Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Creamy Henna for Hair


Just when I thought Spring had sprung Mother Nature throws some more "wintery" mix at us. The above photo was snapped as I was driving home in NJ just yesterday! Needless to say, I decided to spend the day at home and give myself a henna treatment. It's actually been a while since the last time I henna'd but it's about that time for a relaxer and I decided I'm going to henna 1 week before and 1 week after my relaxer to increase the strength of my hair. Anyway, the mix that I whipped up last night was amazing. The henna had a creamy frosting like texture and was easy to apply, work through and rinse out.

As always, I used BAQ (body art quality) henna from Mehandi.com. I have a stash of Punjabi Prime that I really like a lot. So here's the mix:

1 package of Punjabi Prime
1 cup of warm (not hot or boiling) Green Tea
Large squeeze of Honey
A few tablespoons of EVOO
A few pumps of Paul Mitchell Mint and Lavender conditioner (just for scent)
A squirt of Philip B. Katira Hair Masque (for extra shine)

I never ever measure anything to a T, I just like a dash of this, a hint of that, probably why I don't like baking but that is what I used and it came out super duper smooth and easy to apply. Which was the total opposite of the last time I henna'd and it was full of clumps and hard to smooth.

I let the mixture sit for about 3 hours before I applied it. I washed my hair, conditioned, and then towel dried and detangled. I sectioned my hair into three sections, two in the front and one in the back and started applying the henna. I always apply my henna like I'm applying a relaxer to the entire length of my hair, applying to small sections and smoothing it down. When I was finally done, I put on my plastic cap, wrapped up the edges of the cap with gauze strip and put on my scarf. The total time the henna was left in was about 10-12 hours, and then this morning I co-washed it out with VO5 moisture milk conditioner. Once it was completely out I applied a deep condition and now I'm typing up this blog post. For the rest of the day I plan on deep conditioning my hair to restore the softness, because my hair is always a little hard post henna treatments.

Read more about my henna experiments!