Thursday, January 27, 2011

My First Trial with Henna

On Sunday I tried henna for the first time. I scoured youtube, curlynikki, hair for henna, butters-n-bars and wherever google led me for Days until I decided on what exactly to mix with my henna. I decided to take a bit of each process and pray for the best from the hair gods. Here's my henna cocktail:

100mg of Egyptian Red Henna (butters-n-bars.com)
Lemon Juice
Green Tea
Purified Water

In a sauce pan i made the green tea using lemon juice instead of water. Don't ask me why but I figured that since they were going to be used together, i could "boil" them together. I followed the instructions of the green tea by the box (minus the water usage). After the tea was made, I let itcool for a few minutes and then added it to my mixing bowls of henna. :) unfortunately, it wasn't quite wet enough so I poured lemon juice until it became more muddy. Then I stirred.. after awhile i saw that it still wasn't up to my standards so i added 1/4 cup of purified water to the mixture (+/- a few) until it was the consistency I saw on every youtube video. :) Then I covered the bowls with my good ol' saran wrap and placed them on top of the fridge and went to bed.  About 8hrs or so later (probably 12hrs.. who knows) I woke up and saw that the henna changed colors! Yay!!! It worked. Wooooo! I did the hand test and left the henna in my palm for a few mins, wiped clean and saw the orange spot of success. :) I then began the arduous process of applying the henna to my hair.

I'm not very good when it comes to hair ish.. Once gloved I began to slather my head with the henna as if I was applying a relaxer (lol) it was very nostalgic besides theres was no burn or tingle on my scalp. I noticed that I slung pieces of henna all over the bathroom. One massive glob fell to the floor which my sister stepped in and thought that it was dog poo. gross. Even got some on the rug *sigh*.. It didn't take long for me to apply the henna since my hair isn't really thick.. and my strands are about average. I still asked for my sister's assistance to wrap my hair in the saran wrap.. :) I noticed that I had a bit more henna left (bc of my thin tresses) and decided to apply the rest to my sister's hair! It was a nice, fun process even though she's relaxed. ** My sister had relaxed her hair about 3wks prior. Her hair was also dyed black a few months earlier so her roots were growing in BROWN**

4hrs pass by and I decide to rinse out the henna from Sister's hair first. It took about 3 runs under a stream of water to get most of the henna out. I then applied Aussie Moist conditioner with a bit of EVOO added it to her hair just because and let it sit for 5 mins.. Rinsed. Then applied more conditioner by itself, rinsed.. and finally after about 5-6 rinses, the little flecks of henna were finally out. She then blow dried her hair straight and revealed that she now had red tinted bangs.. and the back of her hair looked striped. Being the 15year old that she is, she thought that this two toned hair was the COOLEST thing ever! All of her friends at school wanted to know how she only dyed her roots and not the tips. ;)

I left the henna on my hair about 5hrs since I spent the majority of that time dealing with my sister. Before the henna came off you could already see that my hair was turning ORANGE.. Eek! I did the same process to my hair as I did my sister's minus the blowdrying.. I let my hair dry for the rest of the day and wore a head band as usual... 4 days later i cowashed my hair. The orange had toned down ALOT and I loved the color!!!
My hair was very moisturized. My curls have never looked this amazing without product. The next day I actually used Kinky Curly Curling Custard and it wasn't even sticky!!! I'm thinking KCCC likes henna'd hair more than my dry tresses.

--The smell of henna. It smells like fresh dirt with a mix of freshly cut grass. Not really stinky but very outdoorsy..

More pics soon :)

dry hair.. *sigh*






you can see how thin my hair really is.. its just ridiculously curly. lol. you can kinda see my roots/scalp








2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I've been wanting to try henna for a while now, and seeing these pics makes me want to try it even more!