| Jump
to: |
The Encyclopedia of Henna Samples Indigo Science History Health Gray Suppliers Beauticians Links Warnings Allergies PPD Dyes Forum Find It! |
 |
Elizebeth's Mix
   Elizabeth before: blonde Wet hair after henna Dry hair after henna |
| Hiya! So I hennaed my hair last night, to see what effect it would have on it besides turning it some shade of red, and here are the pictures, the procedure, and the thoughts about the results: Procedure: I made up the concoction with about 200 grams of skin-grade unsifted henna powder (from a 500g bag of henna given to me as a gift, the brand is "Milan Mehandi"), 1/3 cup bottled lemon juice, 1/3 cup filtered water, about 3 tablespoons of ground cloves, and about 20 drops of rose essential oil (for a yummier smell). I poured the powder into a ceramic bowl, and added the water and lemon mix a little at a time, mixing all the while with a plastic spoon, until it was about the consistency of thick pudding. Then I added the cloves and the oil and mixed it up well, mashing out any leftover chunks with the back of the spoon. I spooned the mix into a gallon sized ziplock baggie, carefully pushed out all the air in the baggie and sealed it up. Then I placed the baggie on top of my fridge, to allow the henna time to release its dye, and left it there for about 8 hours (I went to bed at this point). When I got up, I placed the baggie in the fridge and headed out to enjoy my last day as a blonde. We came home, and I climbed into the shower and washed and conditioned my hair as usual, then toweldried it, piled half of my hair on top of my head, and secured it with a clippie thing. I then donned an old flannel shirt, my old kung-fu pants, and a pair of yellow rubber gloves (like your mom used to wear in the kitchen)...(yo Momma!!). I took the baggie out of the fridge, went to the bathroom mirror, and bravely stuck my hand into the bag to pull out a glop of green goo. This was slathered onto half of the hair that was down, and squished in and smoothed it down the length. I did that until the whole section was slathered in green, and then made sure that I could feel the coolness of the henna at my scalp by squishing it against my head (to avoid rootage). Then I went on to the next section, and repeated the procedure, etc. Amazingly, I only got one splat of henna on the floor, which wiped off the tile with no stain, and very little on the clothing. I did, however, get a lot on my neck, ears, and around my hair line, but the stain had already faded by the next morning (henna never lasts long on the face, anyway). Next, I took a cat pan liner (unused) and wrapped it around my head like a turban. I covered that with a dark towel and used a clippie to secure it. This was at 8 at night. Then we settled in, watched Badder Santa on DVD, and watched a little more tv to let it soak in really well. I wanted to wash it out after 4 hours, but as soon as 11:30 hit, we had all sorts of horrible weather and tornado warnings which chased us the bedroom closet until about 1:30 (this is all thanks to Frances). Finally we had a little break, and I ran to the bathroom to wash out the henna. I took off the towel and the plastic liner, put back on the gloves (to keep my nails from staining, mostly) and climbed into the warm shower. It took me about 4 minutes to rinse out most of the henna, and I still had some bits in there, especially near my scalp. So I took off the gloves, and grabbed a bottle of Aussie Moist conditioner, which is really my husbands, and slathered on about twice my normal amount. I worked it in really well, and then used a wide tooth plastic comb to slowly ease out the tangles and the henna, which was not hard at all, just time-consuming. After that, the conditioner and the rest of the henna rinsed out easily, and my hair felt strong and silky (which it NEVER felt like when I used to dye it with synthetic stuff). I climbed out of the shower, toweled off my hair with the same dark towel I had wrapped it in, and combed out my hair so that we could get pictures. Overall, I really enjoyed this experience, and I love the color that my hair came out. It's wildly red, and you can still some of the highlights that were there before, giving it a very multi-dimensional look. My hair feel strong and the individual shafts feel thicker, and hot damn is it shiny!!! I'm looking forward to seeing what color it fades out to, and to see how long I can go without doing it again. I used to go 2 months or more between dying it, but I was pushing it so that I wouldn't totally fry it... now I feel like I can color it with henna every 6 weeks and not have to worry about ruining it. Stats: Time to mix: 15 minutes Time to apply: about 15 minutes Time sitting: 5.5 hours Time to wash out: about 10 minutes Total cost: About $4 I'm VERY happy with the outcome!! I will never dye my hair again with synthetic dyes. Elizebeth Tong http://www.ancientthreads.com/henna  |
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 |
