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 Henna For Hair is devoted to the art and science of henna and other natural hair dyes. |
Kirsten and Brigid's Mixes
| My hair is dark brown, fairly
curly and tends to be easily damaged and
quite dry. I have thick hair, just starting to get gray, OK, actually
WHITE a single hair at a time. Last spring my ends were so bad that I
had about 6" cut off - the remaining hair was in OK shape, but
remembering my success with henna from years ago I decided to try henna
to brighten my color and protect the hair shafts. I bought a box of
henna at the local Greek grocery (OK, go figure, but they carry some
Indian foods etc...). It looked kind of old and dusty, and was on a
window shelf (I can hear you all groan), still I figured what the heck,
at $3.00. When I got home I started surfing and ran into this site
(among others), which convinced me to modify the instructions that came
in the box by waiting for dye release and adding an acid. Next day I
"did" the henna , and it was OK, not great, and my white single strands
were popsicle orange. Yuck. I believed what the peoplpe in the Henna
for Hair forum said, and decided to try body art quality - and ordered
200g. I was stunned that it came so quickly, and in the meantime had
been considering recipes on the website. A month ago I made up the
first 100g, using lemon juice, and a tea of boiled cloves and lavender
(for scent). Left it in for 3 hours then rinsed in the shower. The
results were stunning, and I would have sent a review but I was swamped
with summer kids stuff (3 kids!). THIS time I was more prepared, and
took notes. Tuesday evening I mixed 100g henna with 1 cup fresh lemon juice in a large ziplock baggie. Massaged it until it was smooth. Put the baggie on a tissue in a pyrex casserole lined with paper towels about 8pm - it isn't very warm here (San Francisco) so I put the bowl on top of the fish tank for some gentle warmth. Next AM I was up at 6 - lifted the baggie and to my amazement not only was the tissue tinted, but the paper towel was quite orange! This stuff is fresh and strong. I wanted to add volume to help it spread, so I brewed up about 3/4 cup of pectin jelly (3/4 cup water. 2 tbsp. pectin, 1 tsp of the calcium water mix from the pectin packet). I used Pomonas Universal Pectin, which is derived from citrus peels (it's what the shop had). While the pectin cooled I took 2-3 tsps of the henna mix and put it in a sandwich baggie. More on that later. OK, so I added the cooled slightly jelled pectin to my henna baggie, a few drops of Jojoba oil, a couple of drops of lavender EO and mooshed the bag well. It was a little thick, so I added a dash of my AM tea (chai). After this I stripped, put on rubber gloves climbed in the bathtub (with all my stuff within reach) and sprayed my hair with water to dampen. I used the baggie like a carrot bag - clipped off a corner and squeezed the henna out a little at a time, along scalp lines, parting as I went. when I was sure my roots were all covered I mooshed the last into the length of my hair and worked it through. Sculpted the blob on top of my head and covered with a grocery bag. Wiped/rinsed off the drippys and put on some clothes. At this point I realized I had a wardrobe malfunction - my left glove had ripped and henna had oozed in. It was on 5 mins at most before I washed my hand, but the stain is still quite strong! How exciting. Every hour or so I put on my heat cap for a few minutes to warm my hair up. After 4 hours I washed out the henna- let me tell you this is a different beastie than the package stuff. No drain clog, rinsed quickly. and immediately my hair felt and looked awesome. After this 2nd henna with "the good stuff" my single gray/white strangs are blended in nicely. My hair is so soft- no snags or tangles.  I cannot stress enough how much of a difference it makes to use body art quality henna - the application, the results, the color, the clean-up are vastly improved! The henna gloss as reccomended by Fia is awesome, especially if you don't want a lot of color change. My daughter and I are getting plenty of comments, especially if the sun is shining, and our tangles are gone. One thing I should mention - I use Jojoba or Monoi oil almost nightly on my ends- I discontinued about a week before I planned to Henna, as I didn't want an oil coating to affect the results. Henna for Hair community - you have created a monster <G> - I can't wait to henna again, and looking at my lovely golden left hand I think next time I'll mix a little extra and "doodle" a little design- then I can forget about the gloves altogether...... Thank You all around for the suggestions and advice. Kirsten and Brigid Hope these pics are OK, I'm new with the camera!
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