Tuesday 30 September 2014

My Henna Experience

Almost two weeks ago, I hennaed my hair. I'd been meaning to do it for over a year but kept putting it off. During one of my boring classes, I decided to bite the bullet and purchased henna from an online store. So why did I want to use henna? I wanted something more natural and healthier for my hair mainly. I also wanted to add more depth into my hair without committing to or maintaining something  different to my natural hair colour. One of my biggest pet peeves (which is quite silly) is: that I cannot stand looking at people's regrowth, especially when their natural hair colour is quite dark and their dyed colour is lighter or vice versa. 

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Finally finding a use for my camomile tea bags (I dislike camomile tea).

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I mixed my pure henna powder with camomile tea and the juice of one lemon and set it aside for two hours. In hindsight, I probably should have let the dye release for a longer period of time, however I was impatient and the dye released had already started.

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From people's experiences online, a lot of people complained about the smell. I didn't mind it too much but it essentially smelt like grass. I have virgin black hair and like most Asians, each strand is both thick and coarse.

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 The reason my ends are so brown is because that part of the hair was in direct sunlight.

Application was pretty easy although as you can see in the photo, I did have gaps. I left it in my hair for around 3.5hours before washing it out.

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A. tells me that my hair looks healthier and shinier (the key benefit provided by henna treatments). Henna doesn't lighten hair but merely deposits colour and pigment therefore my hair is still essentially black. However, in the sun it has brownish-redish highlights. The photos were taken a few days after I hennaed my hair and I believe that it has oxidised a little more now so that it is less vibrant in the sun.

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All in all, I am quite happy with the experience and will most likely be henna-ing my hair again in the near future, with a greater focus on my ends as I don't believe that they are as conditioned as the crown of my head.

6 comments:

  1. Oh I've never thought about using henna on my hair. So is it temporary, will it wash out after a couple of times?

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    1. Henna is permanent and they always say to use pure henna as other ones might have metallic salts which means if you have already chemically dyed hair or want to dye it with box colour later, it may react negatively and give you green hair.

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  2. My mum uses henna to dye her grey hair, but I've never thought of dying black hair with it. Interesting!

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    1. That's cool! Where does she get it? Indian supermarkets?

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  3. I've never thought about using henna on my hair also but you've turned me. I have virgin black hair also so I love things natural for my hair. Your hair looks amazing in the sun :)

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  4. My mum uses henna for the same reason as you, to reduce chemical use. Did you decide to try it for the benefits you mentioned or just for colour? I love hair that is slick black but is golden in the sunlight - so lovely!

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