Intro and Questions

[torena]

Hi, I'm new here! My name is Janelle. I first started henna-ing my hair about 3 years ago when it was only a couple of inches long. Since I'm now caring for 2 children (3 1/2 and 6 months old) I haven't had the time to invest in regularly paying attention to my roots. I got a gift card to a salon for Christmas and had intended on bleaching out the henna. In addition, I've been spending some time over at naturallycurly.com learning about how to embrace my wavy/loose curly hair. The boss of my stylist kind of freaked out at the idea of bleaching over henna (which I later confirmed was because of his lack of education about BAQ henna).. and we prematurely cut my hair *sigh*. We cut a good 4 inches off thinking it was going to be fried anyway.. oi. *facepalm*

I started looking into honey lightening but it doesn't seem like it goes too terribly light so I'm toying with ideas of what to do now. My hair is definitely deeper red than I want and is kind of dull without product on. I'm using Aubrey Organics Mandarin Magic Jelly (http://www.curlmart.com/Aubrey-Organics-Mandarin-Magic-Ginkgo-Leaf--Ginseng-Root-Hair-M-p-1019.html) after I get out of the shower plus AG Foam Volumizer (http://www.curlmart.com/AG-Foam-Weightless-Volumizer-p-715.html). I use the Honeysuckle Rose shampoo/conditioner by Aubrey, too, and today was the first day I didn't use the shampoo and tried to do CO. So far so good!

Along with my little intro here I've got a question that maybe someone can help me with. For a good year I was using ProActiv for my face but I gave it up (tired of the chemicals and the bleaching of my clothes, towels and pillowcases) about 3 months ago and was using ZenMed. After switching my skin broke out like whoa and I even started getting pimples on my *scalp* despite not changing my routine (I use using my kid's Rainbow Research organic no-tears shampoo and conditioner). Even with Aubrey Organics I still am having a problem. The last time I had this problem was when I went no-poo using ACV and my scalp broke out (I would have thought it was excess sebum and detoxing but I also experienced it when using lemon juice with my henna.. using orange juice with my henna does not cause this). Has anyone else ever experienced this before? I don't know what to do. It's painful!

I see there's a lot I need to learn about here. I've seen posts about moisturizing oil treatments and cassia for conditioning and differing methods for applying henna. I've been using the Punjabi Prime crop from Mehandi, mixing with OJ to rest overnight then applying the next day for 4 hours. However I am tempted by this overnight application idea!

Thanks for your help and I look forward to hanging out here more often! :D

Also, a picture!

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk151/torenajs/P1150013.jpg

[Sooze]

Hi Torena. Welcome to LHC. :waving:

I wouldn't have said your hair was dull - the henna colour is beautiful, and your hennaed hair is very shiny. :)

You can mix henna without using citric acid of any description - ie lemon, lime etc. You can use chamomile tea or rooibos tea instead - even plain old warm water, but if you don't want your henna to deepen in colour I wouldn't leave it overnight. If you wanted a lighter colour on your roots then you could try a henna and cassia mix for more coppery tones.

Cassia on its own helps hair condition, but it won't change the colour on your lengths. For that you'd need to check out Nightshades' "lightening with sun-in thread", or the honey thread by Khatani, and explore the possibilities there.

[torena]

I spent all afternoon yesterday reading what I could about henna application. I had gone by what I read on H4H 3 years ago and never looked further into it.

I think my hair looks shiny from product and the flash from the camera hahaha. :P

Maybe I was just getting bored from the same old, same old henna routine. I'm kind of excited to try all these new methods with tea or conditioner and roots only method and such.

[Anje]

I've gotten rough, itchy, bumpy skin after hennaing before, and more so when I used lemon juice instead of water. For me, this seems to be a symptom of angry, over-dry skin. It's better when I've used water to mix up my henna, and was non-existent the time I mixed my henna mud with something like half water, half olive oil (still got good dye and great rinsing with it, though). You might want to try something like that.

[Sjirsten]

Have you considered a henna gloss for your roots? It would give you a lighter red/orange shade... I mix 3-4 TBS of henna powder with warm water, let it sit and then mix the mud with a cup of conditioner. Put it all in an applicator bottle and apply to roots, wrap hair in plastic, put on hat and leave it for 2-3 hours before you rinse.
It`s very uncomplicated and it rinses out very easily. Doesn`t take long to apply either!