Buxus dioica AKA katam

**Olivia23** · December 4th, 2011, 08:00 PM

Wow. I used henna and buxus for the first and last time today. I want brown hair again after years of just straight henna. I tried henna and indigo before but hated the mess indigo made plus it has a strong odor and it's very difficult to work through my hair. Well buxus was worse!

I ordered through mehandi so it's was from a reputable company, but it was so gritty it was harder to mash in my hair than indigo. I used about a 60/40 mix of buxus/henna. The buxus dried out quickly in my hair before I could work it through and my mix was runny! It left dried pieces everywhere! Also it was difficult to wash out and even when I thought I had it all out and I was combing through my hair, dried bits were falling out everywhere!

I'm now wondering if alma and henna would be better.

**cheetahfast** · December 5th, 2011, 06:10 AM

Originally Posted by Olivia23

Wow. I used henna and buxus for the first and last time today. I want brown hair again after years of just straight henna. I tried henna and indigo before but hated the mess indigo made plus it has a strong odor and it's very difficult to work through my hair. Well buxus was worse!

I ordered through mehandi so it's was from a reputable company, but it was so gritty it was harder to mash in my hair than indigo. I used about a 60/40 mix of buxus/henna. The buxus dried out quickly in my hair before I could work it through and my mix was runny! It left dried pieces everywhere! Also it was difficult to wash out and even when I thought I had it all out and I was combing through my hair, dried bits were falling out everywhere!

I'm now wondering if alma and henna would be better.

Give it another try!! That is if you have leftovers. Try mixing a gloss with just buxus and add a pinch of salt to make it stick better. I've never had the issue of it drying to fast. Washing out is always a bit of a pain, but I think the color is worth it. It helped me get back to brown pretty well. I think amla might not get you very brown.

**jackie75** · December 11th, 2011, 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by Olivia23

Wow. I used henna and buxus for the first and last time today. I want brown hair again after years of just straight henna. I tried henna and indigo before but hated the mess indigo made plus it has a strong odor and it's very difficult to work through my hair. Well buxus was worse!

I ordered through mehandi so it's was from a reputable company, but it was so gritty it was harder to mash in my hair than indigo. I used about a 60/40 mix of buxus/henna. The buxus dried out quickly in my hair before I could work it through and my mix was runny! It left dried pieces everywhere! Also it was difficult to wash out and even when I thought I had it all out and I was combing through my hair, dried bits were falling out everywhere!

I'm now wondering if alma and henna would be better.

This was my experience as well today. I used up the last of my Jamila henna yesterday, and today I prepared a strong gloss of katam, pinch of salt, splash of ACV and warm water. I added kiwi lime condish and applied it to damp hair.

It was so difficult to spread, and I had it flaking as well. Henna flakes too...so the flaking bit is getting pretty irritating to me. It's such a pain to clean up!

I had to add just conditioner to my hair to get it to spread a bit more. I put on a plastic shopping bag, (I'm out of disposable hair caps, and shower caps start to hurt after awhile) and then hair cap thing I got at walmart that ties in the back. It started dripping so bad! So I wrapped a bandanna around my head and put a knit stocking over that! It still dripped some, lol.

I could only stand it for an hour, so I rinsed. And rinsed. AND RINSED. My Lord, the stuff was so gritty...I never had such a hard time getting henna or cassia out...I used up the rest of my condish but finally got it all out. I did a ACV rinse after.

It did seem to work well on the orange bits...a warm reddish brown. I wish I could take pics, but my kids broke my camera.

Anyway, I don't know what my next step is. I just might get some manic panic or something similar again. I wish I could just make up my mind and be content with the color of my hair!!

**lindsayhv** · March 25th, 2014, 08:40 PM

Is this stuff not available anymore?

**Wallabear** · March 27th, 2014, 11:36 AM

So, I'm not the only one searching like mad for this stuff. Every site I've gone to says they are out of stock because of the problems happening in Yemen right now. If anyone knows of katam being available - let us know!

**Rosetta** · March 27th, 2014, 11:39 AM

^ This UK seller has it available (though I'm not sure how much the shipping costs outside Europe would be): http://www.henna-boy.co.uk/yemeni-katam

**Nightshade** · March 27th, 2014, 11:45 AM

http://www.hennasooq.com/katam-hair-dye/

^ henna sooq has it too

**lindsayhv** · March 27th, 2014, 12:09 PM

Henna Sooq is unfortunately out of stock because of the import issue

She said she didn't know when that would be resolved. I ordered some from the UK seller today, and put it on my credit card (crazy me) not even knowing how many dollars a pound is worth! Hopefully it wasn't too extravagant. I only ordered 200 grams so I can try it out to see how I like it. Maybe some of the US sellers will get it back in the near future in case it works for me.