Henna/Indigo...for Jet Black Hair

Lord help me! First of all henna takes long enough but doing henna then applying indigo if you want jet black hair is a pain in the ass. If you are going to do a henna/indigo treatment, be prepared to devote you whole day to messing with your head and try to get an early start!
So I applied the henna to my hair and let is stay on for 4 hours. I then washed the henna out and whipped up a batch of indigo. (Note: Indigo can NOT be made ahead of time nor can the excess be saved/frozen, as it will go bad after 1 hour.) I put the indigo on and let it stay in my hair for about 2 hours. It's my understanding that indigo really doesn't need to be left in your hair for more than 2 hours since it stops "processing" after about an hour...I just figured I would cover my bases and leave it in for 2 hours.
I will say that the indigo doesn't apply as easy as the henna...it has a tendency to kind of crumble, so you need to take your time applying it for even coverage. I think next time I will add more water to it...perhaps it needed a more yogurt like consistency...my batch was mashed potato consistency.
As for the results...they were GREAT! In the end it was well worth the time, energy and effort! The few gray hairs that I have are no more and are now jet black. Since natural hair tends not to "shine" using the indigo seemed to give it a little boost. I will definitely be doing the henna/indigo combination from now on. And as always the conditioning properties of henna are fantastic! I buy my henna and indigo from Mehandi

My First Henna Treatment

I'm a little late with this post,but I did my first henna treatment about 3 weeks ago. To be honest I was doing it to cover the few strands of gray hair that I had peaking through my fro.
I co-washed first with Aussie Moist (I LOVE this stuff) then i decided to also wash my hair after the co-wash. A lot of people only co-wash before doing a henna treatment but I thought it would be better to have clean hair so that there was no barrier between my hair and the henna. I washed my hair with this shampoo bar I purchased from an Indian store(i'll do a seperate post about this shampoo bar later).
After shampooing I applied the henna. I purchased my henna from Mehandi they make a finely sifted henna just for "African Hair." I mixed my henna with lemon juice until it became the consistency of lumpy mashed potatoes, covered it and let it sit over night. The next day before applying my henna I added 2 tablespoons of raw honey and brewed a cup of green tea which i added to the henna until it became the consistency of yogurt(next time I will go for the consistency of cake frosting). I applied the henna to my hair and covered it in a plastic shower cap and went to bed.

The next morning I filled my bath tub with water and bent over the tub dunking my head in the water to loosen the henna until most of it was out. Then i hopped in the shower and rinsed the rest of the henna out. I applied Aubrey Organics Honey Suckle Rose Conditioner to my hair and covered with a plastic cap for an hour to achieve a good deep conditioning. And that was it...i rinsed it out and my gray was covered perfectly. I plan on doing henna every month.

By the way, I used the henna with the auburn stain, and it only took 100g to cover my hair.