I henna'ed...again

So yesterday I used some more Henna on my hair.  I had tried it a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it even though everyone can see the color in my hair except me.  Henna is a permanent color deposit meaning, it will leave color in your hair but will NOT lift the color in your hair; that means the change will be subtle unless you are completely gray or blonde. 

While waiting for my hair to grow more than 2 inches, I'm becoming a bit bored with it...that's just the way I am.  Once I get used to something, I crave the excitement of discovering something else.  Thus, I wanted to color my hair, of course that's an absurd idea since my hair is still recovering from the years of chemical abuse I subjected it to resulting in the need for a big chop in the first place.  So, I started researching Henna.  Body Art Quality Henna is 100% natural thereby making it the perfect choice for me as I needed something, anything new to try with my hair.  I spent a couple days doing a bit of research and placed an order for 1 box of henna online from Mehandi.com.  The order came within a few days and I tried it and liked it so much I decided to order a couple more boxes (each has 100g of product) and tried it again last night. 


The trick I've learned with Henna from my online research is making sure to deep condition after the Henna is washed out as it acts like a protein treatment and can be drying.  This will ensure your hair does not feel and look like straw, also I tweaked my recipe a bit for the second Henna application and the result was super-soft hair.  

Here is my Henna recipe (I only used 50g of Henna since I only have 2 inches of hair on a rather small head):

50g BAQ Henna
3/4 cup cooled green tea (you need an acidic liquid to aid in dye deposit; you can also use any acidic juice like lemon juice.  I also brewed 3 green tea bags)
Small squeeze of moisturizing conditioner
2 tbs of extra virgin coconut oil

I mixed the contents to the consistency of pudding, covered and left it overnight so the dye could release.

The next day I co-washed then just before I applied the Henna to my hair, I added 2 tbs of honey to the mixture.  I applied using gloves and covered my hair with saran wrap and a plastic cap for 4 hours.

To rinse I let the spray from my shower do the work and used an ultra moisturizing conditioner to wash out all traces of the Henna from hair (this can take up to 4 washes, more if your hair is longer than mine).  Once the water runs clear, then you MUST deep condition preferably with heat.  Here is what I used to deep condition:

Oyin Honey-Hemp Conditioner
2 tbs EVCO
1 1/2 tbs EVOO
1 teaspoon Avocado Oil

This mixture was applied to my hair and because I don't currently own a hood dryer, I wrapped my hair in sara wrap and covered with 3 plastic caps then drank a cup of hot tea to get the heat going.  I left this on for 45 minutes then rinsed.  My hair felt like a newborn baby's....S-O-F-T!!!

I've read Henna can make your hair stronger and thicker.  I'm all for thick,strong hair so I think I'll keep doing this until there's a reason to stop.  The color I get can only be seen outside or indoors under bright lights, I've gotten pretty good responses from my friends, family and even a few admirers on the public transportation to work.  I think Henna and I will be friends for a good long time.