A Henna Recipe

There are so many henna recipes with so many different combinations of various items that first-time henna users can be paralyzed or overwhelmed.  Here is a basic recipe that comes from an Indian website:

Ingredients:  

Henna powder, 2 cups (about 200 grams)

Warm water, 1 cup

Lime (or lemon) juice, 1 teaspoon.

Simple, huh?  Well, this is a basic, no-frills, how-they-did-it-back-in-the-day recipe.  This is pretty much the recipe I use when I'm in a "get 'er done" mood and don't feel like being creative.

Stir the ingredients into a thick paste. The acidity of the lime or lemon juice and the warmth of the water help release the colour. Let it stand for at least one hour before application.

  

The site does recommend additives for those who want to get fancy such as ground cloves, coffee, amla powder.  It even suggests  mixing henna "in an iron vessel"  to help give a dark brown shade. I'm not vouching for that one (but I've read it on more than one Indian website), but I do know that you can mix henna in any type of bowl - plastic (will leave stains), glass or metal.  Think of mixing flour.

 

The site also suggests that for dry hair add an egg and a tablespoon of coconut oil/olive oil/mustard oil to your henna mixture.  I can say I've added egg and olive oil to my mix on different occasions.  The egg is suppose to make your hair shiny but it's hard to tell because my hair is so shiny from the Vatika Oil I use.  However, I've stopped adding any kind of oil to my mix because it may keep the henna from fully coating and binding to the hair.

 

Lots of people like to leave their henna on for HOURS but this totally unnecessary.  Most authorities say from two to four hours.  I know I have to keep it on for at least 3 hours because of my white.

Anyway, I'll be posting other recipes or at least links to them.

One Way to Wash Your Hair the Green Way - With Baking Soda.

This method of washing your hair fufills every definition of Green.  The best part is the clean feeling you get from something so simple and inexpensive. Go here: A Non-Toxic, Frugal Way to Wash Your Hair Without Buying Shampoo.

How To Lighten Henna'd and or Indigo'd Hair

I am still working on getting just the right dark shade from henna/indigo for my hair.  I have a tremendous amount of white in my hair and my hair very non-porous (hair shaft is thicker to penetrate) so with just henna my white becomes orange which is not flattering to my skin tone.  I applied henna and indigo combinations several times on my hair and new white growth but could never achieve a brown of some sort.  At that time I did not realize that my hair shaft is extremely non-porous and I would have to leave the paste in for much longer than recommended.  I could not go out with orange in my hair so the next day I applied indigo and the results were exactly what I knew they would be - jet black hair.

I rocked the jet black for a minute but I feel it is too harsh and now I'm looking for ways to lighten my hair without chemicals.  If you're like me and need to "lighten up" literally check out this fantastic article by a Long Hair Community Discussion Board poster, Ktani.  All you need is honey, water and coconut oil!

I will be trying it soon and will report back with before and after pictures.

The Men with the Flaming Orange Beards

After reading that a journalist was recently killed in Libya who had produced a documentary about the Afghanistan war I went to Netflix and found the film available for download so I watched it.  The documentary is titled "Restrepo" and is about a group of soldiers who are on a mission to "win hearts and minds" in the middle of Taliban country.  While the film was riveting I immediately knew that the elderly man with the orange beard was a henna user.

While I knew henna is big in places like Afghanistan, little did I know the importance of henna in the Pashtun Muslim culture.


Screen capture from "Restrepo"



Screen capture from "Restrepo"

Screen capture from "Restrepo"

Screen capture from "Restrepo"

Since women aren't allowed in public I have no idea what their hair looks like but this pervasive use of henna by the Afghanistani/Pakistani Pashtun men intrigued me so I did some research.

Firstly, men routinely dye their hands with henna as early as boyhood.

Here are some boys showing off their henna'd hands and fingernails.

Here are the henna'd hands of a male Afghan soldier as he stands at attention.



Secondly, Pashtun men have been using henna on their hair and beards for centuries and do so to emulate the Prophet Muhammed who also used henna.

In fact one Sunni sect wanted to call for a fatwa on muslims who use anything other than henna because Mohammed said "Verily, the best thing with which you can change the colour of hair is al-henna and indigo..." in one the hadiths.

Here are some more pics of henna'd men in Afghanistan:

Source1: The Land of Men with Flaming Orange Beards
Source2: Why Afghanistan Matters
Source3: Free Thinker
Source4: Henna

Go Green With Eco Friendly Hair Curling, Try The Paper Bag Roller Set

Want to save a ton of money and curl your hair like they use to back in the day?

Cassia for Conditioning Only

I found this post on how to use cassia in the CurlyNikki Forum.  The results are phenomenal! Hair doesn't get any healthier than this.

Cassia for Blondes

Cassia Obovata is a plant that is applied to the hair for conditioning.  This plant is great for blondes, particularly if you are trying to restore your hair from a bad dye or bleach job. 

Here's how to dye your faded or graying blond hair with cassia obovata:

• Mix cassia with enough lemon juice or orange juice to make a paste as thick as yogurt.  Let the paste sit about 12 hours.  Section your hair and apply the cassia thick, as you would cake frosting into all the sections and down to the scalp. Wrap your hair in plastic wrap to contain the slop.   Leave the paste in three hours.   Rinse out and shampoo.  Your gray or faded blond hair should feel heavy, thick and silky, and have a lovely youthful golden color. Source

As with all things new, especially for hair, you need to give the treatments with consistency for at least six months before you notice startling results.