Experiment with henna
I’ve been meaning to dye my hair for absolutely ages but really wanted to use natural dye, which I couldn’t find anywhere. Then when browsing in Lush, I spotted that they sell blocks of henna, which led to me spending my entire bank holiday Monday trying not to dye my entire house red. I thought it would be interesting to document the process. Apologies for the terrible cameraphone photos…
I started today with hair that was a sort of mousy light brown with blonde highlights and more grey than I’d like. I covered the bathroom in newspapers and old towels, dug out all the hair clips I never use and headed to the kitchen for the fun part.
I broke up the henna block into a bain marie (one of those kitchen items we own but never use, which made me feel better about the risk of totally ruining it for all future food uses) set over a pan of boiling water, and gradually added water until the henna had turned into a slightly crumbly hot paste. It’s a bit like melting chocolate but takes a lot longer and a lot more liquid. Also it has a weird green tinge, which I didn’t expect.
Then came the hard bit: applying the henna. I don’t know if I didn’t melt it enough, but there were still lots of dry crumbs in the henna paste and they went everywhere. Good thing I’d lined the bathroom as thoroughly as if we were painting the ceiling. The instructions said the hotter the paste is the better, so there was also the fun of trying not to burn/scald myself. As the paste dried on my hair it became nearly solid so it was a lot harder to make sure it was evenly covered than the usual chemical-filled hair dye.
Next step was to cover my hair for up to three hours. The instructions said to keep it warm to bring out the red tones, so I used a shower cap and a towel. And then I sat down to read. This was the part I’d been looking forward to, and it made me feel much better about spending most of a day dying my hair!
The end result looks way better than this photo suggests. It’s a lovely deep red brown. At some point I’ll take a picture with a real camera. So was all the time and fuss worth it? Right now, I think yes. But I still might try to find some henna that’s made up as a dye for next time. Any recommendations?
I’ve been wanting to experiment with henna too! I have dark brown hair, but I’m not sure if henna comes in that color…it seems messy but I’d like to start dying my hair with something natural.
If you choose one of the red shades it should show up on dark brown hair. I chose a brown shade so I was surprised it initially came out red, but the red washed out pretty quickly and I’m left with a nice brown shade now.
Great job – your hair looks lovely. I used Lush henna for many years, though mainly to cover up all the grey that came with my forties. At the time my hair was about the same length as yours, and I found that an hour was enough for the colour to take, provided that it was (a) very hot when it went on and (b) you keep it hot (I used cling film wrapped securely around my head plus an insulated (thermal) woolly hat. I feel the cold so I was never too hot. They say that henna is a marriage made in heaven but the divorce from hell, and the only way to get rid of it has been to grow it out (with the red/grey tidemark) and then have the haircut of my life – though I did henna it 6 or 7 times a year for about 5 years, so colour on colour on colour etc. But, like you, I loved it while it lasted – the shine, the soft condition, the glorious colour.
Also, Lush does three colours of henna – red, brown and black – so probably something for everyone.
No, I don’t work for Lush 🙂
Thank you! I’m not sure I could go through all that palaver 6 or 7 times a year but I guess I’d get better at it with practice 🙂 I’m also covering up grey and it seems to have done a good job of that.