Henna-ed!

I've been wanting to change my hair for awhile now. Upon Ga's suggestion, and her already fearless attempts at home henna-ing, I decided to henna my hair, too. Since it's natural, kind of semi-permanent, and actually nourishing for your hair, I figured I had nothing to lose. My hair's always been a little red in the sun, anyway. Besides, everybody loves a redhead.

My process:

First, I grated a chunk of the block of henna I bought from Lush. (It comes in bars, like giant Hershey's.)
I added hot coffee to the gritty stuff because I read that will bring out browns, and also some cloves to make it smell extra yummy. (My hair still smells like them.)
Then, I heated the mixture up in a double boiler and let it sit, hot, for an hour while I showered and prepped my hair.
Next, I tried to brush in the henna goop using a hair dye brush from my flatmate's normal hair dye kit, but it was too sticky and gunky. So I grabbed handfuls of the stuff and plopped it on my head, mooshing it in with my gloved hands.
I rolled it into what looked like a dreadlock beehive, and let it sit, uncovered, for two hours.
This hurt my neck.
Then, I rinsed out the chunks in the sink, showered, and washed my hair a bunch.

When I dried it, I suddenly had coppery red hair. Amazing!

Before:

After:

Henna is super fun and super messy. It looks like poop, smells like Aveda products, and crumbs off your hair if you leave it uncovered. But it also makes your hair super shiny and lovely.

These pictures don't really do it justice, but I do look way different.



I'd call it success, even if my one flatmate made fun of me for wanting to be a 'ginger,' which is pronounced with 'g' noises instead of 'j' noises here (think: gehn-gurrr).