Henna

For a very long time on the left side of this site you could see my picture wearing blond hair. For a long time I was bleaching my hair. I am naturaly dark blond but since my 25 I got quite some grey hair and I did not like it at all. Around two years ago my hair’s started to brake a lot. After brushing, my brush was full of hair, the batch tube was full of hair after I washed my head. I was getting pretty nervous. I am still not sure what was the cause; was it the bleaching or the fact that gray hair are more breakable (at this moment my natural hair is very grey). I just wanted to give my hair a brake but on the other hand, I did not want to be gray, I feel too young for it. That’s why I decided to try henna. When I was 17-19 I was also putting henna on my hair but at that time I was using the pure henna so my hair was red.

On internet I found a lot of positive opinions about Khadi henna but since it was not available in our local store I bought what was: henna from njd-cosmetics (chestnut-brown). I usually prepare it a day before by simply mixing the powder with hot water. Sometimes I add some oil and lemon juice. The preparation takes no more than 2 minutes excluding boiling time. Putting henna on hair is pretty messy business, it takes quite some time to get right color (for me round 2 hours) and the bath tub gets realy messy after rinsing hair. Nevertheless, the color is very nice and my hair stopped to brake after few months of using henna (I did not expect immediate results).

              

Recently however, I learned about Lush henna blocks. I wanted to give it a try so I bought the brun henna. The bar cost at our shop 15 euro (twice as much as my njd-henna). The smell was definitely different from the henna I was used to due to addition of oils and butter (I was pretty excited about this additions). Since my hair is short I used only half of the bar. The first disappointment came when I was trying to melt it. It took ages! I was trying to help with a fork and after 15 minutes of struggle I finally managed. There was no difference to njd henna in regards to application or the development time. However, it took me lot more time to remove it from my hair. This henna contains coffee, which was very difficult to remove. It is advised not to wash hair 48 hours after coloring but I had to, otherwise it seemed impossible to get rid of the residues. The tube was more messy than after the other henna because of the oils. There was a nasty green film inside the tube. The worst part was that the smell of oils and butters was overwhelming even after washing my hair. I had headache whole next day. I could smell it for nearly two weeks. Hubby also did not like it.  The color was very nice but for the first few days it was more red than brown. My hair was more shiny and soft than after the njd henna but because of the overwhelming scent I think I will not use the second part of the henna and will return to my old brand.

                             

It is not that I’m negative about Lush, not at all. I have two shampoo bars from Lush which I love. One is with addition of nettle and helped my daughter to get rid of dandruff very quickly. The other one is for greasy hair and I use it myself. I must admit that I do not need to use conditioner after this shampoo and my hair is very shinny and soft.

Does any of you have other experience with henna? Is there something else you can advice?