hennablog

First of all, I'd like to share a design I did last week (sorry for the delay). It's my first palm design! And whoa, do palms give crazy beautiful color or what?

The design is from Darcy's book that I've been talking about so much lately.

Which conveniently leads me to my next announcement... I'm going pro! Well, sort of. Darcy was kind enough to invite me along as an assistant at two events this weekend.

I have no words for how friggin' stoked I am. I'm so stoked that listening to a French rock ballad called "Hey Dude" isn't even fazing me. Hell, yeah! I had already decided that I really wanted to move on to being an assistant or "booth babe" to learn more about the henna biz, but little did I know that I'd end up with such an awesome, talented, and totally nice pro. It's nice to know that I'll be in good hands!

Posted by Elaine at 06:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You've been in the office too long when you realize your henna stains from the night before have deepened to the color of a redweld.

Posted by Elaine at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First of all, I realized I had the traditional sealant wrong in my Basic Mehndi Mix post, so I changed it. You dissolve 2 or more parts sugar to 1 part lemon so it's nice and pasty. I just mixed up a jar myself... and then adulterated it with some unnecessary essential oils and ground clove. I don't know why. I was bored! I also nuked it a couple times (5 seconds each) to encourage the sugar to dissolve properly. Don't know if that helps or not, though.

I've uploaded some stuff I've been working on this weekend into my Henna Gallery. Most of it was me playing with designs from Darcy's recent ebook.

The paste I made this week was a little bit too pasty. It was thick enough that squeezing it out of the cone hurt my hand -- a complaint usually reserved for jaq bottles! It also dried up and cracked fairly quickly, and it didn't stick to the skin unless I took care to moosh it on real good. (You should be able to drape it over the skin, and it'll fall onto the skin and stick. Not this batch.) However, the lines sure were crisp! And since I used less EOs in this batch, the design I did on my palm turned a pretty red color, not the nutty brown of my last mix. Both colors are good, but I really like the red.

I discovered that the easiest way to seal this batch, since the henna wasn't sticking to my skin very well, was to unroll a cotton ball, reroll it around the tip of a pencil, dip that in the lemon-sugar mix, and gently roll it across the design a couple times. Dabbing it with a cotton ball or two Q-tips made the mix stick to the henna, which wasn't stuck to the skin, which lifted the henna right off. By rolling, it helped seal the henna to the skin, even if it wasn't too well placed. Although it helped, when the henna was partially dry, to pat it with a finger to make sure the moist underlayer did have contact with the skin.

Also, dabbing usually made me coat it too thickly, which resulted in gooey drips of lemon-sugar getting all over the carpet. We're hoping my ever-so-patient partner doesn't notice. This weekend he gave me a new henna-inspired nickname, though: Doodlebear. Like, those teddy bears they used to sell, where you can draw all over them, then wash them off and draw all over them again. I'm considering using that as my henna name if I ever do this as a business: Doodlebear Henna. Except that doesn't sound very bridal, now, does it? LOL.

So the first batch I mixed was too runny. This batch was too stiff. Hopefully with my next batch, I'll find a good medium.

And props to Rand for experimenting with part of my slimy batch that I gave him at work on Saturday! You are a brave man, my friend.

Posted by Elaine at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kenzi from Henna Tribe had a great idea, and it looks like Carly and I are going to make it happen: The first (that we know of), slightly racy henna calendar, with gorgeous photos of full-body henna designs and info on the artists and the art! (Provocative shots of males and females are okay -- but no bared privates or nipplage.)

The FINAL SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE is November 4, 2005. Go here for info on where to submit, what to submit, how to submit, or just for further developments on the project.

If we get enough submissions, we're hoping to realease the calendar in mid to late November -- probably for individual sale and for resale by henna professionals and other interested parties.

Posted by Elaine at 07:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A mixing guide for beginners, by a beginner.

HENNA BREW

Ingredients

• 15 grams (about 2 tablespoons) quality henna (order online from Mehandi.com or Henna Tribe suppliers)
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon sugar, brown sugar, honey, or molasses
• 2 drops tea tree or cajeput essential oil
• 1 drop of any other essential oil that smells good (I like geranium)
• Lemon juice

Dissolve your sugar into 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Add the mix to your henna,  and add more lemon juice until you have a thick paste. Mix well. Let sit for 2  hours in a warm spot. Add essential oils. Mix well. Add more lemon juice if needed  to reach desired consistency (comparable to that of toothpaste). Let sit 4 to 8  hours in a warm spot, or overnight. When you have dye release*, load into one or  more cones (cone materials are cheap -- learn to roll one here or here) or jaquard bottles and apply. Seal your design and refrigerate the leftovers.

*Dye release has occurred when:

• A small dot of henna left on your palm for ten minutes leaves a bright orange  stain on removal
• The top layer of your mixed henna turns a dark brownish green, while the insides  remain bright green
• If you mix your henna in a thin plastic sandwich baggie and set it out on a paper  towel, you will know you have dye release when you lift the baggie and see a  faint orange stain on the paper towel

TRADITIONAL HENNA SEALANT

• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 6+ tablespoons sugar, brown sugar, honey, or molasses

Mix well. Apply using cotton balls, Q-tips or a paintbrush.

Method one: Apply over dry design and layer with squares of toilet paper  thoroughly wetted with sealant. Let dry. Wrap with an Ace bandage or old sock  and leave on overnight. Peel off, and gently remove any remaining stickies with  vegetable oil, or water if necessary.

Method two: Once dry, seal entire design. Let sealant dry. Dust with baby powder or talcum. Leave on 6 to 8 hours, or wrap lightly with an  Ace bandage or old sock and leave on overnight. Pick off the henna goobers in  the morning, and remove any remaining bits gently with vegetable oil, or water if  necessary.

MAXX'S WONDER SEALER

• 3 tablespoons Elmer's glue
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• Glitter, if desired

Mix well. Apply over dry design using two Q-tips held together, or paint on with a  paintbrush. Don't coat too thickly. Dries clear and hard. Peel off in 6 to 8 hours,  or cover loosely with a sock or Ace bandage and leave on overnight. Peel off in  the morning. Avoid washing -- chlorine makes the design fade faster.

Posted by Elaine at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow! It turned out pretty good. The skin color is no better/worse than filling in my eyebrows with powdered makeup, and it matches my hair color better than the brown eyeshadow I usually use anyway, even during the orange stage. I can't tell for the life of me if it actually stained the hairs red. We'll just have to see how it matches up with the hair on top of my head after a couple days.

So there you have it! Henna works well on eyebrows, too!

Posted by Elaine at 08:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The design on my wrist and finger are kind of awkward, but I love what I came up with for my fingertips.

Unfortunately, it totally smeared and bled overnight (even though I didn't use saran wrap, and even though I blowdried it before and after sealing it with glue -- the price of an over-sugared mix).

Oh, and I had a fun time with the sealer again. I've been using Elmer's gel glue because it's all I had lying around, and it doesn't mix very well with water. This time, I added a bit of eucalyptis and geranium oil to make it smell pretty, and it changed the texture of the glue somewhat. It mixed right up with a few drops of water to make a thick but spreadable sealer with a more even consistency than the gel glue with water alone. The eo's also made it cloudy for some reason, which was weird. But it worked. Too bad my batch of henna didn't do so well.

Posted by Elaine at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception. -Groucho Marx

Okay, I'm going into very unknown territory here. My eyebrows were so not-red as compared to my newly-henna'd hair that, well, I henna's my eyebrows.

This is with the paste on, obviously.

My logic went something like this:

1. I'm bored.
2. My grandma tatooed her eyebrows... what's so different about using henna on 'em?
3. Facial skin is too thin and oily to stain very well. So, my eyebrow skin shouldn't be orange for too long. I hope.
4. I'm bored.

So I took out my last cone of slimy-ass mehndi henna that I used on my hand the night before. (I had already decided to throw the batch out because, while the staining power was fine, it was a nearly unworkable texture and bled like hell overnight.) I coned in each of my eyebrows and cleaned them up around the edges with Q-tips. Then I put my hair back with a band to keep it from sticking to my eyebrows and took a photo for you all to giggle at. I'm gonna pray for four hours that this wasn't a really, really bad idea, then wash it out and take another picture for y'all.

Wish me luck!

Posted by Elaine at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

As cool as my henna highlights were, I decided to go all-out anyway. I wanted to see how the henna conditioned it, and I was feeling the need to be a little extreme (angst from overwork). So, I mixed together my recipe of henna, chamomile, yogurt, and lavendar, slathered it through my hair, wrapped it with saran wrap, and covered all that with a makeshift turban made out of a half-sized sarong I got in Hawaii.

I then laid down on the couch, wrapped a heating pad loosely around it all, and dozed off, because I was operating on three hours of sleep.

My mix was way too watery, though. Despite all my wrapping, when I got up after two hours to use the facilities, it started leaking out from behind my ears. It only sort of got on everything. And good thing I was wearing a black shirt!

Anyway, I averted disaster, slept for two more hours, then got up and rinsed it all out with conditioner -- Herbal Essences Intensive Blends, or whatever is in my shower at the moment. I would highly recommend combing it through real well with a shower comb. I've been using a shower comb for a few years now anyway, but it would've been nearly impossible to get the tangle of henna out and get the conditioner in without one.

I then blowdried it so that any remaining henna wouldn't stain my pillow, and threw on my bright green Happy Day shirt because I found Joan's Henna Tribe comment about reverse oompa loompas really funny. :) So, behold! Elaine with freshly glowing orange henna head!

It stayed that color for about a day. It really is orange -- I've been comparing it to a t-shirt I have that's brown with big orange letters on it. During Day 1, my hair matched the letters. After one wash, though, it's starting to calm down to a more auburn shade. Here's a photo from, let's see, about 20 hours after washing the henna out:

Very, very cool. I'm liking it a lot! It's an even prettier red today, but I'm skipping photos today because I've been working like an ox, and I've got bedhead.

The only thing that bugs me is what an amazingly different shade my eyebrows are. I have a solution to that though, so stay posted!

Posted by Elaine at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, I have to give my man serious props, here. Impatient for henna glory, I decided to henna the rest of my hair tonight, even though that means the four-hour mark for washing the stuff out will be at around 2 a.m. There are a lot of comments one can make about smearing a bunch of smelly green goo over your hair and pulling it up into a makeshift turban for four hours. There are even more comments one can make when, after two hours, your turban starts leaking all over you and your couch. It takes quite a man to curb all comments to a single observation of "Huh, that smells funny" and wordlessly grab you a towel while you run to get napkins to wipe up the green slime running down your neck.

Thanks, hon. You're the best!

Posted by Elaine at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, there you have it! This is the best I could do taking a photo of the back of my head with a digital camera at two in the morning. It's all pretty light at this point because it's fresh off my head, with no time to let the color mature. If you can't see a difference (it's pretty subtle), let me expound.

1. The coffee had a browning and slightly darkening effect. It took a lot of the red out of it compared to the other mixes.
2. The yogurt mix had a pretty straightforward color. Not too dark, not too brown, not too red. A little orangey. I have a feeling that this would be about the color of a standard henna and lemon juice mix, or a henna and water mix.
3. The tea tree mix was brownish, too, but unlike the coffee, it maintained more of an auburn hue, not the "mousey" brown color my coworker described the coffee'd segment as.
4. The chamomile is my favorite. It's a dark, vibrant red that has a bit of a golden sheen.

This next photo is a good comparison of the henna color compared to my natural color. I only henna'd the underlayer of my hair (for the sake of this experiment!), but when I was twisting the upper layer out of the way in order to take the photo above, I got some of the henna'd hair in the twist, which made for a great contrast. You can really tell how the henna is an almost transluscent coloring over your natural color.

And here's a pretty cool photo of the overall effect! I forgot that my hair has tons of layers in the back, so my "under" layer isn't really under anything. So I have this feathery flame effect going on.

I think it's pretty cool!

And I'm all prepared to do my whole head tomorrow, using my favorite ingredient: chamomile.

My recipe:

• 80g henna
• 1 cup double-strength chamomile
• a dollop of full-fat yogurt (for texture and consistency)
• a few drops of lavendar essential oil for the smell, to be added immediately before application

I hope I mixed a big enough batch...

Posted by Elaine at 07:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, still no photos, but early reports are in! A coworker was noticeably impressed with the chamomile mix as opposed to the coffee mix. He described the chamomile as "vibrant" and the coffee mix as "mousey and dark." I'm postulating that the chamomile worked great on my hair because it has a naturally golden-reddish sheen to it anyway, so the red in the henna complimented the yellow in the chamomile for a most excellent result.

Someone in the Henna Page forums mentioned that terps like tea tree oil also have a browning effect for her, and from these early results, I'm thinking they have a similar effect on my hair, as the reddest bit is obviously the chamomiled segment. I'm anticipating my final mix to be mostly chamomile with a touch of yogurt for smoothness and some lavendar essential oil for smell.

I'm really glad I did the test. I was going to use indigo and coffee to take the edge off of the orangey-red, but my red didn't turn out orangey at all.

Look out, world! Come Monday, Elaine's gonna be a redhead again!

Posted by Elaine at 08:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, it's too dark out to get any good photos (you can expect those in a day or two), but so far, the color is gorgeous, and there's not much difference between the four. At first I thought that the chamomile side was more auburn, but it might have just been the lighting in the bathroom.

The color looks totally funky with the layers in my hair, too!

And now I smell like a weird, lemony-chocolate cup of coffee. With that, I'm off to some hard-earned Z's. Oyasumi.

Posted by Elaine at 02:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here we go! We'll start with the before pictures.

I divided the underside of my hair and slathered my mixes into each segment. Unfortunately, I'm horrible at dividing my hair into segments, so by the time I got to my fifth mix... I didn't have any hair left!!! The last mix was the plain lemon mix, and I'm assuming that it's going to be similar to the yogurt mix in color, so the yogurt mix will have to be my control.

Anyway, I wrapped each segment in tinfoil and wrapped my head up like so:

And now I'm going to go to work like this. Because I have to work late tonight, and it damn well wasn't going to interfere with my henna experiment!!

Posted by Elaine at 07:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

God, work today is horrible. I hope I get to go home tonight with enough time to henna my hair.

In any case -- I checked up on the green goop this morning, and added the tea tree oil to the mix I was reserving for terps. The lemon mixes and yogurt mix oxidized beautifully. The yogurt mix looks like it has by far the silkiest texture. I couldn't tell how well the chamomile and coffee mixes oxidized. The coffee I brewed was so black that it was pretty dark when I set it out last night, and so even this morning it was a pretty solid color straight through. The chamomile was slightly lighter green in the middle, but it might have just been a trick of the light. There was a little yellowish seepage from the chamomile -- exciting, because that might indicate its power to dye hair yellowish.

Since I couldn't tell how the coffee/tea mixes were doing, I left them all out instead of popping them in the fridge for the 10 hours I'm at work to keep it fresh. I figured it needs all the help it can get.

Hopefully I'll have a fresh report tomorrow of how it worked on my hair... but I totally doubt I'm going to get home before 10 p.m. God. I need to get better at this henna thing so I can market myself and not be chained to a PC for 10+ hours a day.

Posted by Elaine at 04:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't think I ever posted my ankle experiment. I did my ankle in an easy floral design from my old Earth Henna kit, taking an extra effort to use fine, crisp lines.

To ensure that it dried properly, I utilized my handy-dandy blowdrier. I sealed it with watered-down glue, applied with one of those little Crayola paintbrushes from their standard kids' watercolor sets (I have two, so I had a brush to spare). I then blowdried this, and applied another layer or two of the glue. This seemed to be pretty thoroughly sealed, so I went searching in the sock drawer for something I could claim for overnight henna use. Lo and behold, my boyfriend had some loose, unfortunately-colored socks left over from a horrible job uniform that I could use and ruin with abandon! So I skipped the saran wrap in the hopes of stalling any possible henna bleed and socked myself instead.

This was by far the easiest henna removal yet. All I had to do was scrape at the edges of the glue in the morning, and the entire thing peeled off like a bad price tag, leaving a pretty orange stain behind.

I am so sealing my next design the same way!

In other news, I got my right hand professionally henna'd at the Reno Rib Cookoff by Renu of hennadesigns.com:

That cool neclace I got at the cookoff as well. :)

She was so fast! She applied with a jaq bottle. I was particularly interested in the way she sealed it. Her mix was lemon juice, sugar, and honey, but she applied it with a little dowel wrapped with cotton at one end. The dowel was probably five or six inches long and maybe a quarter-inch or less in diameter. She would just whip it out of the jar of sealer and roll it over the design. It was quick and painless, and I bet it would work with watered-down glue. The lemon-sugar-honey mix sealed it fabulously, but it was hell to get off. I picked at it and picked at it and it just kept sticking. I rubbed at it with vegetable oil and it just kept sticking. So I gave up and washed it off with water. That hasn't seemed to affect the stain too much, though.

It's by far my favorite design that's currently on my skin. The lines are fine, the geometry is gorgeous, and I just love the cuff style! It peeks out from the longish sleeves I like to wear. The color of her henna is nice, too.

I'm trying to scrub off the coverup henna on my left hand. If it goes away any time soon, I might try to emulate my right hand design on my left hand. Those Moroccan designs -- they're just coolio! :)

Posted by Elaine at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm conducting a hair henna experiment.

There are those that say that adding coffee to your hair henna makes it browner; that chamomile makes it more blonde, that yogurt makes it condition more. We'll see.



My control will be plain henna with lemon juice.

My mixes will be:

• Henna and coffee (Sarkisan chocolate macadamia, specifically)
• Henna and chamomile (Stash brand because Whole Foods was out of loose leaf)
• Henna and yogurt (Horizon whole-fat plain)
• Henna, lemon juice, and tea tree oil

The tea and coffee I brewed double strength. Coffee was made in a french press with 4 tablespoons coffe per 8 oz water. Chamomile was 2 bags per 8 oz. Each batch will be made with 1 tablespoon (about 5 grams) of henna.

I'm off to mix it up. Application is scheduled for tomorrow (on five segments of the under-layer of hair on my head). Photos should be ready by the weekend.

To the lab!

Posted by Elaine at 07:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alrighty! Now to post the follow-up.

I left the paste on all night and took it off in the morning. Here are the results:

As you can see, my pretty hand design was totally ruined because I didn't wait for it to dry before sealing it, and I fudged the hell out of it! :( My foot looked pretty good though. Interesting thing about henna: Right after you take off the paste, it's bright orange. After you let it oxidize for a day or two, it starts to look like this:

God, I love how my foot turned out. I'm starting to have this trend of messing my hand up, though. I tried going over that big blotchy mess to make it look nicer, but it's just ... awkward. Yuck.

And now you all know what a fabulous color my carpet is, too!

I figured out how to describe the texture of this batch of henna. Slimy. Even after letting my hand dry for four hours, it was still all goopy and stuff. When I go to remove the paste, it isn't a tidy little mess of dried-up henna goobers. It's a coating of slime that's nearly impossible to get off! Definately less sugar in the next batch -- I'm almost positive that's the culprit.

Also, I'm thinking about nixing the saran wrap for when I leave this stuff on overnight. If you don't put plenty of layers of an absobant material over your henna before saran wrapping, you end up with a steamy little sauna and what I'm starting to think of as henna bleed. At least, that's my theory. (Remember, I'm not very good at this yet!) Unless you've sealed the henna really well with watered-down Elmers, or covered it pretty thoroughly with a wickable material, I bet that the sweat and moisture from the saran wrap sauna makes the henna flatten out, just like a bad batch of cookies.

Either that, or I just wasn't being as delicate as I thought I was. It could also be the sliminess of the henna that contributed to that.

Oh well -- it's not going to keep me from doing my ankle tonight! I'm going to seal with that watered-down Elmers I was talking about earlier. The back of the bottle says "doesn't run or drip; dries clear; safe, non-toxic; flexible when dry." A Henna Tribe person mentioned that it makes it nearly indestructable while on, and easy to remove. Just peel up the ends of the glue and peel it off, henna and all! (Though that may not work with the Slime Batch. We'll see. Hopefully it will, however, stop the henna bleed.)

Posted by Elaine at 08:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So it didn't go perfectly, but it went pretty well, in my opinion.

I didn't get my EOs in the mail, so I added ground cinammon and allspice to the mix so it would smell good. Nice combo! Completely took out the "moldy lemonade stand" motif.

Some things I'm gonig to fix my next time around:

• WAY less sugar. I used equal gram weights of sugar and henna powder... I'm thinking using half or a third as much sugar as henna powder. I don't know how to describe the results. Whenever I wanted a line to end, it wouldn't, because the end would refuse to leave the cone.
• If I add cinnamon and allspice, I need to either get it powdered, cook it into a liquid to add, or strain my paste before using it. I had a slight clogging problem with those added in.
• Gotta remember to wait until it's dry before putting the lemon juice/sugar mix on to set it! I totally smooshed my nice, delicate hand henna with the lemony cotton ball.
• I'm totally using an Elmer's glue mix to set it next time, not the lemon juice/sugar with a coating of New Skin. That stuff totally stinks. I guess, alternately, I could just apply the New Skin outside instead of in the kitchen...
• If I do apply New Skin outside instead of in the kitchen, I need to remember to do it after the lemony sugar skin dries, too. Or else it ends up running, then crystalizing, then being sticky.
• And lastly, maybe I'll make a smaller batch. I ended up with five cones, lol.

Now, onto the photos! I took these before setting the paste. None of these come directly from a pattern book, btw.

My left foot.

My fun hand henna that I squished with my lemony sugar ball after taking this photo.

A design I tried to do on the outside of my left ankle. It looks narsty because, well, it's really, really hard to see the outside of your ankle. Either that or I haven't been doing enough yoga. Anyway, yuck.

So tomorrow I get to scrape the paste off, and it should be a nice dark color by Saturday or Sunday, if I'm lucky, and my tea tree oil did what it's supposed to do!

Now, I'm off to wrap these babies and stick 'em under a heating pad. In true fog city fashion, my apartment is freezing. Not good for henna.

Posted by Elaine at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)