I have been thinking about giving my hair a slightly more brown/chestnut look for close to 5 years now, but having seen the hair damage the chemicals had on people around me, I never found the guts to do that to myself. Having seen all the ombre hair online, I had decided to give it a shot about 2 years ago. The coloration was so incredible terrible though and I went back to the place to have them re-dye my hair so it looked as it had before.
The look I want to go for is a slight change that isn't too obviously noticeable and I also didn't want the quality of my hair to be compromised as a result. When I found these LUSH henna bars a month or so back I was so excited because this was what I was looking for!!
Despite what a lot of people have written about their youtube reviews, I actually didn't find the application process that messy or difficult to do. I really enjoyed the entire process or turning my head into a mudpile and the results are exactly what I was going for.
Scroll to the bottom to see the before and after, or read on if you are interested in trying this yourself!
What you need:
- gloves
- henna blocks (I used a mix of caca brun and caca marron)
- water
- hair dye brush
- hair salon capes** (optional, but I think this made a world of a difference in clean up/application)
I will link all the tutorials/videos/blogs I used for personal research below:
Grate down the bars
I used a cheese grater to pulverize the blocks to make it easier to melt down. I used a 2:1 ratio of the marron to brun because I wanted more red than brown.
I was a little concerned because they were greenish but don't worry they worked!! This is the general texture I grated the bars down to.
Melt over a double boiler
I placed the bowl containing the henna bars into a larger pot with boiling water and added water slowly to melt the bars. I ended up using a little more water than is typically used but I think it worked out for me.
Apply to roots before ends
This is the harder part to do alone, but it is definitely doable. I had my sister use the hair dying brush to brush this mixture into all my roots before she went back and applied it to the rest of my hair. Henna apparently seeps into little pores in hair and since the roots are less porous, it takes more time to stain the hair. The ends are more damaged and absorb the hair a little easier.
Protips:
- place the pot of henna into a larger pot with hot water to keep the mixture hot and fluid
- do it outdoors! Less clean up.
Wrap it up & sit for 4 hours
I think the saving grace in clean up is this hair salon cape. It is plastic and easy to clean, I used it to wrap my hair up and left it on my head for 4 hours before I showered to get it out.
*Yes. It is messy in the shower but if you spray it all down with water right afterwards it washes right off.
I actually decided to add a bit more color into my hair using mostly marron and a little brun, and I did the same as above but I focused my efforts are the ENDS rather than the roots.
I'm so happy with the end result. Give it a go!
dee ღ
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