour, that is, it has no bleaching effect. It only deposits the colour on the hair. Essentially, it stains your hair.

You cannot mix henna colours like on a painter’s pallet, but this makes it the most healthy and safe mode of dyeing your hair a different colour. In fact, you need to make sure the henna you are using has only one ingredient – pure and natural henna. But natural blends like ‘indigo’ or ‘cassia’ are perfectly safe too, as they are also completely natural dyes.

The henna powder is usually prepared by making it a paste with a bit of water. Even tea(being less acidic) is used instead of water. (It has lower pH than pure distilled water). Tea can even cause subtle highlights with different hues. Lemon juice is added to the tea sometimes. When you have a paste with a consistency of pancake batter, wrap it in cellophane to preserve the moisture and let it sit and cure for a couple of hours. Then apply it onto the hair and let it be on for about 3 to 4 hours.

The final glory of henna colouring will be seen about 24 to 36 hours after the treatment.