Tea Time

(source)

Lately every time I henna my hair, I am left rinsing and rinsing and rinsing only to have bits and pieces of herbs still left in my hair.  Super frustrating and it makes me not wanna deal with it.  But I love the effects of henna: it helps define my coils, reduce frizz, and there's a (slight) color payoff.

So what's a girl to do?  Google of course.

After doing a little bit of investigating I realized that I could do a henna rinse.  I had never really heard of anyone doing it but I figure what could it hurt?

It's really simple to do. I grabbed my henna, amla, and brahmi (about 1/4 cup of each) and a few cups of water (didn't measure it) and simmered it on the stove for 20 minutes or so.  Once it came to a rolling boil, I added a teabag.  It was this green tea that I bought to drink but since it was gross I figured why waste it and decided to use it for my hair.  I let it stay on the heat for another 5 mins then set the mix aside to cool.

In the meantime I shampooed my hair with my Bee Mine bar.  I strained the henna rinse into a bowl then placed a bowl in the kitchen sink so I could collect the rinse to use over and over.  I then proceeded to pour it for about 10 mins or so.  Please make sure it cools down before you do it because scalp burns are never cute.  After most of the rinse made it's way down the drain I deep conditioned with L'Oreal EverStrong made sure my hair was rinsed clean.  I found no left-over grit which was a plus.  As I write this my hair is braided up so we'll see how conditioning it was in the morning.

I'll follow up tomm

Sidenote: I'm ONE WEEK away from my 1 year anniversary of when I did the BC!  Time was flown by and I can't wait to see what year 2 brings.  Hopefully a lot more blogging.

Henna Review: Take Two

I henna-ed again for the first time in a long time.  I had another box of Jamila henna that I bought back when I did my first henna gloss, so I decided to whip some up and see how it turned out.  This henna mixture was not like the last.  I had been wanting to experiment with coconut milk for quite some time and I happened to have some in my cabinet so I figured why not combine the two.

I took the entire box of Jamila henna, mixed it with an entire can of coconut milk.  You don't have to use an entire can, I just kept adding until the mix was smooth.  I also threw in 2 tablespoons of cinnamon, for color.  Now I knew I my hair color wasn't going to change drastically but those stress grays that I have would turn brown and that's always a plus.  Initially I was going to add paprika for red but I was a little concerned about using a "hot" spice in my hair.  I never wanna revisit a burning sensation on my head... cue to flashback to just about every relaxer I ever got.

After I mixed the two I let it sit overnight and added olive oil right before I put it on my hair. The application was easy, didn't make a mess but I made sure I had gloves on (don't want orange hands now ) But the rinse out took forever.  Even when I thought I was done, I looked in the mirror and still had plenty of henna to go.  What I'll probably do next time is sift the henna before I mix it up.  It was so gritty that it got caught in my hair and took tons of conditioner to get it out.  And I was so tired.  I had let it sit in my hair for 6 hrs and it was 10 pm when I rinsed it out. (Note to self: henna is an early project, starting at 3:30, 4 is never a good idea)

Once I finally got it all out I was way too tired to do anything else so I sealed my hair with some JBCO, threw a scarf on and went to bed.  The next morning I DC'ed with Miss Jessie's SST, detangled with my double detangler comb and finally did what I needed to do for so long: TRIM MY ENDS.  I've really underestimated how much extra care my hair needs in the winter so my ends were just a mess.

I didn't have a lot to cut off length-wise, it just looks like it.  I then proceeded to flat twist my hair because I'm determined to master it. (So I tried the flat twist out- huge utter abysmal FAIL.  I don't know why but it seems to straighten my hair, one day though one day I'll have it down) So I sprayed my hair just a little and now I'm back in "Old Faithful" aka Two strand Twists.

I'll have some after pics for you guys tomm (hopefully)

 

Next Day Henna pics

 

These are the pics I took after my henna treatment.  To be honest, I still can't tell a difference in texture which I'm okay with but of course I will try it again.  After i use the rest of my frozen mix I'll probably try using tea as I read on CurlyNuGrowth.

Henna Gloss Review

Last night I decided to spend my Saturday night in the house watching PSU football and finally henna glossing.  Here's the mixture that I used.  After the henna defrosted I poured some into a plastic bowl and threw the rest back in the freezer.  Now I hadn't added any oil yet so I added about 2 teaspoons of grapeseed oil and maybe a teaspoon of cinnamon.  Now I read that cinnamon adds to the red color and I know the color change will probably be minimal but what the heck, gonna try it anyway.  If it does work I'll add it at the very beginning next time I henna.  In most posts I've read henna is applied to freshly washed hair so I shampooed my hair with Curls Creamy cleanser and proceeded to apply the mix in small sections.  After my entire head was covered, I threw on some saran wrap, a plastic cap over it and a scarf.  Then it was time for some football.  Bad football.  Penn State was not the team I know and love.  I could have left it in overnight but I'm scared of how drying it could be so I decided 4 hours was enough.

Rinsing my hair was a huge pain.  Ugh I rinsed and I rinsed and I rinsed.  And my tub turn a lovely shade of mud brown.  I finished rinsing and conditioned with my favorite HETT and then proceeded to set my hair.  My hair was soft (thank goodness!) but I didn't notice any clumping of curls and coils like some ladies get.  While I got in front of the mirror I saw that I got no visible color change.  I can't find that pesky gray hair so I'm taking that as a good sign.  I decided to do some two strand twists because I noticed that banding is causing knots and tangles at the ends of my hair. If I do I'll probably band the twists instead of leaving them loose.  Today I used my Design Essential Leave-In which I haven't used in ages, Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque and Shealoe to seal.  I also took this opportunity to clip my ends because they look a mess- knots and dryness galore.  I only trim while my hair is twisted.  I find that it's much easier for me.

Now it's Sunday and I haven't left the house so my hair's still twisted.  I won't know how I feel about the process until tomorrow when I do my hair.  I will say this, my shedding was almost non-existent.  I'll attribute that to henna's strengthening properties.  I don't wanna give my verdict just yet, I'll probably wait til I try it again next month.  I like it but I don't know if it's worth going through all that trouble when I can just buy a protein leave-in that I don't have to fuss with.

Oh well.

Here are some pics of the henna in my hair and after it had been rinsed out.  Please excuse my ends because I didn't trim them until after my hair was twisted up and as you can see they were in need of it.

(Head full of henna)

(all rinsed out, Slight color deposit but nothing noticeable)

Weekend Plans

It's the weekend!!! And it's also time for me to do my hair.  Just recently I found an Indian store in my area and bought some henna because I am determined to get rid of my gray hairs.  Plus it's supposed to be a pretty good strengthening treatment so it can't hurt to try.  My biggest problem is that I heard it's can be very drying so I'm gonna be in need of a really good DC afterwards.  So late, last night after an amazing John Legend concert out in Brooklyn I decided to whip up a henna gloss instead of a straight treatment and have it ready for today.

What's a henna gloss and henna treatment, you ask?

Henna gloss is a mix of henna and conditioner which is supposedly not as drying as a regular henna treatment.  A henna treatment from what I've seen usually contains come sort of acidic base like lemon juice or green tea (which is usually the culprit for the dryness)  There are so many variations for henna mixtures; some people use coconut milk, orange juice, chamomile tea, or simply water.  The color deposit is supposed to be stronger with henna treatment but I've seen videos where a henna gloss has yielded some pretty good color.  I don't expect my hair color to change because my nautral hair color is pretty dark.

I decided to follow the Moptop Maven's YouTube video with some slight variation in conditioner and oil. I mixed a box of Jamila henna (100g), hot water, approx a tablespoon of honey and as much conditioner (Trader Joe's Nourish) as needed til it was mixed into a yogurt consistency.  I've read that henna doesn't react well with metal so I used a plastic bowl and plastic spoon to combine everything.  When you start the mixture is a green color with a smell that reminds me of dried out ,cut grass.  I then covered the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside so the dye could release.  This morning I checked on the mix and it went from green to brown. Dye released, yes!  Now that the dye has released I'm gonna add some grapeseed oil to the mix.

Now the plan was to try it out this weekend but I'm going into protective style mode (my next post will be all about that) on Sunday. My grays will be hidden for at least 3 weeks.

I'll just wash this weekend with a new conditioner and work on a review instead.  This means my henna mix is going into the freezer and I will try again another time. Oh well.

Grey (Hair) Matter

My 20-ehm birthday is rapidly approaching which I'm happy about.  That is, until I saw 4 new grey hairs on the right side of my head, in the front.  NO GOOD!  This got me thinking that I might try a henna treatment in the near future.

For anyone that doesn't know, henna is a plant whose dye is used for hair, skin or fabrics among other things.  When used in hair, it strengthens hair, thicken, adds shine, conditions and depending on what you have and your initial hair color, will deposit some color.  There's a whole world when it comes to henna and as I explore some of them I'll get more in depth.  My biggest concern is how dry it will leave my hair.  That's the major complaint I hear.  I have naturally dry hair so I do everything I possibly can to keep it well moisturized and hearing that henna can be drying is what's turned me off.

But the grey must go!

I don't really need the rest of my fro to be colored I just am not ready to see grey hair yet.  My friend has some Lush henna so I'm gonna give that a try soon and Butters-N-Bars is having a sale so I'm gonna pick up some of the powdered henna so I can compare and contrast.

If you wanna read more about henna, check out: CurlyNikki (unofficial queen of henna) or Henna for Hair