Have I mentioned recently just how MUCH I LOOOOVVVEEE FNWL's henna? Hrmm? I haven't? Well, let me just say - the. stuff. ROCKS.

So. This is going to be my ultra detailed, wonderfully pictorial trip down Henna Lane

I started around 3pm in the afternoon or so - setting up my ingredients so that I could let the dye release before I slapped it on. I was trying something different this go around, so my ingredients are a little unique.



From left to right we have:
1/2 cup of FNWL Henna
about a cup of leftover coconut milk/lime/conditioner/honey mix that I made 02/24 and froze what I couldn't use.
My mixing bowl (which is actually a fondue bowl - all that matters is that it's NON POROUS and NOT METAL!)
a coffee cup full of hot hot tap water.

I normally don't use that much henna - but I normally also stretch my henna by adding a cheapie conditioner to it, and I didn't do that this time, as I wanted to see the results of the coconut milk mix on it's own. Normally, I'd use a 1/4 cup of henna, and just dump in enough condish to make it stretch.

I mixed the henna & CMLHC mix together first, then slowly added water and mixed, and mixed, and mixed until it looked like this....



Generally gross, and lumpy, and very green. Hey! That's another thing about FNWL's henna - it's not as strong smelling as others I've used. Henna to me, smells like tea made out of hay. FNWL's henna has a very light haytea smell. You can see about how much water is left in the coffee cup - barely any.

Now, the henna has to sit, to let the dye release.

While I was waiting for that, I figured I would have a little fun, and clarify my hair with the last of the Shikakai I had. I mixed about - oh, it was 1/4 cup I'd say, with some water to make a paste (I didn't expect it to be that color - reddish brown, very pretty!), and then added a LOT of White Rain conditioner (most likely the Citrus Energizing one). I also added a touch of baking soda (I like my hair to be as stripped/clean as possible before I henna, so my hair can get all the goodness out of the henna), and THIS happened.



The stuff foamed up, and turned into a thick, rich, mousse type stuff. I've seen that happen before when I mix citric acid & baking soda in with conditioner - I didn't expect the shikakai to react like that. Anyhoooow. I slapped that into my hair, and wandered around the house for an hour or so, before I went back to check the henna.



Once henna's dye has released, theres a subtle change in the COLOR of the henna itself - I meant to scrape through the top so it would be more obvious in the pictures, but I forgot. You can kinda tell that the edges have gotten oranger, though. This is how I check to see if the dye has been released:



Take the palm of my hand, stick a fingertip into the henna and gob a spot of henna on my hand, walk around for 2-4 minutes, rinse my hand off. If I've got orange - the henna is ready to go!

Now, comes the fun part! First - the preparations.



Not one, but TWO latex/rubber gloves. Trust me on this. :lol: If you notice, I'm wearing a towel - that's solely for the sake of the picture. Normally, I'm nekkid, as it's easier to henna that way.



You also want about three paper towels (still stuck together, and folded into thirds lengthwise), and a healthy bit of saran wrap - enough to wrap it all the way around your head.



And of course, the henna. :lol:

FNWL's henna is sticky, and gooey, and gloopy. These are all VERY good things.



See? It's really nasty looking, but that's okay. You don't wanna eat it, anyhow. I just stick my hand in, scoop a glob out, and squish it into my hair. Oh yeah, I rinsed the clarifying stuff out of my hair right after I tested that the dye had released - my hair is slightly damp, and that helps the henna spread a bit more.



All done! I don't care about getting henna on my skin around my hairline, as I'm dark enough that it just blends in. Lighter skinned folx - beware! You might need to put some sort of barrier - vaseline is a popular one - around your hairline to avoid looking like the orange ghost of who did what and WHY, sweet goddess, WHY??!! My hair is short (and stubborn) enough that it stands up on it's own - those with more 'floppy' hair, might have to sacrifice a couple of claw clips (if they are plastic, they are porous, and they will get stained) to hold your hair up.

This is why you want gloves. Your hands will be this color if you don't wear them, and it'll take about a week to wear off. Don't say I didn't warn you. :lol:



CAREFULLY take the gloves off, and toss them.

Now, it's saran wrap time!

Stick one end to your forehead, and carefully wrap the saran all around your head - this is the first step in the battle against drippies.



Once you are done, you should have a very attractive shiny cone head. Fold the top in so that it covers your hair (this also helps to hold the heat in), and cut your earholes (if you want them). I get really - squirelly if my ears are covered/bound up, so I have to do this. Just take a pair of scissors, and CAREFULLY cut a backwards angled slice into the saran wrap, and stop right below the top of your ear. You should then be able to pop your ear out, while leaving your hair covered.



Now, it's time for the paper towels - the main line of defense against drippies. Just grab, wrap so that the ends overlap in the front, bobbypin them together, and cut an earhole, and you're done!



Do ignore the goofy face, I think DH had just goosed me. *blush*

Next, slap a showercap on top of the whole thing. I do this for two reasons - one, to help hold heat in better (that encourages ALL of the dye to release from the henna, and I need every bit I can get), and two, to catch any drippies that might escape.



Finally, so that I don't look like a crazy plasticheaded woman walking around the house, I slap my handy dandy doo-rag on top of everything, and I'm done!



Depending on how I'm feeling, sometimes I'll hop in the shower to rinse the henna off of my shoulders, but most of the time I'll jsut grab a (dark!!!) washcloth, and rub it off.

This whole process take a heck of a lot less time to DO than it did to write about. *LOL*

I'd say from dye release to all done takes me about 30 minutes. I don't count the dye release time, as 90% of the time, I'm not making my henna fresh - I make up a HUGE batch, put about 2-3oz into a ziploc bag, and freeze them. The morning of the day I want to henna, I pull it out the freezer, stick it in the fridge, and by the time I get home from work, it just needs to sit on the counter for 15 minutes or so, and it's ready to go.
Yes, it's cold. as. hell. But - it warms up after about 5 minutes on your head.

Silly me, I didn't take any pictures of the un-hennaing process - but with FNWL henna mixed with a little conditioner, it's stupid easy. Wait however long you can stand - the minimum is about two hours, I left this particular one on for 24 - yes, A full day. I was working around the house, so it didn't matter.

Take off the scarf and the showercap. Un-bobbypin the paper towels, and use them to pull the saran wrap off your head. Dump the whole thing in the trash (and if you don't use bags in your bathroom trashcans - don't dump it in there, unless you want an orange trashcan). Get into the shower, and rinse with warm water.

Yup. That's it. FNWL's henna is almost like rinsing out conditioner alone, it's that easy. And if it's easy to rinse out of MY curly, will-hold-onto-a-particle-of-ANYTHING-hair, it'll definitely come out of everyone elses just fine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Personally? I LOVED the coconut milk/henna mix. My hair - which had been out, in a fro, for a WEEK, before this - combed out like a dream. My curls were DEFINITELY loosened (maybe a bit more than I really wanted them to be - I might be nervous about doing this regularily - but I'll have to see how it looks the end of the week), and my hair - as usual - had the lovely henna thickness and sheen.

Shhhhhhheesh. That was a BOOK.

What else did I do hair related this weekend? I think that about it. I finally took a halfway decent picture of my current style (as I don't have a SCRAP oof red left in my hair, my old siggy pic was starting to bug me), and that's about it. Oh! I took some up close pictures of my two strand twists....



*sigh* One of these days, I'm going to get a PROPER picture of my texture.

Oooh! Something new I've been doing - I have a BUNCH of palm kernal oil that I got from a swap on here, and since the weather has gotten warmer, it's melted. I dip my horn comb into the palm oil, and then comb through my hair with it - nicely spreading the oil all through my hair. It's wonderful - I'm using that as my two strand twist moisturizer/sealer, and then using either WP or the CoN as the final moisturizer when I actually flattwist it.

Okay.


I think I'm done now.


Seriously.


*thinks*

Yah, I'm done.

Okay - let's catch up here.

I rinsed the henna out Sunday morning, as usual, and put the koHumectress in. I LIKED the smell, and it was really, really, thick, which is something that I've missed in the cheapie ones. I let it sit for about two hours, and then rinsed & tried to comb out.
Well. I'm not sure if the koHumctress is one of those kinds of conditioners that if you let stay on too long, it starts pulling moisture out of your hair or what, but - it was NOT pleasant. I rinsed it all out, mixed some V05 & honey together, and put that in my head.

Then, hubby called from work and said that he wanted to go out to eat - so I had to figure out what to do with my hair. I had been thinking about combing gel through my hair so see if I could hold onto the curls without them shrinking away to nothingness, and I figured - what better time? So, I mixed up some ORS L&T gel, a touch of olive oil and some HH, and slapped it into my hair, and combed it out. I have to say - I used a little bit too much, and I was worried about my hair drying in time to go out!! When I went to Sally's, I also got four large hair clips - two black and two white. I pulled out the black ones, and worked on making a semi-cute style sith my hair pullled back on either side, then a lil funky bang-type thing in the front.
I can't WAIT for my hair to get longer - it ALMOST worked, but my hair is still to 'choppy' lengthwise for it to look really nice. So, I just slapped it into a pufro, plucked out the edges, and let it dry. It looked really cute - all my curls were happily in tight lil spirals - nanoslinkyhead, as hubby called me.

I slept on it, and the next morning - YOUCH!! The gel had dried nice and crunchy, and my hair was SOOOO not feeling being combed out - so I just got it soaking wet, pulled it out as much as I could, and rocked another pufro. I knew that I wanted to twist on Monday night, so I wasn't too worried about it. I tossed a scarf over my head for my drive in to work, as I drive with the windows down, and didn't want the wind to force my wet hair to dry into a half high fro.
Interestingly enough, my hair was WET almost all day long - it didn't fully dry out until the ride HOME at the end of the day.

I knew that I was going to have to use some conditioner - to wash the gel out of my hair, as well as to give me enough slip to comb through it, so I figured I would give the koHumctress another chance. This time - it worked WONDERFULLY. I just got my hair really wet, tried to rinse out as much of the gel as I could, then squished the koHumectress into my hair. It was almost instantly soft, and the tangles loosened enough that I was able to comb through with almost no problems. My hair is still too short (on my poor, roughed up left side) to get a good grasp on to comb out the ends without tugging the roots, but the koHumectress did a pretty good job - gave me plenty of slip, and definitely cleaned all the gel out of my hair.

I rinsed it out, combed out my hair once more, then sat down to do some twists. I'm thinking it took about two and a half hours - comb/part/WP/Gel/twist. They are - medium size, I suppose, rather than my usual TINY ones. I'm working to be sure that I get used to making larger twists, so that I cna keep the twisting time to around two hours - anything longer starts to irk me - and I don't know WHAT I was tripping on with the 5-6 hour long twisting. I really think that combing my hair out WELL before I start twisting helps a lot - it makes the parting process ever so much easier.

I'm going out of town this weekend, so I think that I'm going to have to *weeps* skip a henna session....but wait! I'm taking the Labor Day holiday and a couple of days after that off - so I'll just henna late! Yesaah!!
Speaking of henna - my roots still laugh in the face of henna, so I better enjoy these red tips I have, cuz once they are gone, I'm back to my natural hair color. Ah well, I've got a year (or more) to get used to it, so I'll be fine. I simply REFUSE to bleach my hair again, so I'm going to have to work with the color that comes out o my head.


I've really gotten to like using stuff on my head that is edible. It makes SOO much sense to me - why would I want to use stuff on the OUTSIDE of me that would be POSIONOUS to the inside? I mean really, that can't POSSIBILY be healthy.
I've been thinking about trying to make a homemade conditioner - honey, powdered milk, olive oil and maybe some aloe vera..... Isn't that almost SMT? Hmm, I might need to look at that thread again.

So - Henna #5 is currently working it magic on my head.

I clarified before doing it - a mix of honey and baking soda and some water that I put in my hair, and let sit while I was taking a shower, then rinsed it out. I think I've figured out my personal 'siganl' that a clarification is needed. Firstly, my scalp starts to itch (though, I'm STILL wondering if that was the pectin) and secondly (and really, most importantly) my hair takes a while to actually get 'wet'. I mean, it'll be wet, but not really WET, and I have to work my hair under the water for a while before it acts right and feels really - moist. So - I left that in, and rinsed it out before doing the henna, and when I got out the shower, I noticed that my hair looks REDDER wet. I've kinda noticed it before, but it was really distinctive this time.


This henna contains
1 henna bag
The rest of the paprika
Honey
White Rain Conditioner.

Pretty basic, in other words - *LOL* except for the paprika, it's basically the mixture that I started with.
Anyhow, applied the henna firstly with lines against my scalp, then glooped the rest onto it. The usual, ya know? It's earlier (but not really by much, as I usually henna when I get home, and it was 5pm when I did it) in the day than I usually do it - but I was out with friends last night and REALLY didn't feel like dealing with it.

It amazes me just how STEAMY my head gets with the saran wrap and henna and all - I left the edge of the shower cap, and can feel the warm, moist, henna-scented air drifting out.

So, largely because I'm impatient as all get out, but also because I wanted to see if it would come out as good after I slept on it, I un-twisted my hair tonight in a twist-out.
I definitely need longer hair to pull this off right - right now, my hair looks like a mushroom - not soft enough to be limp, but not long enough to hang nicely.
Though - the twistouts I had during camp looked REALLY good - I think it was because they had shrunk up more. I figure, if it looks a hot mess in the morning, I'll just get it good and wet, and tie a PHHB around it, and be done with it.

After I took my twists out, I massed some SS oil in, and then firmly told myself to keep my fingers out of my hair, as the twist out is the easiest hair style to mess up - play in it too much, and you loose all the twist definition you had originally.

Which, is one of the reasons I'm writing this, as keeping my hands busy is the only way to keep them out of my head.

Henna tommorow! *yay*

I love henna'ing - it's messy, and it's goopy, but dang, it's FUN. And I get many lovely results - I need to take a picture outside in the sun so that I can try to get an accurate picture of the color - it's GLORIOUS. I'm not sure if it's more red, or more brown - it's - interesting, really. It's SUCH a natural color that it changes depending on what I'm wearing, the lighting, and the amount of makeup I have on. And the way it changes from FIRST rinsing the henna out to the day afterwards - it's - impressive really.

I know that some people worry about it going to 'dark' but.... *sigh* considering how DARK my natural hair color is, I figure that the darker it gets, the less obvious the demarcation will be.

So - left the henna in REALLY long this time - I stayed up late last night, and slept in late this morning - rinsed it out (came out like a dream again), and let it dry. I oiled my hair with SS oil and QHS oil, and put a little HH in it. I wanted to see how my hair would act WITHOUT the post-henna conditioning that I did last time.

After about 4 hours, I realized that um, no - I need to condition. My hair wasn't dry so much, as it was - tangly. I had knots all over the place - something that my hair DEFINITELY didn't do last time. So, I whipped up a quick mix of 2pts conditioner, one part honey, and heaped it in my head. I figure that after two hours, my hair should be good to go.

So - this has DEFINITELY let me know that I can't do WO until I finish my henna cycle - because the henna - and true, I DID use a bit of the leftover high-acid henna from last time, so that might make a difference - but the henna is strong enough to strip my hair of it's oils, so - I'll have to wait. Not that I mind, because I'm only washing/conditioning my hair once a week still - but, anyhow - WO will have to be put on hold.

The color - it's definitely darker, and my roots are starting to get a 'glow' almost. Still DEFINITELY not red - but - warmer, if anything. I have noticed some hairs at the very front that SEEM to be red all the way to the root - but I doubt that - unless I have some hairs that haven't grown at all since I dyed my hair, and were still bleached/red to the root.

I got my Omega 3-6-9 and MSM in the mail on Friday - I haven't used either yet- I'm considering using them only Mon-Fri, and just taking my regular vitamin on S/S. I opened the MSM powder and took a sniff - I've heard people say that it was yack-worthy - but it actually smelled - yummy. Protien powder like. I still didn't try it, but at least it doesn't SMELL bad. I didn't take a look at the size of the O369 pills, but - ugh. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

So - let's review.
1) Encouraging Growth:
Henna - to keep the scalp healthy.
Oils - to stimulate and condition the scalp.
Vitamins - Daily, MSM, O369

2) Retaining Length
Henna - to make the ends stronger and smoother
Twists - to protect the ends
Daily Leave-In - to keep the damaged ends moisturized.

3) Reducing Shedding
Henna - to improve the condition of the scalp
Vitamins - to strengthen the follicles.
Oils - SS Oil is supposed to help stop shedding - so I'm excited about that.

I need to look up what rosemary oil is supposed to be good for in hair. For some reason, I think it helps stop shedding, and if that's the case, I'll add a few more drops of it to the SS oil.

One downside to using honey in my conditioner - it drips on my neck and makes it sticky. One upside - I smell like clover all week. Ooooooohhh - I should put some ylang-ylang in it next time - I bet that would smell DIVINE.


Hmmm..... I'm supposed to be going camping next weekend. I should - since I have the henna pre-mixed - be able to henna, condition, and twist, all in the same day - Sunday, it would have to be. I mean - I KNOW that I'm going to have to retwist my hair at the very least - so why not add a couple of extra hours, and henna on schedule? I'll think about it - and see what my hair looks like - maybe I won't have to retwist it.


*sighs* Conditioner's been in for one hour. My scalp is tingling - it's a good feeling - like tiny tapdancers in my roots.

Henna #2 is in my head - things I've learned.

1) Henna is messy. Making large amounts of henna is messier.
2) It's a good idea to wear gloves at all times.
3) Paper towels really DO stop the drippies.

I used the following henna mix
400g Henna
1 cup red wine
5 cups water

Mixed it, let it stand til the henna released. Put most of it into ziplocs bags and stuck them in the freezer. Took the rest, plus the henna I had leftover from last time mixed it with a BUNCH of conditioner and a wee bit of honey, and slapped it in the head. I did that around 8:30ish....


About my hair......I untwisted it today, and - it's interesting. Some parts were really smooth and silky, over parts were still kinda - frizzy type ish. Might have been the oils, might have been the henna. It still felt good. I didn't pick it out to see the various lengths - I didn't want to comb it dry - so I'll do it tomorrow, and trim further as needed. I've more or less accepted the fact that I will be losing more hair tomorrow - not happy, but I've accepted it. Honestly though, I think there MIGHT be about a half inch difference, and if it's relaly that small, I won't be cutting it.

Henna VERY Happy!!

This is going to be long timestamped entry.


I got home around 6pm, and promptly began putting together the mix for henna.

100g Henna
1 cup hot red wine
3/4 cup hot water
tiny sample of pectin
1/2 cup of honey

I used the pectin to try to make the henna more 'gel-like' since I was mixing honey into the henna to allow it to wash out better.

6:18 - Mix all put together, very warm, put paper towels on it to see when the dye released, and put it on the porch outside. Took pre-pictures of the hair - finally changed the lighting settings on the camera in order to get my hair REAL color - you can actually see the three different colors - my 1.5 inches of dark roots, the 0.5 inches of lighter orange hair right next to the roots, and the 4-6 inches of darker orange hair to my tips.

6:33 - Pulled out the 15 minute strip - a little bit of dye release, but not enough to put in. I pulled out the latex gloves and saran wrap - I suspect the 30 minute strip will have enough dye release to put on. I also mixed up some honey & water in a spray bottle to use to mist my hair so it'll be little damp when the henna is ready. While I waited, I read the 100odd page long water Only Thread.... I elaborated my thoughts on that in the previous entry.

6:50 - whoohoo!! Dye release is almost certain now, I brought the henna back inside, and put a sample dot on my heel - my usual dye release check point. THe henna is VERY thick and goopy - I think that adding the honey will make it perfectly gel like for my hair. Okay - off to spray more water in my hair so that the henna will flow better. Okay - added half a cup of honey - it made it looser, but still rather thick.

7:20 - Allrighty!! Henna is in hair - I could have made it a good bit thinner, or made my hair wetter - I smushed and squished it in as much as I could - *laughs* I CERTAINLY don't need to worry about any drips now! I hope that the pectin doesn't gel it too much. Can I say though, my head is HOT. HOT. But then, I'm in an un-airconditioned house, so maybe it just hot out here.


7:56 - Though, I have to admit, it is heavy. I can smell it a little, but thankfully, I LIKE the smell of henna. And my neck is a little sticky from the honey - but, I'll be fine!!
I'm online talking to a friend of mine, and I realized - henna looks exactly like SWAMPMUD.

It's freaking fabulous.


8:15 - Hmmm. I'm actually getting some drippies down the back of my neck. I don't know if it's from the little bit of water that was inside my showercap (or maybe condensation) because I'm dabbing at drips, and they seem to be coming out pretty clear.

10:06 - It's still on my hair, still damp, I can smell it more now. Did I mention that I like the smell of henna?? I'm glad, because I can smell it more now. I think there might me wine on my fingers - my eyes are stinging a little when I rub them - or maybe that is leftover henna. The gloves were dyed a DELIGHTFULLY bright orange color - just in the 20 minutes it took for me to squish the henna into my hair. I'm sitting under a ceiling fan, so I'm hoping that the slighty cooler air flowing over my head is slowing the dye release a little so that I can have a longer 'soak' time.
Hmm. That's interesting. These number are completely imaginary, but work with me. Let's say that a henna is cool - 70 degrees, say, when you leave it on your head. And, because it's that temperature, it takes the henna - 24 hours to demise.
On the other hand, let's say a henna is warmer - 90 degrees say, when you leave it on your head. And, because it's that temperature, it takes the henna - 14 hours to demise.
You leave both henna's on your hair for 12 hours. Which temperature will produce a deeper dye - the warmer one (that demises faster, so more of the dye leaves the henna and enters your hair) or..................................

Hm. I think I just answered my own question. I need to keep my head HOT.
Hmmm.


10:20 - Okay. I just put a dishtowel soaked in hot water on my head, put another showercap on top of it, and turned the fan down. *laugh* I know, I was complaining about it being hot earlier, but it's cooled down a lot since then.
Anyhow - following my earlier thoughts....
Henna's demising is basically the point at which henna has given up almost all of it's lawsone molecules. And - whether it gives up it's molecules to water (in the case of a henna that is left too long in the sun before you put it on your hair) or if it gives up it's molecules to your hair (which, is kinda what we want - to dye it, right?) it's going to give up it's molecules in a geometric progression based on its temperature.
So. Really, you want this swampmud to be on your hair for as short of a time as possible - but at the same time, you want it to give up the most dye it possibly can. So - the warmer, and moister (so that it doesn't dry into a clay headdress) you keep the henna on your head, the shorter amount of time you have to have it on your head in order to get the most dye out.

Hmmm. I wonder if it really works like that.

10:39 - EEEwwwwwwwwwwww!!! I just touched a piece of hair over my ear (it's a little exposed to the air) and it's hard and gooey. Like, old gum. *shudder* Old, water soluble gum (I hope). *wiggles washcloth on head* It still feels damp - I'm going to be in SUCH a hard spot if this stuff dries on my hair. *gulp* *checks other side of hair* Hmm - it's the same way over here. But - I think it's dry, but it's still softish. I think I'll be cool - it's going to take me FOREVER to rinse this out. MUST make it thinner next time.

11:00 - I have to admit, I keep touching this piece of hair on my hairline that I pulled the goo balls off of (won't be doing THAT anymore - my head is sore) and - it's amazing. My hair feels soft, flexible, and enourmously strong. *happy grin*

11:22 - Oh, it also feels MUCH straighter. Mwuaahahahaaaa!!!
Hmm. And, I can't smell the henna nearly as much anymore. *wiggles washcloth again* feels like it's starting to dry out a little. It's been what - 3 hours? No, four. *shakes head* Though, I normally only leave the regular stuff on for about 2 hours... this is natural, so. Argh. MUCH thinner next time.

11:46 - Hmmm. I'm starting to get tired, and my heads REALLY heavy. I think I'll finish the last of my wine, and go to bed.

Good Night!!


12:31 - Okay, I lied. I wasn't tired, I was HUNGRY. It's odd, actually noticing when my blood sugar drops now. I had a sandwich, and I feel EVER so much better. I'll still be in bed in a bit, but - sheee - at least I'll be going to bed comfy!


[b] The Next Day [/b]


7:40 - Oh, Rise and Shine. Or should that be Rinse & Shine?? :D I'm 'working from home' (oh, the benefits of being a computer geek) so I have to do a little work before I hop into the shower and start the VERY long (I'm sure) Process of rinsing this out. My hairline around the back is dry to this morning, but everything under the saran wrap is still damp and oozy. We shall see.

8:50 - Okay, work is at a point where I can go and rinse. Wish me luck!!

9:15 - WOW. That rinsed out AMAZINGLY easy. I ended up standing in a tub of greeny muddy water (SsswwwaaaammmppppMUD!!!!), but - it still rinsed out really easy. However, my hair is SOOOO dry. Oh my god, so very, very dry. Note to self - MUCH less acid next time - try 1.5 cups of hot water to a half cup of red wine. I LOVE the honey though - I'm sure that's what helped it rinse out so well.
Oh....you wanna know about the color, eh. It's - not NEARLY as dark as I had expected (too thick) but - I LOVE the color. It's orange as ALLL get out - I mean, ORANGE. So. Now, it's decision time. I could mix up another batch...I'm thinking that I should use 50g, and use the same amount of liquid, and honey. It'll be drippier, but, I think it'll soak in better) and use it right off, but I think I want to wait a day or two to see what color it oxides too....but I definitely know that I want to go deeper. *grins*
My hair is DOUSED in conditioner and honey right now - I think that this might REALLY prompt a bit of a trim. If I plan on doing that, I'm going to have to do it before hubby gets home.
Also!! My curl is WAYYYY looser. I mean - WAAY looser.
So, I'll leave this condish in for about two hours or so, then rinse it out and see what it looks like.

10:45 - okay, I couldn't go the full two hours, I had to start combing out my hair. Oh, my, GOD. I might lose my Napptural card for this, but the henna has SOOOO loosened my coils!! I almost have - CURLS now. *sqqqqqqqquuuueeeeeeee* Okay, I'm almost done combing it, and then I'm going to go and rinse out the conditioner. *sniffs hair* I smell henna again....we shall see what color it ends up being.

11:02 - Oh. Wow. Wow. My hair - she is soft. And loosely coily. And - it's already turning a richer, deeper red color rather than orange. My coils have SOOO been loosened up. I'm going to dry my hair a little, then spray this mister I just whipped up (honey, a lil ACV, a lil olive oil, water, and a touch of Oyin HoneyHemp conditioner (my favorite!!)) into my hair, and see how she acts.
My hair always acts like hot stuff when it's wet - the DRY state is what really matters.

11:36 - I'm in love, really. I had to grab a hand mirror so that I can admire my hair from the couch. It's sooo soft. Sooo loose. It reminds me of how my hair looked in this baby picture I have of myself. Man.... THIS hair long would be - stunning. I wonder how much the curls will return after a few days. It's interesting - now I can actually see how SHORT my hair is. Man, but it's short. I actually think that I'm going to twist it today - since I won't have to fight with my hair to put a part into it. THe color is still getting darker, so I think that I will be willing to wait til next weekend to redo the henna. I can see this being an every weekend thing for a while. Hmmm... if I use 50g each time, I've got two months worth of henna. For 36 bucks, that's not bad - esp if I can stop using other products.
And did I mention how SHINY it is?? Sheesh - a camera can't even capture this! I don't have quite so many tangles, but I still have some knots. My hair feels - slightly sticky on the ends - I suspect it might be from the honey that was in the spray (which, by the way, seems WONDERFUL). I'm going to use some of Oyins Whipped Pudding to do the twists - and then, I'm going to trim the crunchy horrid damaged hair off of the bottom of each twist - I've been meaning to do this for a while, but I just never felt like twisting my hair!

So, I guess this is the end of the Henna Happy Experiment, Part One.
I learned a lot, and I'm VERY pleased with the results - I can't wait to see how it changes tomorrow.

*weeps*

I just got a notification in my junk mail that the electronic shipping label for my henna was created, and it should have shipped out yesterday. Dammit! I knew I should have ponied up the extra loot to get it here earlier.

Well. Since I won't be henna'ing this weekend, I suppose I should dedicate myself to stripping the last of the wallpaper off the walls of the craft room. That way, I can lesuirely (and guiltfreely) henna myself NEXT weekend. Hmmm....maybe I'll even take Friday off - just to give myself a three day weekend (in case I need to Henna twice!) That way, I can henna on Thursday night, sleep in it (cuz I'm hardcore yo!) and give it a chance to oxidize, and STILL be able to redo it on Sunday if needed. *vaguely happier*

*quivering pouty lip*

Danggone it!