| Jump
to: |
The Encyclopedia of Henna Samples Indigo Science History Health Gray Suppliers Beauticians Links Warnings Allergies PPD Dyes Forum Find It! |
 |
Ali's New Mix
| Jump
to: |
The Encyclopedia of Henna Samples Indigo Science History Health Gray Suppliers Beauticians Links Warnings Allergies PPD Dyes Forum Find It! |
|
Ali's New Mix
| Since Henna for Hair opened and
I added my original mix to the section, I've made some changes to how I
do things and have a colour I am much more pleased with. Now that
I've gotten consistent results three times in a row, I'm comfortable
sharing how I did it. To start, I've been hennaing my hair for almost two years, now. My hair is a medium brown shade naturally, and the henna build up, while a gorgeous auburn, was not the true ginger-red I wanted. In May of 2004, I enlisted a friend, and, using an at-home bleaching kit (40 vol peroxide) we added what were intended to be highlights but turned out as most of my hair. The result was amazing--I had gone from a deep auburn to a brilliant true red with a few of the auburn streaks remaining. I decided to keep up the bleaching because of this. The Method: I bleach before I henna because I feel that the henna helps some of the damage that the bleach causes. I use 40 vol peroxide, and section out the top of my hair. I add bleach only to the roots, trying not to overlap the older, hennaed and bleached stuff, let it develop to a medium to dark blonde and then wash it out. I spend the next 18 to 24 hours laughing at how silly I look with blonde roots and red hair. Because my initial "highlighting" took up so much of my hair, I decided that it was easier to just bleach all of my roots than try to find each tiny, wispy bit of highlighted hair and match those. I reccomend "Beyond the Zone Radical Bleach Kit" or "Manic Panic Flashlighting", having used both with no adverse reactions. Be careful not to get bleach on your skin, though, it IS caustic and it WILL burn. My henna mix is still relatively simple. I take about 150 to 200 g of henna (My hair has been cut since my last mix and is now to the bottom of my shoulder blades, and thin) and an additional 50 grams of tumeric and mix those together. This is then mixed with warmed lemon juice with splenda dissolved into it. I usually use about a cup and a half of liquid for this much henna, but it does vary depending on which henna I'm using (I have not noticed a difference in colour between various hennas on my hair). I add lavendar or tea tree oil to drown out the tumeric smell (the clove has begun to irritate my scalp, sadly, as it worked best for this). I leave this to sit, covered with a layer of plastic wrap and a paper towel to check for dye release, for about a day. This is slopped onto my head 24 hours or so after I've washed the bleach out and I keep it on for 2-3 hours, wrapped in a few cheap plastic shower caps, saran wrap around the edges, and a warm hat. The initial results are very, very bright because of the fresh bleaching and the combination of "brand new henna day-glo orange!" and the yellow of the tumeric. This fades in a few days, though, and leaves me with hair that looks completely naturally red. In October, I also experimented with bleaching out about 5 inches at the ends of some of my hair and adding blue, in the form of Manic Panic Bad Boy Blue. It worked quite well with my hair--no reactions or the like--but it was cut off (I had a few split ends from having been out of henna for longer than I would have liked, and asked my mother to trim it...but she didn't like the blue very much and you can guess what happened). I'm holding off on doing it again until my hair grows back out some. Unfortunately, none of the pictures that were taken turned out well, and the blue doesn't show up in most of them. Ali
 |
| Henna For Hair is devoted to the art and science of henna and other natural hair dyes. |
Back
to the "mixes" index
Can't find what
you're looking
for here? For information on henna as body art, see The Henna Page
Logo © 2005, Alex Morgan: Spellstone Unless otherwise noted, all material© 2004, 2005, Catherine Cartwright-Jones info@mehandi.com Title Graphics © 2004, Gwyneddh Jones |