2nd henna treatment

I am officially in LOVE with Henna! Karishma Henna, to be exact:



I put in my second treatment on the 17th. The first time, I only left it in for 4 hours, and I did not condition before, and I did not deep condition afterwards - I just used co-washes to get the powder out. That was too drying, and I won't be doing that again. This time, after reading up on it again on LHCF, I decided to leave the treatment in overnight.

I mixed the henna with 2 cups of green tea on the 17th at 7:30am. This time I used 5 tea bags in the water. I covered the bowl with saran wrap and sat it in my bathroom - I think it's a tad warmer in there. I did not use an iron bowl, as listed in the directions, because I don't own one. I just used a plastic bowl.

I didn't get home from work/working out until around 8:30. I checked it and could see that the dye had released - you will start to see a reddish liquid forming. The powder starts of green, but as the dye releases, the mixture turns a brownish-red. I stirred it up, hit the shower and washed my hair. I conditioned lightly with my Moist 24/7 conditioner from HairVeda. I towel dried my hair, and put it in four sections. To those sections I applied the tiniest dab of coconut oil. I didn't want anything to interfere with the dye uptake.

I got around to applying around 10:30 that night, so basically the mixture had sat for 15 hours. It doesn't need to sit that long, that's just how it worked out that day. My gray area is in the front, so I applied the mixture there, and then started in the back. It was a little more messy this time - I made the mixture less thick, because I felt like I was running out of henna the last time. This time it was closer to the consistency of yogurt.

YOU MUST WEAR GLOVES. Otherwise your hands will be bright orange! Not cute! Last time, I did not wear the gloves to rinse it, and I did end up with orange hands. So rinse your gloves and save them for the rinse-out process. Trust me.

By 11:00pm it was all applied. I wrapped my head in Saran Wrap - which stuck surprisingly, I was impressed. Then I put two plastic caps over that. I ended up sleeping on my couch - I didn't want to get henna on my bedding, if there WAS a spill. I laid out two towels over the area I'd be sleeping, and I called it a night. When I woke up in the morning, I noted that the Saran wrap had slipped off the back, so I was glad I had the two caps to catch that. There was no henna anywhere on the towels or on my t-shirt.

The next morning, I was up around 7:30, and in the shower rinsing at 7:45. Definitely more color this time! The grays are an even darker shade. I am trying to figure out how something that starts out orange (if you place henna in your palm for one minute, and then rinse - it should leave an orange pumpkin-like stain), makes you send up with reddish-brown or burgundy hair. I don't know how it works, but it works! After rinsing, I applied my HairVeda Sitrinillah deep conditioner, and sat under my heat cap for 30 minutes. When I rinsed that out, I could see that the rest of the henna that needed to be rinsed out, was coming out. Don't be surprised to be rinsing henna out for 2 days after you apply it. And if you play in your hair a lot (like I do), expect to have slightly orange fingers for the first couple of days. My hair felt really good. I applied a mixture of shea butter and coconut oil, and put my hair in twists. This was around 5:00pm on Saturday. I took the twists out around 7:30pm on Sunday, and had a great twist out.

I don't have pics, because I have to be outside in the sun for you to really see the henna. Inside, under fluorescent lighting, my hair just looks dark. Although someone at the skating rink did notice the color change, I think that's just because of where I was standing and where she was sitting - the light was behind me, so she could see it then. But it's also relatively dark in the skating rink - in an office setting there are lights everywhere. I will try to get some pics over the next couple of days.

What I love even more than the color payoff, is the FEEL of my hair. Last night, after my workout, I washed with my HairVeda Amala Cream Rinse, and then followed with the Moist 24/7 conditioner. While I was working the Cream Rinse and the Conditioner in, I could just tell a difference. My hair felt smoother to the touch. More silky. It's hard to explain...just know that it feels much better than it felt 4 weeks ago.

My plan is to henna every 3 weeks. I stocked up on Karishma, and I have enough to take me through the end of the year. In between henna treatments, I will use my other powders. I have brahmi, amla, maka, shikakai, fenugreek, and hibiscus. I havea little bit of aritha left, but it can be drying, so I don't know how much I will use it. The hibiscus powder is like a bright magenta...I have heard that may deposit some red color as well. I need to read up on it, because I don't want anything to mess up my henna!