Henna & Indigo Hair Dye Conditioning bar

[Garden Gives Me Joy]

I hope to dye my gray hair by adding a henna-indigo combination of powders to my hair conditioner bar. For the henna-indigo combination for jet-black hair;

I will combine 1 part henna with 4 parts indigo in a paste that liquefies the powders from either a very concentrated coffee brew or pure aloe vera gel. The conditioner recipe is an adaptation of YouTuber Tellervo's conditioner bar recipe.

What percentage of powder should I add to the bar, please?

Happy for any other general suggestions, such as whether I should reduce the oil in the conditioner recipe (to promote dying).; whether I should exclude protein from the recipe (if protein makes dying less effective).

Thanks

 

[AliOop]

I'm not sure this will work as suggested. When I previously used the henna-indigo combination to dye my hair, I had to activate them separately before combining them, and then had to quickly use the combined mix.

Pure henna (the one you want for hair) is best activated with an acidic liquid like tea, lemon juice, or amla powder + water. It is then left covered to fully activate for at least a couple of hours, and preferably overnight. Henna that doesn't need this kind of activation probably includes ingredients that you probably don't want to use. Search for "henna products cause hair to catch on fire" for more info.

Unprocessed indigo (the one you want for hair) is activated with a bit of hot water and salt. It is ready to use within about 15 minutes, and then it needs to be used quickly before it starts breaking down.

Conditioner bars typically don't contain water to activate either of these ingredients. But even if you did get them activated by the shower water, both of them are strongly staining to most surfaces, including skin, counters, floors, etc. When I rinsed my hair after dying with henna + indigo, I had to immediately scrub down the shower to get every last bit of dye off the shower walls and floor before it set in and became permanent. The fiberglass shower pan still ended up darkening over time, as did the dedicated towel that I used to wrap around my head after rinsing out the dye.

For supporting darker hair in between coloring sessions, the Ayurvedic sites recommend black tea rinses, among other solutions. Those can still be staining but not to the extent that henna and indigo would be.

My two cents - sorry to be a downer.

 

[SoapMedic]

AliOop makes some very good points about henna and indigo. When I used to henna my hair (years ago) it was always a race to clean everything up before the stains set. Also, as the years passed I found that henna wasn't as effective at covering my gray; I found a stylist who was willing to use it and same thing. Just not great coverage, but the hair that wasn't gray looked and felt fabulous! Good luck and update us!!