I have been coloring my naturally dark blond hair for many years (I’ve had everything from jet black to platinum blond, purple, and fire-engine red, to name a few….), but eventually I looked for ways to avoid piling tons of chemicals on my head only to watch my brilliant color fade after just a couple of weeks. I am also not a fan of the smell of ammonia. The first time that I tried henna was also the last time I tried henna (I bought a package of “natural” henna from Sevananda several years ago). It was incredibly smelly, hard to work with, and dried my hair out like nothing else. I recently rediscovered henna and there were a few key things about this product that I didn’t know:

1. The quality of the henna that you buy depends greatly on the source.
2. A lot of packaged henna in stores is not of high quality and will not deliver outstanding results.
3. Henna is only a red colorant; all other “henna” products that offer colors other than red have added chemicals, some potentially dangerous.
4. Henna is permanent and lasts longer than any professional or at-home red coloring I have ever used.
5. You can add spices to henna to make it smell better (it still smells tons better unaided than commercial “permanent” hair color, imo).

Thanks to the awesome folks at Mehandi, I’ve learned to only buy Body Art Quality henna for my hair which they sell at very good prices. I’ve been extremely pleased with the results for about a year now. Definitely read the e-book for more than you ever wanted to know about this plant. Keep the chemicals off your skin and enjoy a brilliant red!