Asterousia
Member
@Asterousia thank you for sharing your henna experience! You are brave to put boiled onion peels on your hair. Does the smell carry through?? I'll be more likely to check into the shikakai shampoo, so I appreciate the mention.
I make an infusion of onion peels (red or yellow onion) and use this to activate henna, I don't put onion peels on hair directly It doesn't have a bad smell, it's neutral. I find smell of henna quite repulsive, hay alike and will do anything to kill it. That's why I use cinammon and clove, not for colouring. Also, after rinsing out henna, I never co-wash it, just use 2 Tbs of shikakai powder diluted in very warm water (to make a paste) with 2 drops of tea tree essential oil and 2 drops of neroli essential oil (EOs are added when temperature of the paste drops down) as a shampoo. This shampoo will not remove henna at this early stage and neroli do wonders in the fragrance department.
Anyway, back to onion peels infusion: take dry onion peels (save them while you're cooking your meals and let them dry out completely to eliminate mold production. After that you can keep them in dry conditions for months), put in a pot a generous amount of onion peels and top it up with water (I use spring water). Bring it to a boil, cover the pot and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and leave for a couple of minutes, than strain the infusion and use it to activate henna. As for onion peels, you can throw them away
I use similar method for dying Easter eggs, they are amazing and you can be creative with herbs too
I would never eat an egg dyed with artificial colours.
Got a feedback from DragonSpice, shipping would be 15 euros for a 1 kg parcel, so I'll definitely place the order by the end of September!
If you want to experiment with SLMI, you can contact Innospec at:
Performance Chemicals (North Carolina): 704-633-8028
and ask them for a list of retail shops that sell Iselux in flakes or powder form. If you combine it with a couple of other mild surfactants, I'm sure this indigo will last longer
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