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Megumi's Mix
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Megumi's Mix
| Henna Experience, by Megumi. Vital Stats Original hair color: Medium brown, with light reddish highlights/lowlights that are growing out. Length: Just meets shoulders and begins to curl there. Very thick hair, which has been known to break clips and ties. Henna: 212grams Moroccan henna Terps: None Fluids: Tea in distilled water, Organic lemon juice Dye release in 45min at 30c Hair coloring time: 1.5 hours at ~30c Results: Great color, shiny hair, full of depth and highlights are still present. No sign of bad chemical reactions to previous coloring. Red to auburn color, but oxidation has yet to make itself known. Intro: After getting nice a highlight/lowlight job from my hairdresser, only once, I was never really satisfied with the color. I walked out of there, looked in the first store window and thought "I paid for nothing... all that time and my hair looks like I spent a week in the sun. BAH!" Now it's three months later, I wanted RED hair, really nice auburn red, or Agent Scully red, even Rurouni Kenshin red! (He's an animated character, for you non Japanophiles out there, known for having red hair.) I discovered henna, and needed to get ready for a big conference starting Thursday. I began my henna journey on the Saturday before. So I'll begin at the beginning. Saturday: Wow, what's this henna stuff? It does WHAT? Red hair! Pretty red hair without flat color, nasty chemicals or animal testing! I'm sold. Will it fade? Oooh, good answer. Fry my hair? ooh, better answer. Where can I get some in time for the conference? Yahoo Local!! Sunday: Whole foods- failure. They carry Light Mountain stuff, and seeing as it comes in too many colors to be just henna, I'm not risking it. Local import store- closed? Oh no. Sunday, supplemental: Import store not closed, downsized. Have pure body art henna. Now how do I get some ASAP? Monday: shopping spree. Got everything I could need for this event, now that I know what to do. First, the "Software" Lemon Juice Organic, 'cause I'm a hippie. Yogi Tea- Hibiscus (This stuff is wicked red in the brew. Like cranberry juice. It has cloves and cardamom and other nice things too.) Distilled water (We have nasty carcinogenic water here, I kid you not. Full of metals. No henna going near that mess.) Now, the "Hardware" Conditioning Caps Vaseline Old sheets to save my carpet Old towel to save my chair Ziploc bags Trash bags (heh, this is to cover my shoulders, ya know, MacGyver style!) Scissors Latex gloves Squirt bottle, from the restaurant supply store Heating pad & Printer Paper & Probe thermometer Later on, Monday, I began running tolerance tests, and taking temperature measurements. I'm going to stick with Celsius here, since it's easier and the numbers are smaller to type. I had to be sure that ziploc bags don't melt at 40c, and I tried calling their company to find out. No help there. So I heated water to above 40c and poured it into the bag. Warm, but no softening and no melting. Yay! Next, I took the bag and set it on a heating pad, and folded the pad over. Measurements went up to 50c, which could have been beyond tolerance for the henna. No good. Reorganized heating pad with towel over it, now temperature is still high, at 45c. Turned down the heating pad to lowest setting, temperature now stable at 41c. Within acceptable limits. Once I got the henna, (this is a story in an of itself, but I'll spare you that and keep with the chemistry) I began mixing. Wow, this took longer than expected. I mixed in the tea, which was brewed in distilled water and cooled to 40c. A splash of tea followed by a splash of lemon and I continued this way for about 15 minutes. 212 grams Moroccan henna Lemon Juice Tea Mixed by smushing in ziploc bag after each addition of liquid. I went straight to the heating pad, and discovered that the tests I did, although useful, will not give the same results with real henna. Heating pad on highest setting, towel over top- henna reaches 30c in 15 minutes. 25 minutes later, henna still at 31c, dye release is apparent. I have paper on the ziploc bag, should the dye permeate the bag. It doesn't. 15 min to reach 30c 25 min at 30-31c total time required for dye release: 40 minutes Hair test next, small blob of henna on harvested hair. Some has been kept separate for control purposes. Hair sample is put on heating pad, highest heat. No measurements taken for this stage, but it got really hot. Maybe 45-50c. 20 minutes later, we have color! During this time, henna ziploc has been soaking in cool water, to prevent dye demise. Now, I have to decide if I like it, there's no time to wait days to see if the final color is good. Since I'd be happy with a dark auburn, or a light red, I'm going for it. I take a shower to wet/wash hair, and bring my henna bag with, the warm water reheats the henna. I've taken a trash bag, clipped it to be enough to wrap around my shoulders, and then cut a hole in the bottom of it. Put my head through, tape that close around my neck, and voila, no mess around my shoulders. A paper towel taped around my neck keeps that clean too. I clip the ziploc bag's corner, using that like a carrot bag to squeeze the henna into my squirt bottle. Doesn't all fit, so the remaining in the bag goes straight into my palm, and into my hair. Oooh. Smells like hay, and vaguely of Hibiscus tea. A million squishes and smushes, it's throughout my hair and sticking to itself. No need for clips, I just smush that mess up onto itself, throw the cap over it and I'm good to go. Now, I've got my sleeves pretty well covered in henna (that shirt was a lost cause before I started anyway), so I carefully change into a tank top and begin "the long sit." Heating pad + Japanese Tales + Central China Television, makes things rather nice. Of course, I had a lunch prepared, but due to a snafu, had to eat it before "the long sit". Henna is going well, but I'm hungry! Anyway, I keep the hair around 30c with the help of the heating pad, and 1.5 hours later, I have hennaed my hair. Rinsing takes FOREVER, and I use a little diluted shampoo to help it out. And then more diluted shampoo, dumping it over my hair with a large bowl. By the time I quit, I've still got the slightest peach hue in the water, but I can't take it anymore. No stains on the towels, so I'm going with it. I condition my hair and then move on to showing it off. Wednesday Morning: I re-wet the hair, which is gorgeous, and style it. It styles like a dream. It doesn't fight back anymore, it just does what I ask it to do. I decide to take photos later, and go write this dye story. Suggestions for others: Get a heating pad, helps immensely. Also, get a probe thermometer, quick readout and very useful timer. Louder than all get out, though. Don't bother with vaseline. Let the henna dye your ears. It rinses right out. Some vaseline got on my hair and prevented good color there. It's alright, but just don't bother with that stuff. Just scare it with soap and there won't be a hint of stain on your skin.
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