Since I decided to grow my hair long for bellydance, coloring it has become more and more of a chore. My hair is very fine to begin with; the length makes it prone to breaking and monthly chemical coloring treatments only weakened it. Since I’d been coloring my hair red anyway, the obvious alternative was henna. This way I end up with stronger, shinier, healthier hair, and most people have no idea my hair isn’t naturally rusty.
I have been way overdue for a henna application, and since I had some free time last night I decided bite the bullet and get this thing done. I usually do my whole head, but my roots were about 4 inches long and I wanted to try to blend the brown with the existing red, so I tried a root touch-up. It worked surprisingly well for such a risky endeavor; I could have ended up with a striped Easter egg head, but the shades blended beautifully. If I’m feeling sassy in a few weeks I’ll do a whole-head application just to bump up the color and intensity a bit.
One of the down sides of henna is the time it takes. Last night saw me cooking dinner with my head wrapped in plastic wrap, which was then topped with a fleece winter hat (to keep all the heat in and keep that dye releasing). The whole process from the mixing of the henna paste, the initial hair wash, through the application and the wrap, the waiting, and the final rinse and dry took about 7 hours. Not counting the wait, total attention time was nearly 2 hours. Total cost, not counting the raiding of the pantry items, was about $5.
The fun part, aside from knowing I’m not destroying my hair with chemicals, is how creative I can get with the paste mix. I vary my paste ingredients by using different liquids as a base (herbal tea, black tea, coffee, etc.), using different ratios of spices for extra color (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc.), adding molasses or honey to help keep the paste moist, and changing up the essential oils. The result is a bowl of goo smelling–not unpleasantly–of dried vegetation, earth, patchouli, oranges, and spices.
It’s like a Turkish coffeehouse for my skull, and who doesn’t like that?
