Henna

I first purchased lush henna to dye my hair approximately a year ago, I have never looked back. The colour quality is brilliant. I have dark brown hair and I use the red or marron dyes. I find for short/chin length hair you only need 2-3 squares. For medium length 4-5 squares and longer hair 6 or more.

For those who don't already know, henna hair dye is a natural alternative to dying your hair, rather than using chemical dyes. The top advantage of this is that instead of making your hair dry and strawlike, as some dyes do, the henna makes your hair very lucious and smooth; this is due to one of the main ingredients being cocoa butter.

To create the dye, it needs to be grated/chopped into small pieces and then covered in hot water to create a paste. This is very very messy, so its advisable to put down some newspaper and to wear some gloves - also wear clothes that you may not want to keep because its quite hard to get out if it stains. Once you have your paste, you can begin to apply it to your hair. This is very difficult to do alone and I get my sister to help. This needs to be done fairly quickly as when it starts to dry it starts to crack and fall (again vey messy). I apply a thick moisturiser to my face to stop the dye from dying my face, this is very effective.

Once all of your hair is completely covered, use some cling film to create a protective wrap over your hair as you need to keep the dye on for a long time. I often leave it overnight. Be warned, if you do leave it overnight, you may want to put an old towel on your pillow as it can sometimes leak out and turn your clothing/bedcovers green.

Washing out: I take a thick toothed comb into the shower with me when I wash out the dye as it helps to remove all the solid pieces from your hair. It sometimes takes a few washes to get it all out. When the water begins to run clear this is a good indicator of it all being washed out.

Result: I could not be happier with the result from lush henna. The longer you leave on the dye the better the result. I find leaving on overnight being the best technique. The colour is always of a high quality, and leaves a shine on my hair that I've never got from any other dye. The colour fades out slowly and is barely noticable with my hair colour which is fantastic! The only downside is the mess! This dye is also very strong smelling, it is not unplesant but not majorly pleasant either and will linger on your hair for a couple of days.