Henna Gloss and Summer Hair Routine

HENNA GLOSS

I took the advice of a friend of mine and decided to try a henna gloss treatment courtesy of CurlyNikki.

While my application still "needs some work," this time around my Henna experience was great! It was so much easier and FASTER to apply. It probably only took me 10 minutes to do my entire head, maybe less.

Again, the application wasn't perfect, but it was much more uniform than my previous two applications. I can definitely see myself sticking with the Henna gloss treatment. I won't do this every month (because I don't feel like it) but I will do it more often.

To make this mix you just prepare the Henna as you would any treatment. Here's what I use:

1 100g box neutral Henna (meaning no color)

1 cup (250ml) green tea (I use 3 tea bags)

1-2 Tbsp. honey

Then you add the "gloss" factor, which is  1 cup (250ml) of your favorite conditioner. The one I have is a Tresseme product. It should be protein-free but I say use what you have because that's what I did!

I only lasted 4 hours with this stuff on my head because I was hot even with the air conditioning. If you do Henna for the color benefits you should leave it on for at least that much time. 

I usually leave it on for 8 hours. I wanted to try sleeping with it on, since that assures it will be on for a good amount of time, but I can't do it! I like to be comfortable when I sleep. What can I say?

So I just put on a plastic bag over the hair, lined it with some cotton-ball like material and then covered it with another plastic bag and some more cottony stuff. (To catch the leaks)

I know, not the best photos. But I had to take them myself as the hubby was occupied with his bike. 

After the 4 hours were up I proceeded to rinse out my hair really well. This is another step that is made easier with the Henna gloss recipe. I used more conditioner to rinse but I made sure to shampoo my scalp. I like a clean, itch-free scalp!

Then I deep conditioned and put in some seriously chunky twists in my hair. That's it! I seriously recommend this treatment to all newbie Henna people out there. 

SUMMER HAIR ROUTINE

My summer hair routine consists of protective styling and low-manipulation. That means I leave my twists in for as long as possible before taking them down to detangle and remove shed hairs. This time around I left them in for three weeks.

After the first week I condition wash and do a quick deep condition treatment with my Aussie 3-minute miracle product. 

The 3-minute miracle is the product on the far left.

This is mainly to make sure I have a clean scalp. I then moisturize and oil my scalp.

The second week I shampoo and do a more thorough deep conditioning. Then I moisturize and oil my scalp. 

All of this is I do with the twists still in my hair. I also make sure to moisturize my hair throughout the week as needed. 

The third week I take them down, detangle, remove shed hair, and prep for the shampoo. I was nervous, but the take-down was so easy! My hair tangles easy, especially when it's frizzy, so I was worried there'd be a long struggle.

But I took the advice of a youtuber (BeautifulBrwnBabyDol) and used some coconut oil and shea butter to help me. I just applied it to my twists then put them all up in a ponytail.

I removed each twist individually, detangled and removed shed hair. I then clipped it out of the way to work on the next twist. Definitely check out the above link if you want detailed information. 

I also took the opportunity to give myself a good trim because I haven't done one in a looooooong time!

This was about how much hair I cut off in total.

I then put my hair in about 5-6 sections and sprayed each one down with a mixture of: 

water

aloe vera juice (to establish a pH of 5)

conditioner

10 drops rosemary essential oil

coconut oil

My hair was dry and I didn't have the time to apply the Henna treatment that day. So to keep each section nicely stretched and moisturized I sprayed them and then twisted them back up until I could do my hair the following day. 

I ran in the morning and while I was showering rinsed my hair with some conditioner (still in the same sections). I put on a shower cap (actually a plastic bag!) to keep my hair moist until I applied the Henna treatment.

Of course I won't apply the Henna gloss each time I take down my twists but I will follow the same procedure. My hair was super soft and manageable and made shampooing a breeze!

The good thing about this routine is that I know my hair is staying healthy in all this hot weather. But since I have to moisture a lot more often, my twists frizz up quicker. 

I combat that by using my Janet Collection Afro Puff.

This helps me keep my hair in the best of condition while protecting it from the harsh weather...and still look presentable! I just jazz up the afro puff when I get bored with a flower, headband or scarf.

I plan to keep this up for the rest of July and into August. It usually stays pretty hot here in September as well so we'll see.

But I'm loving the ease of getting ready when I have to go out. I don't have to worry about what to do with my hair!

Henna Application 2

Definitely how I felt while appling the Henna! (Googleimages)

Please take a look at the pictures posted in Week 43 Hair: Henna Madness to see how I do my mix and apply the product.

This time around it was faster and I had a more even application to the strands. It was still a mess though! I'm convinced that this will always be a messy process. 

Next time around I plan to:

• Do it overnight.

It is SO BORING having to be in the house all day with this stuff on. Plus it's heavy! As long as I wear a robe with a hood and protect the pillow I'm sure I'll be OK. The day I applied it, it was raining all day so I was lucky. But on those nice days coming up soon I'm not wasting a weekend! Once I start training I'll just have to reshuffle my long run once a month to make room for the treatment.

• Add more water.

I did this time as well, which made the application process easier. But I think making it just a tad more pudding like, and less mud like, will help. It's hard to measure though because you don't want it too runny or it will leak.

It's amazing though how Henna makes you feel like you have so much hair!

My next wash day will be in two weeks. This works out perfectly, yet again, because the next two Saturdays I have to work.

Week 43 Hair: Henna Madness!

 So yea, I finally got the courage to try Henna. I LOVE how it had made my hair look and feel! It feels stronger, longer, fuller and heavier...all good things to me! However, for my schedule, and the realities of life, this is NOT something I can do every month. 

I got up at 8am on Sunday and wasn't finished with my hair until 11pm that night and I am not exaggerating.  The thought of sleeping with that stuff in my hair grossed me out. I am not a person that "sleeps pretty" so that gunk would have been all over the bed. That's why I had to do it all in one day. I actually mixed it the night before and then applied it the next morning.

The Henna process takes extreme patience in the application and rinsing out of the product, especially the rinising out of it. I can see myself wanting to do it every month because of the benefits but getting lazy with it. 

You really have to be careful to rinse that stuff out of your hair. It takes awhile. Right now I'm thinking I will do it once every 2 months. When my schedule slows down (in the summer) I might consider doing it on a monthly basis.

In the post Week 41 Hair, I didn't actually shampoo my hair. Since I didn't have the aloe vera juice I didn't see any real point in starting the process and having to finish it later. So I sucked it up and just wore my hair in updos for the rest of the week.

Last week is when I applied the Henna. Many people don't use shampoo to rinse out the Henna but I did. Partly because it had been 2 weeks since I shampooed and I wanted to have a clean scalp, and partly because I wanted to make sure the Henna rinsed out completely.

So here's the step-by-step process in pictures, Curly Nikki style.

This is how the bathroom was prepped. People aren't lying when they say it's messy. So if you are thinking of trying it make sure that you protect your bathroom. The Henna I used didn't have any color in it so nothing was stained anyway. Kudos to my husband for buying the plastic I put on the floor and cleaning up when I was done!

This is the mix. I made mine exactly how Curly Nikki makes her mix. I added 4 green tea bags to warm water and let it steep. After that I mixed it in with the Henna and then added about 2 tbsp. of honey. I made 200g of the Henna and froze my leftovers. Like I mentioned above, I let it sit overnight (approximately 8 hours).

This is my hair before the application. I wet my hair and throughly detangled before applying the Henna. It's important to do so because you don't want to manipulate your hair much in the application process.

This is at some point in the beginning of the process before I got super messy. The technique is to "smoosh" the Henna on your hair and not rake it through. Make sure you have some plastic gloves!

It is so hard to get this stuff evenly on the hair, or at least I thought so. Next time I will try to make it a tad bit more watery. I think it was too thick. But I did a decent job for my first time.

Now I'm one the second half of my hair. I split my hair into two sections and started each section in the back.

What my hair looked like before I put on my plastic bag. Again, the application was not exactly uniform but I did my best.

Here's a top shot.

 As you can see, I was filthy at the end. Make sure you wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty (or staining if you use Henna with color).

 Here I am again after cleaning up a bit. Now this stuff stayed on for 8 hours.

 After the 8 hours I was itching to rinse this out because it started leaking. Imagine sleeping with this stuff on!

 Yes, it is a complete mess!

Me in the shower right before rinsing it out.

I don't have any post-Henna pictures because, like I said, I didn't finish until 11pm and I was tired. But after rinsing it out really well (I used up all the hot water doing so!) I applied my deep conditioner. I added honey, olive oil and coconut milk to it. My hair felt great afterwards. I didn't have any problems with excessive drying.

I left the deep conditioner in for 1.5 hours and then applied my kimmaytube and twisted my hair up. It was a long process but I truly believe my hair reaped benefits from it. 

I recommend Henna but warn that it is an involved process. Only do this when you are in the mood and don't have to leave the house.