Hi Gorgeous!
OK, so I've was holed up in the house all day Saturday working on this "project" that is my hair when I do henna treatments. It takes a LONG time. But it takes even longer when you add a roller set on soft-twist rollers to the mix. I literally did not get to bed until midnight, and I had started the process at 1pm.
If you don't know what henna is, wikipedia defines it as this:
Henna (
Lawsonia inermis, also called
mignonette tree[1]) is a
flowering plant used since antiquity to dye skin, hair, fingernails,
leather and
wool. The name is also used for
dye preparations derived from the plant, and for the art of temporary
tattooing based on those dyes.
Typically, when people hear the word henna, they think of this:
And that's exactly what it is, only instead of putting it on my skin, I (and a lot of naturals) put it in our hair for conditioning, luster, shine, strengthening, and preventing hair fall, tangling, and split-ends. Honestly, next to using all natural hair products, I contribute the health and luster of my hair to Henna.
I got turned on to it through Curly Nikki @ curlynikki.com. Her hair is AMAZING. And she has really taken the world by storm informing people about being naturally curly, even having her own reoccurring articles in the Essence newsletter on Essence.com. Like her, I don't use henna straight, but mix mine with conditioner and oils to form what she has termed a "henna gloss". The reason, is that I'm not trying to dye my hair, which the primary purpose of henna is its dying properties. But those same properties are what's great for hair. So adding conditioner and oils cuts down on the color uptake, although not completely. You can still see a reddish tint in the sun.
There is a wealth of information and formulas for henna on the Internet if you are so inclined. But all you really need to know right now, is that its a plant that is ground and you can buy in powder form to put in your hair.
(It's green here, but after the dye releases, it looks brown and muddy with red liquid surrounding it. Not very appealing looking, if you know what I mean!)
So here is what it looks like..... Look how dirty i am!
I wish i had a comparison photo to show you how it looked when I did it the first time. You could really tell how long my has gotten since then. My hair didn't even hang on my shoulders! Speaking of which, this muddy mixture is heavy and weighing down my curls. This is not my normal curl pattern, nor is it loosening my curls. You may find elsewhere on the web that some people say it loosens curls naturally. Well, not for me as you will see in pictures below. My hair seemed to only get curlier. My curls had some bounce- a little pep in their step! So for me, this process is like a protein/conditioning treatment. Protein, because it makes my hair stronger, and conditioning, because I add a cup of conditioner and some oils to the mixture.
(My mixture was in this bowl. You don't even want to know what it looked like....)
(You have to wear gloves or it will stain your hands. I like the black ones that I found @ Sally Beauty. They are thicker)
You can apply this however you like. I section my hair into 4, and then take one section at a time and break out pieces to apply the mixture to one at a time until the whole section is done. Kinda of like getting a perm! It took me 30-40 min to do my whole head.
This is after rinsing most of it out. I stuck my hair under the tub faucet to do this. It's a little less messy this way because the water will be super muddy, and slinging all over the place under the shower faucet. I was amazed at how defined my curls were upon rinsing. No curl defining product here! Just my hair. Oh, and I do have on clothes, I'm not completely bare in these photos, FYI. I just didn't want to get my shirt wet and dirty.
Next up!!! Part dos of this project. My first time ever trying the soft twist rollers! Now I must say, I'm not good at roller setting my own hair. It has been an epic FAIL with nearly every kind of roller. But these!!! I think I did a pretty good job, and I'm liking it :-).
My roots were still a little fussy as usual. I don't really understand why. I tried to roll as tight as I could. Oh well. So I stayed under the dryer for an hour, and slept on the rest. It was midnight by this time. The picture on the right was the next morning (today) after I had taken the rollers out. And below is what I used to prep and style my hair.
I used Carol's Daughter Black Vanilla leave-in for my leave in conditioner. I usually don't use or like liquid leave-ins, but I won this product and I didn't want to have too much product weighing my hair down, so I gave it a try. Then I put the Amla oil on to seal in the leave-in. Its light-weight, smells good, and gives good shine, so hey! Next was the Roots of Nature heat protecting serum. Don't want to have heat damage! And finally, I set my hair with Miss Jessie's Curly Meringue. Now, I don't endorse or speak against Miss Jessie's products. All I'm saying is, I don't want to pay Miss Jessie prices! That's just me. Especially, as picky as I am about natural ingredients. Those products are not all natural, and one of the first ingredients is petroleum. You can go in any Walmart, Walgreen's, CVS, etc for some petroleum for a lot less..
But a lot of people love it! So....decide for yourself. Once again, I won this product. In case your asking yourself by now, I tend to win a lot of products simply because I enter the contest that retailers and bloggers have. That's it.
Finished Results!
Like I said! I think it turned out well. Bigger rollers = bigger curls, but you can always separate them like I did here. I would not have had the patience to do smaller rollers. My hair was soft, which is good because that lets me know its moisturized. But I don't know how many days wear I will get out of this. I'm ok with the petroleum product because at least I know this won't revert and frizz for a minute. I know my hair is looking Shirley Templish, but I was afraid if i separated too much I would destroy the style, and I was on my way to Church. Lol.
And to think! A natural hair stylist told me I couldn't do a roller set with my hair texture, it would look like an afro. Does this look like an afro to you? I'm telling you people, be an expert at your own hair. I can appreciate the fact that stylist have gone to Cosmetology school. But I seriously doubt most have learned anything beyond twists, braids, and locs for natural hair. How about styling loose natural hair? It can be done. So you know I never went back to that salon again! Smh.
So there it is beauties. My longest post yet! I hope you liked it. I hope you learned something about Henna. And I hope you got some ideas about products and rollers. The Henna I used is Karishma, I think. A picture is on this blog, just enter keyword Henna, and it should come up. I left it on for 4.5 hours. This is not something you rinse out right away. I then shampooed and deep conditioned for 1 hour. And you know the rest! But if there is something I left out that you want to know about, just leave me a question in the comment section (click on the word comment under the post). I will try my best to answer!
Until next time! Stay Gorgeous!
Love the color in this ladies hair! Sales are coming in quickly as I fill bags. 
