HENNA UPDATE AND PRODUCT REVIEW

Hey all,
So do you want the good or bad news first? LOL

Ok, here's the bad. So, I gave myself a henna treatment for the 4th or 5th time yesterday. Now prior to purchasing henna I'd read up on henna via websites and blogs that one of the effects it has is that henna will loosen your curl. Well yesterday did it for me! After letting the henna sit in my hair overnight, I washed my hair out and noticed I barely had any curls left. I was upset to say the least.......Now I did notice a looser pattern the 3rd or 4th time after treating my hair but it was nothing to talk about. I've literally lost about 70% of my curls. I'm not sure what's in this stuff but I'm staying away for a while. I've been giving myself henna treatments about every 2-3 weeks now. Although I am satisfied with how soft, heavy, and healthy my hair feels, I'm so not with the side effect of loosening my curls to this extreme. My hair looks like I put a texturizer in it....Ugh! So, based on my experience, if you don't want this to happen to you I would either:
A) Not treat as often and/or
B) Only leave in for a few hours


Now on to the good....My new found conditioner....TRADER JOE'S HAS DONE IT AGAIN!!!!! This conditioner is the bomb for many reasons:
1) It's all natural
2) It has a nice slip (the consistency)
3) It detangles my hair
4) It smells good
5) It's $2.99
6) It's 2.99
7)It's $2.99 :-)
Enriched with Organic Botanicals. Balanced Hair Remoisturizer Ideal for Replenishing Dry, Brittle Hair. Adds Moisture and Manageability. Cruelty Free (Never Tested on Animals) - No Animal Products in Ingredients. Does Not Contain Harmful Laurel/Laureth Sulfates, Found in Most Personal Care Product Shampoos, Gels, Conditioners and Body Washes.

Where are you getting all of that for $2.99



The pics I'm posting are the results of my henna treatment  and the conditioner. I set my hair with coconut oil and a little Isoplus lock and twist creme for natural hair....(They are on the dark side but hopefully you can still see it.)

LATA,

 CHAN, PJ1

MY FIRST HENNA EXPERIENCE

Happy New Years,
 So I finally tried henna! I'm definitely not a big fan of the process but I did like the results. My goal was to treat my hair as well as to darken all one color to match my natural hair color which is probably a 1B (natural black). So let me give you a run down of what I did:
- Sunday around 12pm I mix a half pack of henna with green tea to the consistency of yogurt.
- I let it sit for 11 hours...(direction said to let sit for 12 hours or over night but I was getting sleep :-))
- Around 10:30 I washed my hair and I mixed up the indigo powder (2 packs) with 2 teaspoons of salt and water...
- Once that was thoroughly mixed, I mixed the henna and indigo together...and mixed some more....and a little more... (The purpose of this was to lighten up the indigo just a little...enough to eliminate the 'blueish/greenish' tent from the indigo)
- I then sectioned my hair in four and started applying the henna and indigo mixed from the back to the front . (If you ever try this be sure to lay down some newspaper and wear an old top that you don't mind messing up)...Man, by the end of applying the 'green mash potatoes' I had a mess on the floor.
- I gathered all of my hair up to the center of my head and began wrapping it with plastic wrap. I put a scarf on, covered my pillow with a towel and went to sleep.
- When I woke up this morning I uncovered my hair and began rinsing this stuff out....I then shampooed my hair and then conditioned to detangle.
- I then applied a deep treatment conditioner and sat under the dryer for 20 mins with a plastic cap.
- After that I rinsed the conditioner out, blow dried my hair, and flat ironed it.

Now I know I totally went against what I said I was trying to do for the new year but I have to take the 'after' picture for the result of the Hairfinity pills (which I totally screwed up b/c my hair was trimmed in the process).

So my result weren't what I expected but I'm not complaining. It's still not one color but its darker than what I started out with. I think in order to get black hair period, I'd have to do the indigo by itself. Over all, I like the results of the henna. My hair was soft and somewhat of a natural shine...I'm not sure if it loosened my natural curl but I guess time will tell if I keep doing it.

So here are the results! The only product in my hair is Profectiv moisturizer (which was applied right before I flat ironed my hair)

 LATA, CHAN, PJ1





MY HENNA HAS ARRIVED!

Hello all,
 It's been a minute since I've made a post but just wanted to check in real quick....So the results are in from the poll question and it seems like people are more concerned with hair care these days....Everyone that voted chose henna over chemical color. Although I chose chemical color in the past, I'm looking to make some changes in the new year. (not just with my hair :-))
Speaking of henna, I just received my henna kit in the mail today! YaaaaY! I am going to try to sit down over the weekend and apply it and post pictures of the results. I've read the directions about 3 times already and I think I have any 3 or 4 times more to go. lol For some reason, it seems like there are so many steps and so many different substitutes to use. I just want to make sure I get it right. From reading the reviews from the people who used it already, I am going to get hooked.
If you would like more information on henna, visit http://www.mehandi.com/

TTYL,

PJ1- CHAN

My First Attempt at a Henna Gloss

I've been reading up on the benefits of henna for hair. Outside of natural reddish brown color deposit, it works as a protein to strength hair and also as a great deep conditioner providing great softness, reduces frizzing and provides wonderful natural shine.

I went to curlynikki.com and printed out a copy of her henna gloss recipe, ordered a kit "Henna for African Hair" from mehandi.com and put aside time on saturday for this long process.

I read up on how it is extremely important to get good quality, fresh henna that is Body Quality and 100% pure otherwise it would be useless. The kit I ordered included, 100g of pure Body Quality Henna, 100g of of pure Indigo, 2 rubber gloves and a plastic cone "thingy" designed to help you to be able to better distribute the henna in your hair.  I got the kit with the indigo because I am a long time lover of jet black hair and I have a lot of grays that I need to be covered on a regular basis. The indigo is the second step to the henna process that will help me to achieve the jet black color naturally without the use of conventional chemical dyes.

I got my package in the mail early saturday afternoon around 12 o'clock.

I followed the recipe found on curly nikki's website and I mixed the henna as follows:
- 1.5 cups of warm green tea
- 100g of Jamila henna
- mixed until the henna was as thick as mashed potatoes and then covered with saran wrap and let sit for 4 hours; most people tend to let the mix sit overnight but I didn't have that kind of time
- after 4 hours I then added more green tea to make the mixture a little thinner like yogurt and then I proceeded to add 1 cup of a silicone free conditioner; I used Trader Joe's Nourish Spa conditioner. I then added 2 capfuls of Olive Oil and mixed until the consistency was smooth.
- I then put the mix into may hair making sure every strand was covered from root to tip
- I wrapped my hair with saran wrap completely and put a hat on and proceeded with my day.

After about 6 hours of letting the henna sit in my hair, I prepared the indigo powder with warm water, 1 teaspoon of salt since my grays are a bit dye resistant and mixed to the consistency of yogurt and set aside. I then I rinsed the henna thoroughly from my hair with as little manipulation as possible and then immediately applied the indigo mix, and wrapped again with saran wrap. I let this sit in my hair for another 2 hours. After this I rinsed the indigo from my hair and applied A LOT of the Trader Joe's Nourish Spa conditioner and went to sleep with the conditioner in my hair. Had it been earlier I would have sat under a hot hooded dryer but I was just too tired.

In the morning, I rinsed out the conditioner from the night before I washed once with a sulfate free shampoo and conditioned and dryed my hair.

I have to say, the results weren't earth shattering HOWEVER I did notice my hair was extremeley soft and VERY shiny without the use of any product (oil, sheen, cream) to make it this way.

All in all, I will incorporate this into my regimen as a way to strengthen my hair and I will continue to cover my gray this way from now on instead of using conventional commerical hair dyes.

TTYL, Asha!!