Hello everyone, this is a subject on which I am an expert. I've been coloring my hair since I was 15 and I am now almost 40. Don't really know if I'm gray yet, don't really want to know. I use only Loreal these days and I like the shades of the Fiera line. I used Henna for a long time, by the way I'm a red head. Henna is a herb that is a natural conditioner. It comes in a green powder and smells a bit like a haystack. I would buy the red henna powder and I would make a strong concentrate of tea and use that to make a paste. The tea would add a richer brown and the color that came out was a deep rich auburn, very pretty. Henna is very messy. Use gloves and put towels on the floor or anything else you don't want it to get on. Once you mix it, you need to let your mixture sit for about
15-30 minutes for the herb to release the dye. Then apply it all over your hair and cover it with a plastic cap, or bag or something because as it starts to dry, little flakes will fall. You need to let it sit on your hair for at least an hour, maybe two. The longer it sits, the deeper the color. It is a wonderful conditioner, it made my hair so soft and shiny. It does take a few applications for the color to build up in your hair, but it's not a bad build up kind of thing. It may be different with henna made to cover gray, I have not used that kind, so I don't really know what the difference is. I definately reccomend adding about
10 drops of essential oil to the mix for fragrance. Henna can leave your hair smelling a bit like a barn. Very grassy. It also helps to encourage the dye to release. I went back to commercial dyes because I wanted to go a lighter and Henna will not lighten hair, but so far I haven't had any reaction to chemical processing. I am one that suffer with thinning hair and after reading all this I'm thinking maybe it's time to go back to henna. It is a much messier and longer process, but the results are really beautiful. Here's the website that I would order the Henna from and also a site that has a lot of great info on henna and how to use it. I use to order it in one pound bags, but now they only carry single application kits. Best of luck and God Bless.
http://www.bytheplanet.com/LineItems.cfm?brand=11150&ProductLine=Light%20M%20&SubCategory=187
http://www.hennaforhair.com/