hennablog

So a few people have asked about henna on eyebrows. I actually rememberd to take photos of the results the last time I did it. :) It took me a few tries to perfect it -- you really need to take care to keep water from lightening it up too much for the best results.

First photo: A few hours after taking the paste off. It's a little orangey. In the shower, I put beeswax lotion (courtesy Darcy) on my brows, because normally, a shower will significantly lighten them.

Second photo: The next morning (over 24 hours later). It's more of a henna red color, and stays this way for a few days. I did the beeswax lotion again this morning to maintain the color.

I used to glob it on and clean it up with a Q-tip. Now I just outline my eyebrows with a cone and then fill it in. I use a heavily molassessed paste, because it stays soft, making it easier to get out of your eyebrow hairs after it's been on there for a few hours.

Oh, and a tip: Don't go to the DMV to get a new liscence photo taken the morning after hennaing your eyebrows! It looks kind of funky to have uber henna hair with these weird orange eyebrows, lol.

Posted by Elaine at 05:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A lot of interesting things have been going on in my blogging absence! Here's an attempt to keep you guys up to speed.

The UK-based henna artist Cat Hinton, who has a background in biology, is running a series of henna experiments that challenge the Western notion that lemon is the ideal liquid for henna mixes. She hypothesizes that lemon juice inhibits enzymes from breaking down plant cell walls. The dye in henna, lawsone, is in a plant cell wall. So, lemon juice might actually inhibit staining, rather than make it darker and better. Her experiments deal with lemon juice vs. papaya and pineapple juice, two fruits that have an abundance of enzymes. The nitty-gritty comes to this: Henna Tribe artists are discovering that mixes with plain water stain way better than lemon mixes.

For those of you who find tap water less than romantic, try substituting plain water for your favorite tea. You may need to add more sugar to your mix, because lemon juice has a certain amount of fructose that makes a lemon mix need less sugar for the right consistency than a water mix -- around a tablespoon or two per 100 grams of henna, as estimated by Henna Lounge artist Darcy Vasudev. And don't forget your terps!

In the world of henna for hair, results are similar. I've pared down my henna for hair recipe to henna mixed with hot chamomile tea. (You can also use hot liquid in your mehndi mixes if you want to use them sooner rather than later.) I also learned that there's no need to shampoo it out. Henna is a natural cleanser and conditioner for hair. Drawing a bath and soaking it out is a wonderfully relaxing experience, and leaves your hair clean and silky-soft. (You may have to scrub your tub with some baking soda to get any residual henna stains out, but don't worry -- it won't permanently stain your tub.) No conditioner is needed, either.

However, if you do want to condition your hair, a few drops of oil (olive, coconut, or a hair oil like Weleda's rosemary hair oil), you just need a drop or two combed through your wet hair. For a deep conditioning treatment, saturate your hair with oil, wrap with a scarf, leave on overnight, and wash out in the morning. (Beware that coconut oil starts to smell sour after 5-10 minutes; if it bothers you, you might want to use a different oil.)

I should be doing more henna as spring and summer come into full-force, so look for more updates soon. Until then, happy hennaing!

Posted by Elaine at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Note: Comments on this entry have been disabled due to spam posts.

Okay, so this is my third before-and-after of my henna-head. I think my hair has reached maximum henna saturation, because this application blended in my roots but didn't seriously affect the overall color!

Today's recipe:

• 100g henna
• 1.5c double-strength chamomile
• 2T olive oil (...garlic flavored, yuck! I didn't have anything else on hand)
• 2T Herbal Essences Intensive Blends conditioner

I left it in for only about 3 or 3.5 hours this time (instead of a full 4). I also slopped it on right after mixing it (with lukewarm chamomile), without waiting for dye release. I did this because I've heard that hair takes henna so much more easily than skin that you could use water, mix, and apply immediately with good results.

I applied it to my roots first, using a condiment dispenser I got for 85� at a kitchen store down the street:

I always had problems before with getting the henna near my scalp, though obviously it didn't harm the final outcome. If you just goop it on, it doesn't really saturate your entire head -- it just sits on the clump of hair you lathered it over. So, with this dispenser I could part my hair in segments all over my head and just squeeze a big line of henna into the part. Then I glopped the rest on over that and massaged it into my scalp. I so love the cooling effect the henna has on my scalp!

I used the olive oil and conditioner in this batch because I had problems with a larger-than-usual amount of hair falling out when I rinsed the henna out. Others have reported alleviating this symptom by adding olive oil, which is really good for your hair anyway. This batch worked just as advertised -- I only washed out the normal amount of hair I shed in the shower every day.

I hadn't added olive oil before because I heard somewhere that it kept the henna from staining as well as it should. But others reported use of a moderate amount of olive oil with no problems. I guess it's the same with terps -- a little is fine, too much ruins stain. On a side-note, I used vegetable oil around my hairline, applied with a cotton ball, to deflect the orange halo you can end up with if you don't apply the henna very carefully. Worked like a charm!

I didn't add any essential oils this time around, either. But come on, I already have a mixture of chamomile, garlic olive oil, and Herbel Essences on my head -- adding another scent to the mix would probably have been nauseating!

And so, there you have it! Here is my hair before the most recent application (which is the shade of two mellowed-out applications of henna over the past two months):

My hair immediately after combing it out with conditioner, rinsing it really well, and blowdrying:

As you can see, there's really not much difference in color. The red might be just a little bit redder. My roots are nicely blended in. And my hair is wonderfully soft and strong! The reason it doesn't look so shiny in the second photo is because a) I didn't use the flash on my camera or have direct lighting, and b) I didn't shampoo my hair before applying henna this time around, so it's all greasy and nasty. :) Sorry.

Since I seem to have reached the conclusion of this experiment, I'll put all my findings on one easy-to-reference page -- hopefully sometime in the next few weeks. I'll blog on any other interesting developments I might have, but otherwise, I won't bore you with my now monthly henna-head routine!

Suffice to say, I think I'll be hennaing my hair for a long, long time to come.

Posted by Elaine at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So yesterday I got like fifteen compliments on my hair in less than two hours as I was running around town doing work stuff. I figured I should include a pic of how it's looking, since it's apparently so stellar!

It's not a week and a half since application, but it's getting pretty mellow. When I lather up in the shower, though, I still get orangey suds.

As much as I love the softer, thicker hair and groovy red tones, I think I'm happiest that I have a unique hair color now. People no longer confuse me with my coworker Loren (though I always take that as a compliment, because she's cool and hot), more security guards remember my name and where I'm from, and more receptionists open up to me via comments like, "Wow, I love your hair color -- it's so rich!"

Also, I had to include a pic of my new piercings. ;) It's a long story, but I'm extremely proud of them, and highly recommend Braindrops for piercing, antique/tribal pierced jewelry, and as far as I know, tattoos as well (though I don't have any of those... yet).

Posted by Elaine at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Out and about this morning, I must have gotten a dozen compliments on my hair in less than two hours. I guess it's at its peak color -- just four or so days after reapplying it!

It's weird, I've never gotten so many comments on my appearance before. Sure, one or two people usually tell me they like my jewelry, but every single receptionist and security guard I've spoken to today?

It actually makes me pretty happy, because nobody's mistaking me for my coworker anymore. ("You're... Loren, right?" Wrong! Though I usually take that as a compliment, because Loren is cool and hot.)

I'll see if I can add a photo to this post later today.

Posted by Elaine at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So last night I decided to henna my hair again, because the roots were starting to show. As reported by other henna heads, the second application layers over the red tones and turns out absolutely gorgeous. Not a hint of orange to be seen! It is pretty bright -- almost fire-engine red -- but that will mellow out, and for the next few days, I think it's going to be pretty fun!

Click here for the results of my first henna application, as well as a photo of my natural hair color for comparison's sake.

This is my hair immediately before my second application:

Aaaand here's my hair immedately after washing it out and blowdrying it!

Damn, I love it. And while last time it was orange on washing it out, this time there's hardly any orange to be seen -- just a groovy, groovy red.

The mix this time was slightly different because my yogurt went bad and I was too lazy to get more. I used:

• 100 g henna
  (my hair has gotten longer -- and I was running out of henna in my last batch, which was only 80 g -- and I didn't add any yogurt, which adds volume to the mix, making it so that you can use less henna)
• 2 T lemon juice
  (for highlights and what-have-you)
• About 1.75 c double-strength chamomile
  (I made two cups, but didn't need to use all of it)
• 1 drop lavendar essential oil
  (I used several last time and the strength of the smell almost made me woozy)

I mixed the chamomile in while it was hot, and left the henna out to cool for about an hour and a half, instead of overnight. I still had dye release -- must've been the heat. (Though I hear that henna dyes hair so well that you don't even need to wait for dye release.) I left it on for just shy of four hours and washed it out by combing generous amounts of conditioner through (but no shampoo). Blowdried it, and I'm not going to wash it until tomorrow morning.

I forgot to put veggie/olive oil around my hairline, so I ended up with a little bit of an orange halo, but it was mostly gone by this morning.

And my hair is oh-so-silky once again, which is amazing, because it was pretty darn silky before.

I'll post another photo of the mellowed-out color in around a week and a half, and I'll probably do this experiement one more time to see how three layers of hair henna look as compared to one (or none!).

Posted by Elaine at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I realized that I never posted all of my hair photos. Now that it's nice and mellowed out, in its final color, I think I can! I hear that repeated applications deepen and darken the red color, but if you're a blonde (like me) and you henna with chamomile and a bit of lavendar (like I did) this is what you can expect!

BEFORE

IMMEDIATELY AFTER WASHING OUT

COLOR AFTER A WEEK AND A HALF

I love the final color, and I've been getting a lot of compliments on it! Now, almost a month later, I'm starting to see my roots, so I might reapply in the next week or two. I want to add one to three more photos to this log -- the color a week and a half after the second application, and the third, etc., to see what kind of color buildup I get using this mix.

I guess I should also note -- even though I'm a blonde, reddish hair runs in my family (from my maternal grandma), so I've been told numerous times that red hair really compliments my skin tone. In fact, my closest friends have historically described me as a natural redhead, even though from my photo it's pretty obvious that I'm totally not. :P

I originally didn't notice much of a change in my hair texture, but now that I've been living with it for a month, I can say that it's made my hair thicker. I used to cut down on the conditioner in the shower so it wouldn't weigh my fine hair down, then spritz it with a light leave-in conditioner and a thickening spray. Now all I do is comb through a slightly more generous amount of my "heavy" conditioner and let it air dry! It's never been softer, and I have no issues with it being too fine. I think it's a little less wavy now too, but I bet I could still emphasize the wave with some hairspray and a diffuser if I wanted to glam up.

And the shine? Amazing! I actually have friends asking to touch my hair after seeing the sunshine play through it. As for me, I really have to cut the habit of feeling my hair up throughout the day (it's just so soft! :P) and checking out my reflection in car and shop windows as I pass. Geez, you'd think I'm self-absorbed or something! ("Aren't most bloggers?" Touche, touche.)

In conclusion, this experiment has been a roaring success! I may never want to go blonde again. :)

Posted by Elaine at 11:35 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)

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)

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'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)