Sunday, February 15, 2009

Hair Adventures

Okay, so this post is incredibly delayed, but better late than never I guess. Right before Christmas a Lush store opened in the local mall. Very exciting for me seeing as how I love Lush (if you've never used their bath bombs you don't know what you're missing). Anyway, while there I noticed some henna hair dyes.

Brief side story for those that don't know, I'm constantly on a quest for an at-home way to dye my hair. In high school I bleached streaks in my hair to dye purple and red. It took 2 layers of bleach and 3 hours and all I got was an amber color. So the color would never really stick. Basically, my stubborn black hair just doesn't want to change. I don't want to do anything to drastic to it so I don't put real highlights in, but I get bored occasionally and want to experiment.

So, back to the henna. The lady in the store assured me the red henna dye would do something to my hair. So I figured what the hey. So, here is my long overdue photo journal of my experience:

Step 1: This is what I started with.
From Blog Pics


Step 2: Cut up, heat and add water:
From Blog Pics


Step 3: Continue until you get a yogurt-like consistency:
From Blog Pics


Step 4: Apply to hair (don't have any pictures of this as I was working alone), then cover hair with saran wrap:
From Blog Pics


Step 5: Clean up the mess I made all over the kitchen:
From Blog Pics


Step 6: Occasionally heat my cone with a hair dryer to help the dye set more:
From Blog Pics


Step 7: Remove saran wrap and rinse after leaving on for 6, yes 6 hours:
From Blog Pics


Step 8: The Results:
From Blog Pics


Now, you can see it appeared to lighten my hair up a little, certainly made it nice and shiny. Marcus was a little freaked, but he had nothing to worry about. Within a few days it had pretty much all washed out and my hair was back to it's usual pitch black. Sometimes, in the right light, you can see some lighter areas on the ends of my hair, but for the most part, no difference.

So, yet another failed attempt to alter my natural hair color. So note to any readers with dark hair, the Lush Henna Hair Dye doesn't really work.