My Henna'd Hair: Day 1

Okay, so I dyed my hair with henna last night, and of course, I have Ronald McDonald orange hair at the moment. I'm not concerned about it, since henna takes 3-5 days to oxidize. I know this isn't what my hair will ultimately look like, and if need be, I can always henna again to deepen the color some.


I am concerned however, with the fact that my hair feels ridiculous. It's tangling, and feels just weird. So, I looked all over the Henna For Hair forum, to make sure my hair wasn't having some awful reaction to the henna. It turns out, that it isn't all that uncommon for your hair to feel like this at first, especially if you already had dry hair, or chemically-treated hair. Both of which I have. It probably also didn't help that I used almost all lemon juice as my liquid, when mixing the henna. I could be experiencing two things; either I didn't get all the henna out of my hair, and it's causing the aforementioned problems. Or, my hair is super ridiculously dry from the lemon juice. I don't think that it's the first option because I have literally low-poo'd my hair 5 times, and co-washed with Suave probably 10 times, maybe more. I should've known better than to use the lemon juice. So, next time I henna, I'm going to use straight tap water to mix it, and then add some more conditioner to my mix before it goes into my hair.
 
So the upside, my hair does seem somewhat thicker, and has more volume. Also, I don't seem to have lost any of my curl pattern, which I was concerned about.
 
Besides the tangles and dryness, I'm happy overall with how it's coming along. I'll continue to update on my journey into henna!
 
Happy 2010!!

Coloring my hair with henna......A new journey

I've been reading everything that I could find, literally, about coloring your hair with Henna. I'm not talking about the crap you can buy at Sally's, that comes in a variety of colors. Real henna is only red, there are no other options. Real Henna is great for your hair, it thickens the individual hair strands, conditions, and gives amazing shine. The stuff sold at Sally's, that's trying to call itself Henna, is a mix of Henna, and potentially dangerous chemicals. It is actually worse for your hair that plain hair dye.




Henna is really intriguing to me for numerous reasons, the most obvious being that it is good for your hair. I've been coloring my hair, with box hair color and pro color, for more than a decade. It has left my hair in less than optimal condition, and I'm sick of using it. Now that I'm wearing my hair curly, I want to take care of it more than ever. I can't go back to blonde, and have healthy hair, as I would have to bleach it again. My other favorite color, for my hair, is red. I am very fair-skinned, and red hair looks great on my skintone. Unfortunately, with red hair out of a box, it will fade quickly and look like crap.



Henna is the ultimate, permanent hair dye. It works completely different than regular box color. Box color works by stripping your hair of color, and then depositing color. The process leaves the hair cuticle rougher, and the color is easily faded. Henna is a plant, and it works by depositing color into the hair cuticle. Once the color is deposited, it is nearly, if not completely impossible to remove. Once Henna has been put on hair, it essentially has to be cut off in order to be removed. For someone like me, who changes their hair color almost as often as my clothes, this can be a drawback. However, I want healthy hair, and I think I'm ready to commit to one, atleast for quite some time.



Henna can be used to dye hair brown and a few other colors, when mixed with other plant dyes. Henna itself is only red, but there are other dyes that can be mixed with Henna to get brown and black hair. Indigo and cassia will both alter the color of Henna, however, the hair will still have some sort of red to it. Henna can be used pretty much as often as you want, although with each application the color will deepen or darken.



I am so excited about using Henna to color my hair, and I will update several times throughout the process. Henna takes several days to oxidize, until it's finished oxidizing you won't know what your final color will be. I will also talk more about Henna and your hair, because there is so much to learn before making a decision about it.



Have any of you ladies used Henna? Did you like it?

It's in The Box: At-Home Hair Coloring Tips

So, I've been dying my hair for more than a decade, and I've only had it done at a salon once. I hate my natural dirty-blond hair, and I get bored easily with my hair color, so not only do I dye my hair a lot, but it also changes color frequently. My hair has been almost every color at least once; blond (my staple), brown, red, pink, black, purple. etc. In truth, my hair color changes more often then is good for it, on the upside though, I've learned some great tips along the way about changing your color, and keeping your hair looking good. So I thought I'd try and share some of this with you dolls, I hope it helps.

• Seriously, if your can control your urge to go from black to platinum blond, do so, it'll never turn out right. Try and keep your hair color choice within 2 to 3 shades of the color it is right now. Dramatic changes should be done in stages, or the color will turn out wrong. If you can't control yourself, then seek out a professional, you'll be happy you did.
• If your going blond, and your have brassy tones, then you need toner. Sally beauty is where I pick mine up, ask an associate for help. That's what they're there for.
• If your unsure whether you'll like a color or if it'll look right on you, then go semi-permanent, so if you don't like it it will eventually wash out, mostly.
• Do not EVER bleach hair that has already been bleached; your hair will literally break off. If your a bottle blond, and you need to bleach to maintain your color, then only bleach your roots. If you ignore every other tip, please, please listen to this one. I have had my hair break off, it is awful.
• If your dying your hair a darker color, then rub Vaseline around your hairline to prevent dying your skin, it takes days to wash the dye away.
• If your wanting highlights, then start with less than you think you want, you can always add more, but once they're there your stuck with them.
• Red hair is exceptionally hard to maintain, it fades, it washes out, etc. If you can only wash red hair every other day at most, this will prevent that dreaded fading.
• I can't say enough about dimension. Usually hair color from a box has none, which is what makes it so obvious that it's not natural. Adding highlights and lowlights to your hair color will make a world of difference. Buy a shade or two darker than your main color and a shade or two lighter, than use a highlighting cap to add highlights and lowlights. Remember though: less-is-more.
• I dye the underneath side of my hair darker and the top lighter, if you aren't comfortable doing this at the same time always do the darker first. Sometimes the darker color mixes with the lighter and you end up with something other than what you wanted. If you do the darker first, you can dye over some errors, with the lighter color.
• When all else fails, seek a professional. Seriously.