Henna or Mehendi is an Ayurvedic herb known to have been used for many centuries as a hair coloring agent. It gives a natural brown color to the hair as well as nourishes the scalp along with giving a cooling effect which by the way also reduces stress. If you are using it regularily, one common issue is post application dryness.
If your hair are dry in nature, applying henna can increase dryness significantly. Here are a few remedies you can take to reduce this effect.
Use Curd
Mix 1 tablespoon of curd or plain Greek yogurt in the heena mix before applying on hair. If you plan on going with this method, remember to add lesser water in heena powder while trying to make a paste. Otherwise, when you will add yogurt, it will make the paste very runny.
Egg Whites
Add 2-3 egg whites to heena mix before applying. Egg is a great source of protein and hairs love it. It adds smoothness and shine to manes. One may also add egg yolk and it is super-hydrating for hair shaft but it makes the paste very smelly. Hence most people avoid putting it. If you choose to put whole egg, one –two will be enough depending on the hair length.
Coconut Oil
2 teaspoons of coconut oil added to heena paste also helps as per older recipes. But your colour may not come out to its fullest potential as any oil will coat the hair shaft and make colour penetration difficult. Colour results will not last long. But if nourishment is more of a purpose for you than colour, go for it by all means.
Coconut Milk
Coconut milk may be added to water and heena power while soaking. It’s a very nourishing recipe too. Be sure to add just a little bit or else the color of henna will not be so dark.
Mayonnaise
You may add plain mayonnaise (not flavoured mayonnaise please) 2 teaspoonful in heena paste before applying.
Sugar
Try adding a teaspoonful of sugar, 1 teaspoon of honey and ½ spoon of olive oil to heena paste and get perfect results. Again colour payoff might suffer a bit due to olive oil.
Oil Mix
One great measure that I personally have been taking since ages and has worked great for me so far is that of applying my favourite hair oil (coconut oil, olive oil or herbal oil of my choice) to the scalp and hair on the night of soaking heena. It’s actually a good idea to wrap your hair with a hot water wringed towel after applying any oil: A hot oil treatment at home. Next day, wash your hair first thing in the morning with a light herbal shampoo and let them dry naturally. And remember, no blow drying!
Later in the noon time, apply the heena paste as usual. This method leaves the with hair so smooth and nourished.
Avoid adding lemon-juice or vinegar to heena mix if you are a dry-haired beauty as, apart from their other benefit i.e. better colour payoff, they have a tendency to dry out hair.
