Indigo Hair & Beard Dye - All Natural & Plant-based (1 Pack, Indigo Powder)

I am a performer, I am 44 years old, and have salt and pepper hair. A few years back, I noticed that most hair dies, even though they state that they cover gray hair, would not cover gray hair completely.I started to do a lot of research on the health benefits of switching to Henna. Most, Henna products have salt in them, which, if you have processed your hair prior, can cause your hair to break off. The Henna guys does not have the salt in their henna! I have a very dear friend that turned me onto this particular company. They have a lot of integrity, and the colors are so beautiful.I had been bleaching my own hair and dying at different colors. Mainly Pravana, and also semi permanent vegan dyes. I am a Tour Guide in New Orleans, and it gets quite hot here and tend to sweat a lot during the summer time, especially. One day I noticed, as I took witch hazel and wipe my chest, the cotton pad was black. I started to do research on the effects of chemical dyes, and how it is absorbed into your body, what I found is there are some cancer causing affects. Your skin is one of the biggest organs, I wanted to improve my mental health as well, as I am perimenopausal and figure that the absorption of these chemicals is probably affecting things that I don’t realize.Henna dye, darkens overtime, so I was quite worried to commit to this. I have long straight hair that almost touches my lower back for the first application, I used hibiscus tea that I brewed, put the deep red powder in a glass bowl. You do not want to use any kind of metal bowl slowly mixed the hibiscus tea in and stirred the Henna, so that there were no clumps and a cookie dough kind of texture. I also used Bravani powder. Adding in a quarter of the packet, this is something that you can add to the Henna that helps with strengthening the hair, etc. You can go on the henna guys.com and see the options that they have. I also used a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, then I let the Henna sit for eight hours, and set an alarm on my phone. I used three packets which was way too much, but wanted to make sure I had enough.After eight hours I mixed it again. Then I took a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and mixed it in, as the reviews stated it would help with gray coverage. I also made sure that I had a sulfate free shampoo and conditioner. I used a regular hair, dyeing, brush, gloves, and had a plastic cap nearby, the easiest way to do this with long hair, you section your hair off and four different sections and clipped the ones back that you were not using. You can use your hands, but I found it much easier to use a dye brush.I don’t know what people are so fussy about, I was reading reviews, and they said that it was super messy, however, I didn’t have any issues. Keep in mind I’ve been dying my hair for many many years. I did put a cape on over my clothes and made sure I wasn’t wearing anything that I would care about getting Henna on.If you get henna on your hands or body, it’s actually not as bad to get it off like people say. Use lemon juice and baking soda. Mix it into a paste and let it sit on your skin where you accidentally died, and after a couple minutes, just scrub it off with a washcloth, off and no problemDepending on the length of your hair, will determine how long you need to wait until you apply it. Once you apply the henna, you have to let it sit on your head for three hours and cover it. It is a clay, so your hair will feel heavy. Honestly, I just twisted my hair up into four buns and put a cap on basically just did some house work after three hours, I went into the shower to rinse it off. It is extremely important that when you rinse it off it is cold water. Also, it’s a good idea to rinse off the top of the cap before you pull it off. If you have long hair, you’re definitely one gonna wanna lean your head back and keep it back, the first time I did this I didn’t do this, and the water that dripped down my face had had a die coming down, so I did actually need to scrub my face after this happened. I would highly suggest a mirror on the side of your shower you can also start with warm water at first to acclimate your body, and then rinse it out if your hair. I would definitely suggest putting a leave in conditioner that is super hydrating that sulfate free, a.k.a. maybe a coconut or jojoba hair mask. Put it in your hair and leave it on as long as you can after the first application, then go in and rinse it off with cold water.A lot of people don’t realize that if you have been processing your hair for sometime, it takes your hair a while to adjust. Literally, the henna will coat your hair, follicle and help heal your hair, but it takes time. My hair felt dry and brittle the first time, the second time was better, and the third time, I finally feel like my hair has adjusted and it’s soft and silky.Honestly, after I first did my hair, it was very soft due to the oils I put in my hair. Just know if you do decide to take a warm shower, to actually seal the henna dye into your hair, you do need to use cold water the more you wash your hair with warm water, the quicker it will rinse out.The gray coverage is amazing and the health benefits are also equally as awesome. I should’ve been doing this years ago. There are many tutorials on YouTube specifically for this brand, the Henna guys. Are used a lot of those tutorials to approach this. Now, when I am outside and sweating, I know, at least if the henna goes into my skin, it will not cause my body harm. Also, the more I use this, the healthier and stronger my hair feels. to prevent darkening at my ends, I actually applied two times all over my hair, then the third time I only applied it to my roots, this way, I can keep the rest of my hair a little bit lighterThere are several lightning techniques. If you have been dying your hair with Henna for a very long time, you can find a lot of those resources on YouTube. This may sound like a very long process, but I’m telling you, it is well well worth it.Wanted to share my experience, hope this was helpful, honestly this color is so beautiful and I get so many compliments, I would suggest it to anyone!

Okay, let me start out by describing my hair: I have mid-back length, super curly and thick hair. My hair is brown but it is often perceived as black when I am out of the sun. In the sun, you can tell it is brown. I have used henna twice before, from Lush. I used it about 7 months ago for the first time and followed up the treatment a month later. I really liked the Lush henna dye, but it honestly didn't do much for my hair. I really wanted the color to show through but it didn't....of course because my hair is dark. I do not use any chemicals in my hair. I make my own shampoo with coconut milk so my experience may be different than other people who use regular shampoo in their hair.Let me say that I tried this henna dye on myself (deep red) and on my sister who has lighter brown hair (and uses regular shampoo). This is hands down WAY better than the Lush one. For one, it is SOO much easier to use! It comes in the powder so I didn't have to grate it down first. I felt like it was less messier too. It didn't clump up like the Lush one did. The best part about this dye is that it actually stuck! You can see the redness even without the sunlight!! I don't know if it was the prep I did, but I absolutely love it and am so happy with the results! It is SUPER red so if you're wanting more of a burgundy, I would suggest another henna dye (I used deep red). My sister's hair also turned out red, obviously more noticeable than mine but I just couldn't believe how much more this henna dye actually appeared in my hair. In the light, you see nothing but redness and I am beyond happy! I'm not saying this will work for everyone, but I wouldn't give up hope just yet if you have darker hair. So to prep, here's what I did.As I mentioned, I use coconut milk for my hair as my shampoo. I washed it out the night prior to the application.I used 2 packs of the deep red dye. It was enough for me (having mid-back, super thick curly hair) and my sister (who has very thin shoulder-length hair). I will probably buy 2 packs next time but I will only be using 1 1/4 of it. You may be able to get away with 1 pack but I didn't want to risk it.Getting the henna dye ready was super easy! The instructions are okay but I wasn't really sure how much to add, etc. so I just researched different blogs to see what other people were doing.I grabbed a medium sized mixing bowl. I threw in 3 tbsp of raw honey, 2 tbsp of olive oil, 1 whole large lemon, some apple cider vinegar (I read this helps lighten your hair some) - I added maybe 1 tbsp. I then mixed in the 2 packs of henna dye. I read that you're supposed to brew up some tea - hibiscus is best since it helps lighten hair but I didn't have any. I used an organic black tea that I dug out of the pantry (I would definitely use hibiscus since I read this helps more). After brewing the tea, I squeezed out the bag and then poured about 20 oz of the water into the bowl. I did it little by little and mixed it each time with a whisk. The consistency is definitely what you would get from a cake batter so make sure not to add too much nor too little. It was so easy to mix (compared to Lush's henna dye)! After mixing it, I wrapped it with aluminum foil (since I had no plastic wrap) and left it at room temperature for 15 hours. When I checked it after those 15 hours, the consistency was exactly the same. It didn't get hard or anything like Lush's henna dye. I thought that I needed to keep it warm to be able to spread it but it was perfectly fine with just being at room temperature.Application was super easy! I started with my roots then went down my hair. I used the shower cap the dye came with and then used aluminum foil around my hair...I would definitely recommend plastic wrap but I didn't have it on-hand so I decided to use the next best thing. I did put Vaseline around my face before the application so I really recommend using that.I left the dye in my hair for about 9 hours. I had planned to only do 8, but I got busy and finally got around to it at about the 9 hour mark.I did not use any shampoo - I rinsed off my hair with cool water until the water ran clear....maybe 20 mins.I did not wash my hair again until 40 hours later, I used my coconut milk to cleanse my hair. The water did run an orange/yellow color but it wasn't too bad. Since then, I have been washing my hair every other day and the water is still running orange/yellow but it doesn't really bother me (I have washed my hair a total of 4 times since posting this review). I'm not sure if it's because I don't use regular shampoo, but it doesn't bother me that the water is still not clear.I am so happy with the results. I may try the burgundy color next time because this one is definitely a fire red. I did try to take pictures of my hair before and after, but the pictures really didn't do the color justice. Of course there are still hints of brown in my hair, but it's mostly red now! When I put it up in a bun, the bun is a fiery red and the roots look red with brown. It's such an amazing combination and I really can't wait to try the burgundy. I love the hair color but I would warn against it if you have lighter hair and don't want a fiery red. I hope this helps!