Thursday, January 28, 2010
Henna for your Hair
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Anonymous |
Hey Ladies!!
So last night I did a henna treatment on my hair. I did the treatment mostly for color and then for some of the conditioning. I wanted to see what it would do for my hair first hand. I purchased some henna from one of the local Indian grocery stores for like $2.99/100gram box. I made sure to purchase the Mehandi, body art grade henna. I bought to boxes to make sure I had enough for my hair. In the end I really only needed to use approximately a box and a half, but I had already poured all of the two boxes in the bowl.
The ingredients I put into my mix were:
2 boxes of Mehandi Henna
1 egg
8 drops or more of Rosemary essential oil
1/2 cup ACV ( you could also substitute this with lemon)
1 tbsp Castor Oil
1 tbsp Coconut Oil
2 tbsp Olive Oil
***Add water as needed to make it a yogurt consistency.
* add paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, black tea, black coffee, indigo or other things as needed to alter color of henna's dye. ( I didn't know to do this when I mixed mine).
After putting all the ingredients except for the water into the bowl I mixed them, then began adding the water.
*What I learned AFTER I had already applied my henna is that you can add things like Paprika, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, black tea, black coffee, ground cloves and some select other things to throw the color of your henna. I really wanted a red the be on my hair just because my hair is dark brown so the more red it has, the more red my hair will show up, so more like an auburn/ red brown.
Back to the process...
So after you've mixed your mixture with all the ingredients you have to let it sit for at least 12 hours so the dye can release and you will actually get some color. During this process go back and mix your henna maybe once or twice during the twelve hours to make sure that the dye releases throughout the henna. It should be a brown color when you return if you want to dye red, you will see red 'liquidy' packets in the henna, that is the dye.
Once your dye has been sitting for 12 hours, you can begin to apply it. Some people apply henna to freshly washed hair, some people apply it before washing hair. Do the henna in sections as a person would apply a relaxer, but you can use bigger chunks of hair. You should let the henna sit on your hair for at least 3 hours if not 5 or 6. The longer it is on your hair, the more the color work on your hair. I sat for 4 hours, only because I had work the next day and I started the color at 7:00pm. I knew henna would take like an hour to get out of my hair and do the conditioning.
After you wash out henna you should DEFINITELY DEEEEEEEEEEEP Condition, regardless of if you shampooed or conditioned before the henna. Henna can be drying, so you must deep condition after it. And when I say deep condition, I mean like put conditioner in and sit for like 30 minutes with saran wrap on your head so your body will heat it up , but sit under the dry with a low setting for like 20 minutes.
I did a deep conditioner with a mayo, coconut milk, banana (DO NOT USE A BANANA- you've been warned), olive oil, and jojoba oil. I followed that with a Giovanni deep conditioner mixed with HE Hello Hydration and Organix Coconut Milk conditioner. I let that conditioner sit in my hair for roughly 15 minutes with saran wrap on. I rinsed it out then did the organix as my leave in conditioner (which I normally use on any wash).
Henna takes time and effort to wash out, do this on a day when you are free the next day or free all day for that day and start in the morning. The henna made my hair a deep red brown color, it would be noticeable in the direct light, but only barely. I will do it again and use the paprika for a more red color to my hair. I plan to do the treatment maybe in 2 weeks or so. You should give henna 7 days to show its true color, the color continues to oxidize as you wear your hair for a few days, once day 7 has hit, you'll know your true color.
It was a new experience, the henna definitely caused my curls to form a bit more, I didn't notice any loosening, yet, but I noticed it caused more of them to clump together, which I like.
The color isn't overwhelmingly noticeable so I won't post pictures, but in a few weeks when I do my next henna treatment, I will either document it or photograph it.
love, love
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4 comments:
wow i've been doing henna for years and have never used all those different ingredients. i would imagine that was kinda stinky though lol. i just mix mine with lemon juice and get a good result from that. interestingly enough i JUST mixed some up so i can sit with it in tomorrow while i'm snowed in lol.
the kind i get online is slightly more expensive ($7.50/ 100 g) but it's a finer sift and is a breeze to wash out. idk if you've been to mehandi.com but they have a wealth of info about henna and they have a special sift for thicker/courser hair.
http://www.mehandi.com/shop/african/index.html
i just visited mehandi the other day. I wanted to try it, but I wasn't sure there would be a huge difference between theirs and the ones i have.
I figured I'd try some of those things to see how it turned out. I told myself next time I'd try to lemon maybe with some essential oil. Have you gotten any noticeable color pay off??
do you have a twitter?
because most of "our" hair is dark i don't think it usually will show up as red-like-a-dye red unless you have especially porous hair. it gives me red highlights and it's only obviously reddish during the summer when i'm out in the sun. when i first started using it it was for an attempt at color but i kept using it because it's a really good strengthening treatment, and when i was relaxed, my hair was PERFECT for the week after my henna...just that week lol
i just followed you on twitter!
lol oh ok... thanks for the tip. I'll probably keep using it for the benefits.
Okay im gonna follow you back!!!
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