I really like this henna. I have medium ash brown hair, and this gives me a rich warm brown color. I use the medium brown in the antelope box. I mix it with hot water, vinegar, greek yogurt, and cinnamon. It doesn't smell very good, but it's not terrible, and it doesn't burn my eyes like chemical hair dyes. It takes a long time, but it's worth it.

I decided to try this as an all natural alternative to chemical hair color. I also wanted to grow my hair color out but after a few months my dark brown hair dye would oxidize and turn orange. I was left with 2-3 inch dark brown roots and 8 inched of brassiness. I looked into semi-permanent color but most are full of chemicals as well.
I can this henna at my local health food store and Whole Foods. It is $6.99 (U.S.) at both. I have tried the medium brown and dark brown. The medium brown was too light for my dark brown hair and the black was just right. I found the whole process of application a learning process. I followed directions (no metal utensils and bowls) and after mixing, let it sit out at room temperature overnight. I use a few tablespoons lemon juice, water and either virgin coconut oil or hair conditioner (just a little, the coconut worked better but was hard to clean from my bath tub). I prefer to make it to a cake batter consistency and mix for 5 minutes. Too much liquid can make it runny and if you leave on for hours, that is hours of dripping.
I have curly hair and this mixture is very chunky. I can also dry out a bit overnight so check the texture before you start. If it's dry, just add a little water until mix it's until it's moist again.
I start at my roots and then apply like traditional hair dye letting the chunks fall. This is (obviously) very messy and the first time I did it, had to clean my bathroom. Luckily, it didn't stain anything. The second time, I applied in my backyard. I also have to "push" the mix in my hair as well, using big globs.
I let this stay on for as long as my day allows, usually 2-6 hours. I read from others (henna user websites), do not shampoo for a few days. It much easier to get out of your hair using conditioner and water. It takes me about 15-20 minutes in the shower. With the black henna, it really took two days for it to look like a ash dark brown. At first it looked a pink pinkish/red in the sun. Two days later, it looked awesome.
Henna conditions my hair and makes it shiny and more manageable. It also helps with defining my curls. Yes, it's worth all the time and extra work. I now know my hair is much healthier and is not breaking anymore. It covers up the brassy hair and the results are the same as regular hair dye. I was using Color Silk in dark brown before this. I lok forward to having longer, healthier hair.

This review is for the Light Mountain Henna products. I purchased it in Chestnut and Neutral. I have only tried the Chestnut and I will say that I do like it. I bought it through Amazon for 3/$18 and change. You can buy it from other vendors for less. I have Black to Dark Brown hair, that's wavy on the ends. This is a messy process so I recommend going to Henna for Hair's website and reading up on it or going to Youtube to see how others do it. I prepared it the night before and applied it in the morning and left it on for 4 hours. I had wrapped my hair in saran wrap, shower cap and towel. When it started dripping down my neck (4 hrs), I decided to wash it out. There is some rough grit in there, and it took about 35 min to apply in the tub, 35 min to wash completely out in the tub. I used some dirt cheap conditioner to help get it out. It does leave your hair smelling like hay, so you may want to add a terp.oil in it to help cancel out the smell. I followed w/a deep conditioner and it covered my white hair sprouts and left the rest of my hair w/a cast of red. I liked it because i wasn't going for a dramatic change. I wanted my hair to stop falling out, wanted shiny, healthy hair, concealed white hairs, and a warm tone to it. I am happy with the results. Like I said it is messy, so you can either recruit a friend to help w/the application, or you can see how others do it and learn by their mistakes and suggestions. I think I will do this again, because it is natural, w/o dangerous chemicals being added to my hair and probably better for my hair in the long run.

I love using this product, I've never had any negative effects from it (such as staining my pillow, etc.) and it turns my dirty blonde hair a beautiful, natural looking red. It does smell like hay though so make sure you use hot tea or add essential oils to offset the smell, but it only lasts a few days anyway. Also, I find that using vaseline around your hair line can coat the hairs there and hinder staining so last night I colored without it and scrubbed the skin around my hairline today with baking soda to remove the stains. Also, I tend to make it a more watery consistency than yogurt because I feel it spreads better to cover all my hairs. It's really cheap too, I have thick slightly past my shoulders hair and can use one package two or three times. The best thing is that it isn't damaging like most other dyes, it's really the best way to go if you want any red in your hair ( I can't comment on any other color). But I don't know how it interacts with previously dyed hair, I had grown out virgin hair at the time, but have heard that you need to remove the henna from your hair (which sounds damaging) before you can re-dye with chemicals.

This is my first-ever review! I was impressed enough with this product to share my experience...

I tried the "Auburn" Light Mountain, which is the same as my natural hair color, hoping it would enhance the color, condition my hair, and cover my white hairs enough so that they aren't noticeable. It did EXACTLY that!

After preparing the henna as per the package instructions, I applied it over the bathroom sink, wearing latex gloves. (First I smeared Aquaphor on any body parts that were likely to come in contact with the mixture.) Applying the henna mixture was a little hard (but I've never dyed my hair before, so I had NO experience), because once the thick goop got on it, it was next to impossible to separate my hair into sections like the instructions say... I ended up just sort of slathering a ton on, combing it through with a wide-toothed comb, and massaging it around to try to coat all my hair.

When it seemed like I had enough on my head (which, as I have chin-length hair, was only about half the prepared mixture), I left the goop on for 20 minutes (covered by the plastic bag which is included in the package), applying heat with a hair dryer the whole time. It was a little messy, but MUCH less messy than I expected. I didn't accidentally dye anything I didn't want dyed, and cleanup was easy. When I was finished, I scooped out the leftover mixture with paper towels and threw it away in a plastic bag, rather than trying to wash it all down the drain. None of the bowls, utensils, or sinks/tubs I used were negatively effected.

When I rinsed it out (also much easier than expected), my hair shade didn't look dramatically different (which is good, because I love my natural hair color) but was subtly darker/redder and "richer" looking. My white hairs are tinted just enough so that there's not enough contrast for them to show up. The texture is great, and it looks really healthy. The smell is also very mild (it kind of reminds me of the smell of TVP, textured vegetable protein...) and didn't bother me at all. I'll have to see how long the color lasts and how well it continues to cover my white hairs....

[Edit: I'm taking away a lippie because the color faded really quickly! I LOVED the initial results, but in only a week they'd already begun to wear off. I am going to try leaving it on longer next time I use it and see if it makes a difference.]

This review is for the original Light Mountain Natural (Henna), not for their 2-step product, Light Mountain Color the Grey. I used the pure henna product in "light brown" and "medium brown."

Firstly, let me mention I have used henna before and it was not pure, turned my hair green (it had been previously processed, yes, but with 100% pure henna, you should not have a green result), and completely destroyed my hair. This time, however, I did my research at hennaforhair.com; and learned that I could use 100% henna to tone my greys, and if this henna were mixed with natural indigo, it would not turn my head into a lucille ball lookalike.

The product is messy, yes. If I didn't have a hot day in the backyard, I probably wouldn't use this product. Especially in an apartment. But i have a backyard where I can get messy in my bathingsuit. I mixed mainly the light color with the medium and added some lemon juice. I basically followed the directions, no interaction with metal pans, spoons, etc., and applied it first to my greying roots, then after an hour or so, to the rest of my head, where the color had been previously lifted somewhat with store bought box dye.

The result is amazing. My hair is a better texture, and the color is grand. the greys are tinted a dark gold, the rest of my hair is reddish, which I like. If you don't want reddish hair, see hennapage for others' experiences and recommendations. You CAN avoid getting a completely red result with the right combinations of henna, cassia & indigo.

here here for natural haircolor!! saved the day. My darker-haired sister is now going to give it a shot with a mixture of the dark brown and the black henna from Light Mountain. continued >>