I had wanted to try Henna hair color for a long time. True Henna (Lawsonia inermis) is an all natural, flowering plant that has been used for 6000 years to dye skin, hair, fingernails, and fabrics. Sounds pretty straightforward...
I checked my local beauty supply first. They carried a product with "Henna" in the brand name name and "natural" in the product title, but this was the list of ingredients:
Henna (Lawsonia Inermis), Sodiun Perborate, Tartrik Acid, p-Phenylenediamine, Cellulose gum, Magnesium Searate, Sodium Sulfate
From Wikipedia:
The CDC lists PPD (p-Phenylenediamine) as being a contact allergen. Exposure routes are through inhalation, skin absorption, ingestion, and skin and/or eye contact; symptoms of exposure include throat irritation (pharynx and larynx), bronchial asthma, and sensitization dermatitis. Sensitization is a lifelong issue, which may lead to active sensitization to products including, but not limited to black clothing, various inks, hair dye, dyed fur, dyed leather, and certain photographic products. It was voted Allergen of the Year in 2006 by the American Contact Dermatitis Society.
That was enough for me to not use that particular product.
Fast-forward a few weeks (yes, I walked around with grey roots for that long), and I stopped into a local hippie shop to check out their essential oils. They carried Rainbow Henna. I wanted a dark, chestnut brown color. They didn't have the exact shade I wanted, but after reading the informational pamphlet and speaking with the sales clerk, I found out that you can customize the colors based on how they are mixed. I settled on a 4 oz jar of the "Persian Mahogany" (bring on the Anchorman jokes).
The directions were super simple, you just dump the container of Henna powder into a nonreactive (glass or plastic) bowl and add 1 cup of boiling liquid. Adding boiling water would have kept the color auburn, but to darken it, I added a cup of boiling coffee.
The resulting mixture was just as unappealing as the picture shows. It was the same color and consistency of warm mud... ok, poop. And it smelled like canned spinach.
Since Henna can stain skin easily, I coated my hairline and ears with petroleum jelly and put on gloves. The directions stated to apply to roots first using a color brush or paint brush, but it was too thick, so I ended up just scooping up globs of the mixture and squishing it onto my scalp. After I got my scalp covered, I moved onto the rest of my hair.
This was more challenging than I had anticipated. My hair is pretty long, so there isn't a simple way to get through all of it. I had to section off a piece, scoop up a small handful of the spinach-poop and smoosh it through the strand. Unlike typical hair color, it starts to dry out, so I was left with crusty-dreadlocks as I worked my way around my head.
I made it all the way through (at least as well as I could), and piled my hair up on top of my head.
SEXY!!
I wrapped my head in a plastic bag and found something to do for the 60 minutes it had to process. The processing time can be shortened if you use a heat source, but I didn't feel like being stuck under a dryer for 45 minutes.
Plus, I had to clean up the leftover mess
To my mom friends and nurse friends, if you've ever had to clean up bits of poop from a hard surface, this was not much different. Attempts to wipe it up only resulted in ground in smears. There was a lot of splashing with water followed by profanity.
The 60 minutes passed and I hopped in the shower to rinse out the Henna.
"Rinsing" out 2 cups of dried mud from your hair is just as pleasant as it sounds. You know how chemical hair color just kinda rinses out on its own? How you just keep pouring water over it until the water runs clear? Not this... chunks of spinach-poop fell off of my head. Every time I thought I was nearly done, I'd find another pocket of mud somewhere. At least my arms got a good workout.
Water alone wasn't doing the trick and I hadn't made up any baking soda shampoo prior to getting in the shower. Damn it!!
I had a packet of a sulfate-free, all-in-one hair cleanser sitting in my shower. I had picked this up when I started my all-natural experiments and had never gotten around to trying it.
My shower was a disaster area. Luckily, I keep my squeeze bottles in there all the time, so I was able to blast the remaining mud spots from the walls and floor. That killed the 5 minutes that the hair product was supposed to sit on my hair. Finally, the rest of the muck rinsed out.
I towel dried my hair and looked for any renegade color. My face, neck and shoulders were all in the clear. The only casualty was my right pinky nail that must've poked through the glove without me noticing.
Not the best photo, but it looked like I had been doing bumps of straight nicotine. It has since faded enough that it's barely noticeable.
After drying and straightening my hair, I'm really happy with the color and the coverage
I've gotten a lot of compliments on the color. My hair feels really soft, although I'm not sure if that's from the Henna or from the hair cleanser. I warned by boyfriend about the weird spinach smell (that took a few days to fade)
He said it didn't smell like spinach at all :)
Instead, he said it smells like Beggin' Strips and has since started referring to me a Snausage :(
My review, in short:
PROS
Chemical free: The ingredients list is only one ingredient long
Customization: Want it darker? Add coffee. Brighter? Add chamomile. Deep conditioning? Add olive oil
CONS
Ease of use: Much more labor intensive than chemical color.
Mess factor: Holy crap. Mess everywhere.
Fragrance: Only a problem if you don't like smelling like a dog treat
NEUTRAL
Price: Average... it was about $8 and honestly I could've gotten 2 uses out of it
What I learned for next time:
I'm going to add a lot more liquid and try to apply it with a squeeze bottle.
Also, going to add some yogurt or olive oil to help with conditioning and ease of rinsing.
I'll keep you posted!!
Side note (per the Wikipedia page on Henna):
The U.S. FDA has not approved henna for direct application to the skin. It is unconditionally approved as a hair dye, and can only be imported for that purpose.[22][26] Henna imported into the U.S. that appears to be for use as body art is subject to seizure,[27] though prosecution is rare.
So, if you see me sporting a Mehndi tattoo, just know that I'm sticking it to the man :)
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