Henna, the day after

so, its the next day, and let me tell you! i am so excited! the color definately got better. it looks much more reddish and less brown! but let me start from the begining:

so i bought three 4oz containers of henna from the natural food/hair store. two were persian red. one was sherry red. there were only 2 persian reds left, so i bought the sherry too cause i didn't think 2 would be enough. so the directions said mix each container with one cup boiling water. for dry hair, add one egg and 2-4 tablespoons olive oil. so i mixed one package of the persian red with half of the sherry (roughly 6 oz of henna), 2 large eggs, about 3 oz of olive oil, and roughly 1 and 1/4 cup boiling water. the henna stunk at first. it smelled like decaying leaves. but it makes sense, henna is a dried crushed plant product. so i seperated my hair into 8 sections, four on each side, rubber banded them off where the color started, and got ready to color the first half of my hair.

it was an EXTREMELY messy process. the henna was about the consistancy of cake batter. i was putting it on with my hands and smooshing it in. if i took too much, little globs would roll off and into the sink or on the floor. a couple of times i dropped my locs and they smacked me in the face and left smears of henna on my face! i was freaking out cause i thought it would leave stains on my face, so i was hollering for my sister to come help me and wipe my face off. i couldn't do it myself! i had on gloves that were covered in henna! so, it took a long time to finish the first half of my head. probably about 20 minutes or so. i got henna on the floor, on the wall, and all over my shirt! so my sister made me a garbage bag cape! i felt ridiculous, but it was the only solution! so i mixed up the rest of the henna for the other half of my head. this side went faster. i aslo made sure to really smear on a thick layer of henna even after i put my hair in the "princess Leia" buns. then i used some plastic shopping bags to wrap my hair and sat on the phone with my fiancee for a while, watched some tv, chatted with my sister. but the buns were on opposite sides of my head and the henna made the buns REALLY heavy, so i was getting pain along where my hair was parted. it was really uncomfortable so i ended up wrapping a headbacnd around the buns to hold them closer together. i looked like a flippin' fool! thank god there are no pictures to document that part!

so after about 2 hours i rinsed the henna out in the kitchen sink. this was the most grueling part! i rinsed for over half an hour!! now, this may not seem like hard work, but i have carpal tunnel in my hands. i had to squeeze water through my locs over and over to make sure i got all the henna out. my hands went numb and felt really weak after the first ten minutes. i have a good amout of hair, and its pretty heavy when wet. it took so much work to get all the henna out. i was ready to just give up and go to bed with the henna still in my hair. at one point i was slumped over the sink almost ready to cry! i was so tired and my hands hurt so much and i still had so much henna in my hair! that was the low point of the night! but i just took a minute rest leaning over the sink and i got back to work! first i rinsed with hot water, then with cold, as per the directions on the henna package. then i shampooed and rinsed some more!

so, after all that was done, i ran to a mirror to see my shining red glory! and what do i see! BROWN!!!! i was so upset! but it was late and i had to go to bed, so i put my hair in a bun and wrapped it with my silk scarf on and went to sleep with soaking wet hair! yeah, i got a pretty big wet spot on my pillow, but i was so pissed, i didn't care!

the next morning i noticed the color was a little more orange-ish. by the time i got home from work, it looked more orangy-brown. i remember reading from the free henna e-book that the color takes a few days to settle, so i can only hope as the days wear on that the color will start to look more reddish. i am satisfied with the way it loks now. i will try it again in a month or so. heres the youtube video i made




2 quick notes:

(1)the e-book said not to mix the henna with boiling water, that it would make the color fade and its better to mix the henna with lemon juice and let the henna sit over night for a brighter, more vibrant color. so next time, i'm gonna do that. heres the link to that free e-book:
http://www.hennaforhair.com/freebooks/

(2)when i did mix the henna with boiling water for the first batch, i added the water first and then the eggs. for the second batch, i added the eggs first and then the water, and when the hot water hit the egg, it started to cook the egg!!! so if you ARE gonna use boiling water, add the egg AFTER you mix in the water!