So, after many years of "I'll get round to it some day", I bought Caca Rouge from Lush for just under £7.00. For that you get a chunk of solid henna divided into 6 chunks. I used 4 for my shoulder length hair on the advice of the lady who served me.
Here I am with clean hair (and no makeup!!) before starting the process.
There are some natural red tones in my hair already.
On the advice I was given in store, I grated the 4 chunks into a glass bowl before adding boiling water from the kettle. I did end up adding a little more water than this to make the mixture a little more runny so it smoothed onto the hair much more easily.
Over the bath (since this is very messy!) I smoothed it into my hair, starting from the back and working forward. I quite liked the smell of it, earthy and herbal, rather than the usual ammonia stink of chemical dye. Once it was all in my hair, I wrapped my head in cling film and waited for 4 hours. The plan was 5 or 6 but the Cocoa Butter in the henna had begun melting and I was getting lovely green trails everywhere.
Oh yeah, my clingfilm hat is sexy.
After the 4 hours, the process of washing out begins. The henna takes quite a while to rinse out, but once it gets going with the heat from the water it washes out fairly quickly. I then followed with a couple of washes with shampoo to make sure all the little bits were out. Once my hair dried I could see I had green patches.
Green.
My hair was green.
I washed again and it was still there. It's been quite a long time and several haircuts since I last used chemical dye, besides the green was on new growth around my hairline where there wouldn't be any dye. After an intensive shampoo this morning the green has almost gone.
Here's the final colour.
It's come out a nice bright shade of auburn, but I don't think it's anything I couldn't get out of a box from Tesco. As for the conditioning effect of henna: my hair currently feels like straw, even after a deep conditioning treatment this morning.
I won't be bothering with it again.
I believe that is the "Raggedy Anne" Effect! :)
ReplyDeleteWhy in the world is it called "Caca"? Is that not a bad word in England?
ReplyDeleteI have been wondering what this would be like for about 10 years! Sorry it's made your hair horrible :(
ReplyDeletexx
Gosh what a faff, I'd definitely be sticking to the chemical stuff!
ReplyDeleteI bought this for my mum because she wanted to try it for ages, we got caca noir. Not too impressed that it translates as shit black really.
ReplyDeleteWe did exactly what the SA told us to do and we even used more so we would get a darker colour.
After being assured that it would cover greys we weren't too happy to see that all it had done was made the already black hair, red and left the grey hair, grey.
She's gone back to the chemical stuff now as it's cheaper, less mess and it actually works!
It is unfortunate that you had such a bad experience with this henna. The green in your hair was probably the green dye which was added to the henna powder to make it appear fresher than it actually is. The brand of henna you used contains metal salts and other adulterants which make you hair feel really crummy and make it so you shouldn't use chemical dyes over the top of them. If you ever feel up to giving henna another shot, use only 100% henna (body art quality if you can get it), mix it with cool water or orange juice, let it sit 12-24 hours for dye release, and apply. I have hennaed my hair for about 4 years now and everytime my hair comes out silky soft, healthy and strong. You might also want to visit hennapage.com and click on their henna for hair link. Lots of wonderful info there as far methods and achieving different shades, as well as a forum for answering any questions you might have.
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