A Wild Hair :)

By Becca

As I type this, my head is wrapped in a plastic wrap turban. 

I'm starting a new trend :)

I actually am dyeing my hair with henna. 

I got this wild hair a few weeks ago, maybe it started a little bit with this blogger. 

Along with her vintage style and beautiful photographs for a while, it seemed, she also sported a different hair color every few posts. 

Now, I love my hair. God gave me lovely chestnut locks and I'm very happy with them.

 I do however have a hankering for adventure every now and again, and dying my hair sounded like fun :) 

I had heard of dying hair with henna before, but at the time I wasn't personally interested in it.

After a google search for 'henna hair' I found tons of videos and blogs on the topic.

I read all I could find and then used a conglomeration from everyone, ending up with doing my own thing :) 

Here are some of the sites that I found helpful:

butterfliespeacepaleo.blogspot.com

http://stylecaster.com/beauty/henna-hair-dye/

http://offbeathome.com/dying-your-hair-red-with-henna/

http://driftwood-gardens.com/how-to-dye-hair-naturally-with-henna/

These and others are also on my Pinterest board.

A few reasons why I chose henna is because it's all natural (it's a plant) and very healthy for your hair.

Also, it's a transparent dye that will result in a different color for each head of hair. My medium brown hair should come out as auburn. Finally, because Mom and Dad said it was okay :)

Now, nearly every site I've seen either is using this LUSH brand of henna, or some other body art quality henna they got at a local indian store. With a block of LUSH henna going for $27 a block, I was interested in finding a little cheaper alternative. 

Mom showed me that the Bulk Herb Store carried henna, at the best price I had seen yet to boot-

And it totally works! 

I put a whole bag in a glass mixing bowl, added milk till it was "mashed potato-y" and then a splash of apple cider vinegar. It sat overnight and then I mixed in few tablespoons of olive oil before applying. 

I applied it like in this video:

When I was done I had only used roughly half of my henna mixture, so the leftovers go into the freezer for root touch ups later. Yay!

 Beth started washing my hair first, and got most of the henna mud out in the kitchen sink. Then I had to shower and use some conditioner to finish it off. It's pretty red right now, but it'll darken in the next few days to the final color. 

Ready for some pictures? 

Oh wait, forgot something. Before I committed to the whole head, I did a strand test. And one lovely blogger said to save the hair from your hair brush instead of snipping of a lock. So after I ordered the henna I started saving the loose hair, and had a nice little hair ball when it came time to test it. I affectionally called it my 'rat'. :) 

Here's the strand test:

Yes, not the most beautiful pictures :) 

But it was exciting to see a preview of the color. 

Now the full before and afters! 

Henna powers activate!

Indoors, first day. 

Outdoors, second day.

 Indoors, second day.

I'll add some update pictures when the final color settles in :) 

Hope you guys enjoyed this and found it helpful. 

I had tons of fun with this!

So, what do you guys think?

Have you ever dyed your hair?

Would you?