Another henna day

I decided that my hair deserved another henna day so I bought a henna I saw used by the YouTuber Elise Buch. It’s the Henné Color range she used and I chose the Copper Red shade which I think is the same one Elise used. Suffice to say it didn’t come out the same shade on me as it did on her. But my hair is more of a dark auburn. But the experience in comparison to the Lush henna was amazing. So much easier and a hell of a lot easier to rinse out. In fact I just rinsed it out after three hours and didn’t wash it for about three days. The colour was lovely but what really impressed me was how much easier it was to apply and rinse out of my dreads. Seriously if you are looking for a henna to use on dreads this is the one to go for. No mixing with tea or lemon juice just straight mix with hot water, apply and rinse after set time. That easy. Also it’s roughly £2 cheaper than the Lush henna. Bonus 😀

Henné Color – Copper Red

Post Henné 🙂

Henna time!

It’s been over three months since I last used henna on my hair which is just before I had my dreads done. So I decided to take the bull by the horn and henna my dreads today.

I buy the henna I use from Lush, their rouge bar. I absolutely adore the colour it leaves in my hair. It’s got cocoa butter in it which leaves my hair so shiny and soft. It is really messy and does have a habit of getting everywhere. I also wouldn’t do it if I were going anywhere that day or the following day as initially it takes roughly three hours to set but then the following twenty four hours it’s still processing the colour. Also because you want to allow it to continue processing it’s generally not advisable to wash your hair too much after rinsing the henna out so your hair will look like a bit of a grease ball for those twenty four hours thanks to the cocoa butter. So all in all it’s a plan ahead event not a leave it to the last minute dye job.

I tried to take photos of how I did it as this is the first time I’ve ever used the henna on my dreads. Fingers crossed I’ve got myself ginger dreads and not undone a lot of the dreading/locing up. *eek*

This is all the tools I have with me in preparation for the mess. The cling film for afterwards, the essential rubber gloves, the drape for around my shoulders to protect my clothes, ultrabland for my skin at the hairline and of course the henna. I broke the bar of henna into a glass bowl, added boiling water and then stuck it into a microwave for two minutes. I aimed for a consistency of a chocolate sauce. But when it starts to cool down it does thicken up and may need more hot water to keep it warm and easier to apply.

Once everything is ready I then apply the ultrabland to my skin around the hairline to ensure I don’t dye the skin there.

I then applied the henna to my hair. It’s comparable to putting mud on you hair. As you can seen it looks like it too.

Once my hair was coated I then wrapped my head up in the cling film to ensure the henna works effectively. I’ve read somewhere if the henna is covered and your head is kept warm by using clingfilm and a towel it increases the redness of the colour whereas if you don’t cover up the colour is a browner shade. I don’t know if this is true but I’ve always covered my head up with any kind of dye I used so it’s more a habit than anything for me. I use a shower cap to cover the cling film and then set my timer for three hours. In the meantime there is the horrendous mess left over from the application. 😦

Okay so I’ve just rinsed out, or rather tried to rinse out the henna. OMG twenty minutes later and there are still bits of the henna in my dreads! Seriously this is not fun. So, even though I said it was not advisable to use shampoo directly after rinsing I went ahead and used some of my dreadsuk shampoo to try and get the henna out. I shouldn’t have worried, I think I’m going to have to wash it at least one more time. I will leave that for tomorrow. I will take a photo and update this blog entry then as the light is very poor right now and my hair looks like a greaseball.