Horse hair coloring

[Marcus Mummius]

Thanks,Tarbicus.
I thought that went unnoticed.

No it didn't :wink: Very good idea, indeed. But I don't know what colours good be obtained with henna. What is possible?

Another question: how durable is henna? I know it get washed out of human hair in a few weeks, sometimes longer. My girlfriend once had the luminous idea to go to sleep with the henna dye on her hair. The henna didn't come of her hair anymore by washing, it had to grow out. The colour was very 'carrot-like' in the beginning :lol:

Vale,

[Tarbicus]

Apparently henna's a colour-fast 'substantive' dye:
http://www.colour-ed.org/activity/act_05/05_index.htm

Some US sources (including cochineal for you budding legates out there)
http://www.maiwa.com/stores/supply/natural_dyes.html

Not sure of the sources, but it seems an informed page about nanotechnology:
In the Greco-Roman period, organic hair dyes from plants, such as henna, were commonly used for human hair, and have been used up to modern times. However, some unusual formulas using lead compounds were also used to dye hair and wool black.
http://www.nanooze.org/english/blog.html

Henna can definitely be (and looks like it was) used for textiles:
http://www.antique-acc.com/acatalog/3897901781.htm

[scythius]

There are a huge amount of variables when dying.

Mordants: there isn't a 'universal' mordant. What works depends primarily on the fiber being used and the dyestuff.

impurities in the water being used: A friend used dyestuff from the same lot (the same with the mordant) and got
a soft, muted red when dying at her mum's house, and a light gray when dyeing at her own home. The difference was the water at her house had a more acidic PH level.

Temperature: already mentioned.

freshness of dyestuff: Some of this stuff has a fairly short shelf life before they aren't usable. I tend to buy what I need, WHEN I need it, as I sometimes don't have a pressing need to dye right away. I've thrown out a distressing amount of materials over the years befire this lesson made it through my thick skull...

Lermes v. cochineal. Kermes is an Old World dye, cochineal is New World. In fact, cochineal was a majpr industry in San Diego county 0 I've made quite a few trips over the years into the backcountry to collect cochineal. It is a lot of work - the bugs are found on the pads of the prickly-pear cactus.

I've not attempted dying any horsehair (yet) - my own cresta is a natural chestnut.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Well if you look at the link Hib posted , you will see it mentions henna, and the colour it produces, which is orange! It would certainly have been used if available, I imagine!

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

Well, having used henna I can say the results differ depending upon which brand you use. One company,Ardell, uses a very stabilized form from which everything from reds to brown shades to black are available. However, all these will have a slight reddish cast in sunlight. If you use the 100% Egyptia henna, usually available in tins with very cool ancient Egyptian drawings on them, you'll get an orangy-red. Think Lucille Ball.
The longer you leave it on the hair(horse or human) the longer the color
will last since it penetrates the hair shaft and the more intense the color.
You won't ever get scarlett,though. Not having seen actual madder color
I imagine it to be fairly close though since it's natural and not a chemical
dye. I know if you don't wear rubber gloves it takes a month or so before your hands lose the orange color and hopefully you wash them more than your crest.

[Hibernicus]

When you are a little kid scraping some cochineal bugs off of the cactus and smearing it on your arm will freak a teacher out real fast.. the color is perfect for fresh blood... add in a curdling scream...but I never did anything like that... and getting it on your white shirt got your Mom raging into a nice cochineal color... but I never saw that either...

The bugs look like white fluff on the cactus, almost like snow or frost when there're enough of them.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I had a madder red tunic, which I bought from LaWrens nest, which I was convinced was a synthetic red, until I looked at Julie's site again! Unfortunately, I allowed a certain Centurio to convince me to turn it into a focale! And a belt to tie up my tunic.......... :?