I stumbled onto this website while late-night web-surfing waiting for my cat to start delivering kittens.  She had been in mild labor for hours and I was looking for a diversion.  48 hours and four healthy kittens later I find myself standing in a swivel chair so that my hair can reach the scanner.  I really don’t recommend the swivel chair part, but my hair is wonderful.
Here’s what I did.

First I went on ebay (it’s open all night) and bought 100 grams of body art quality henna. Then I got impatient and went down to the local health food store and bought a substitute.

From what I had read on your website I knew it wasn’t the 100 percent pure henna it was advertised as.  But I read the scientific names and figured out it was all herbal, at least.  It was a henna, indigo, senna mix by Light Mountain in “Bright Red”.  I mixed it into paste using the contents of a plastic squeezy lime from the fridge, an old bottle of ground cloves form the back of my spice shelf, and tap water.  I mixed it all up in a big plastic zipper bag to control the mess and left it out on a white sheet of paper overnight.  Someone had recommended that as a way of knowing when the dye has released.  The paper is supposed to turn a pale orange color under the baggie when the mix is ready.  It did. 

About this time I had second thoughts.  All I could think of was Lucille Ball orange.  I ended up back at your website and decided to add a little something else.   My morning coffee ended up in the mix as well.  It was a good, thick, cup and a half of Cuban coffee that was needed to get it the right consistency.  The result was something that (1) started out goose poop green and about the consistency of toothpaste (2) turned dark leafy green-brown overnight and (3) ended up a creamy yogurty brown after it’s morning coffee. 

The mix smelled like pumpkin pie putting it on.  Yummm…  I dabbed some massage oil around my ears and on my hairline.  That seemed to do a pretty good job of keeping my skin from turning orange. 

Then I cut the baggie corner and used it as an applicator.  Next time I think I’ll recruit someone else to help.  Seems like a 2 person job at least. 

The results are great.  I have baby-fine hair in a non-descript light brown that I have colored, permed, and hacked off for years.  The perms made it fall out.  The colors were so smelly I could barely stand it and fried my hair to a crisp.  A couple years ago cut off the last of the chemically treated stuff and let it grow.  I was just about to resort to cutting it to get something decent looking, but I don’t think I will now.  I think I’ll try this for a while and see how it turns out.   This left my hair soft and silky and smelling like fresh hay (We’re horse people here, so hay is ok).  The color is great too.  I had to leave the door to the scanner open to get the right color.  I hope it shows up well enough. 

 Thanks again for your information and inspiration.

 deb