My natural hair color is probably a medium brown but I haven't seen it (except for the roots) in many years. I started using henna on my hair when I was 14 (over 20 years ago) and used it about every 6 months until I was about 30. Aside from the first time I used it (left it on way too long and ended up with very orange hair), I always loved the color I got from it and often had compliments on my hair. Everyone thought it was my natural color.

Throughout the years, hairdressers always told me that henna wasn't good for my hair and that it dried it out - although I never saw any evidence of that. Anyway, when I was about 30 years old, I decided to get highlights and stopped using henna. For the past 8 years I had various hairdressers dye my hair chemically and I have NEVER gotten the beautiful, natural color I used to get from henna. And on top of that, the color faded quickly, I had very obvious roots and my hair always felt dry and damaged.

So I recently started researching henna and found this site. After reading all the info and people's comments I decided to buy some [Ancient Sunrise] henna and WOW, I love the results! First of all, the quality of the henna is fabulous compared to what I used to use and the color and shine is amazing! The picture was taken 1 day after hennaing my hair and the color was still a little bright but now, a week later, the color is less orange more coppery/Irish Setter like. Here's the mix I used.

100 grams Ancient Sunrise body art quality henna (Mehandi)
Added a mildly acidic liquid mix to make henna paste

I mixed this all together to a yoghurt-like consistency and then let it sit for 12 hours for the dye release. Then I put some henna on my roots first and left it on for 20 minutes. Then I covered the rest of my hair with the remaining henna, covered my hair with a plastic shower cap and left if on for just over 1 hour. Although the picture doesn't show it, my roots are still a little too noticeable for my liking. Next time I will again do the roots first and leave the henna on them for about 1 hour before putting henna on the rest of my hair.

Notes and references
Henna: https://www.mehandi.com/Mehandi-com-Ancient-Sunrise-Henna-for-Hair-s/121.htm
Don’t have fruit juice on hand? Keep some fruit acid powders in your cupboard.
Mildly acidic liquid: https://www.mehandi.com/Fruit-Acid-for-henna-dye-release-s/299.htm
More info on mildly acidic mixes: https://www.tapdancinglizard.com/henna-and-acidic-mixes/
Ancient Sunrise henna for hair kits with everything included: https://www.mehandi.com/Mehandi-com-Ancient-Sunrise-Henna-for-Hair-Kits-s/124.htm

Video How-to
Going red with henna: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/739464950