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Madi's Mix
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| Madi's Henna Saga So! After two failed attempts to henna my hair (using Shweta and Avigal henna), I tried again. (Both times, I think, the henna was stale, but it's possible I messed up the preparation.) Last week I found some henna in an Armenian market. The name on the box was in Arabic script, which I cannot read. But it did say "100% Pure Henna" in English on the box, so I took a chance. Now, after two failed attempts my faith in my own ability to terp the henna was diminished, so I was willing to follow the box's directions (in amusingly broken English, e.g., "shampoo the hair divid the hair to parts"). There was a plastic pouch of henna and some red herbs in a separate pouch, and I was wary of artificial dyes in the red herbs, but I decided, again, to take a chance. Following the directions, I boiled the herbs (which released a dye the color of boiled blueberries... if you've ever boiled blueberries. I suppose normal people don't boil things for fun... it's a lovely but quite unnatural color, take my word for it). I let the water cool for a bit so it wouldn't cook the henna too fast, and mixed it all together. I let it sit under a lamp for... around eight hours, probably... and then I turned off the lamp and let it sit overnight. By the next morning, after a few more hours under the lamp, I had dye release (which I knew because the paper under the plastic henna bag was tinted orange). My mother slathered me up and I sat with saran wrap and a shower cap on my head for about five hours. Washing henna out in a hot bath is like taking a bath in a large cup of strong earl grey tea. It is an interesting experience. I dried off... and my hair was a very dark raspberry red! I was delighted. Of course, some of the dye came out over the next few days, because some of it was from those suspicious herbs. The close-up on the curl, below, is from before I hennaed my hair. The picture of the side of my head, above, is from about a week after, when most of the excess dye had washed out.  -Madi
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