Overnight Henna techniques

[Obsidianei]

Since I read a few people write that they usually put their henna on at night and wash it out in the morning, and considering the fact that for some reason I always nap when I have henna on, I started doing that too.

It's my third time doing it tonight, but I'm always paranoid about waking up and seeing henna all over my pillow.

Before I saran wrap, I spread some pure shea butter along my hairline (neck included), put some rolled toilet paper behing my ears, then wrap and wrap again with a scarf. So far so good! :pray:

What's your method? :confused:

[gracenotes]

Well, I generally do roots only so I imagine I might have less mess than someone who does full-head hennas every time... I usually wrap my hair up in a shower cap and a plastic bag (I use the bag handles as ties to keep it on my head), then I wrap the whole thing in a towel. I make my henndigo paste pretty thick and always put it on dry hair, so I don't really get any drips. The last couple of times I did it, I had no mess at all, just a couple of little crumblies where the towel didn't cover my hairline. When I used to do full-head hennas I would have a lot more drips, I guess because the water from the henna didn't have as much dry hair to absorb into? To deal with this, I stuck cotton balls all around my hairline under the shower cap. If I'm particularly worried, I'll also spread a towel over my pillowcase.

[Majala]

Haha, this would be impossible for me. I always use a saran wrap, then shower cap and towel on top of it all and in an hour or hour and a half I start dripping everywhere and that's when I wash henna out. I've never gone past 2 hours with it on my hair. I don't even want to imagine how my bed would look if I left it over night.

[Xxanderia]

When I would henna I always did it overnight. After applying the henna I would use the saran wrap, as tight as I could (without my ears being bound up in it - hate that), then on top of the saran wrap I would put an old fabric headband around the seams (if that makes sense). Then on top of all of that I put a sleep cap thing that I found at a dollar store on. Holds everything in place wonderfully. As for bedding, I would make sure to have dark pillowcases on that night, and I would lay a towel across the pillows just in case.

[bunnylake]

I actually have never had issues with drips. I make my paste like that of thick yogurt and I wrap my head really well in saran, and then I use a thin long sleeved t-shirt to make a turban. If you know what plopping is (or you can youtube it if not) this is how i wrap the shirt around my head. It holds really well and is not too uncomfortable. I put a towel over my pillow just in case, but I've never gotten any henna on the towel and I've done this three or four times so far.
It's not the best night's sleep, but it's not terrible either. A good idea for next time might be to use a neck pillow or some rolled up fabric for under the neck for extra support, since it's straining to have such a heavy blob of mud on your head for like eight hours!

[Obsidianei]

Maybe that your mix is too "wet" ? I used to get drips too, but with experience I learned to make a mix that doesn't drip, or very minimally. I usually leave it on for 4 hours minimum...

Also, I see that I'm quite mellow in my paranoia of getting henna all over myself and my bed :) I can't imagine wrapping my head with more than two things. The only problem so far is that I might not be saran wrapping tight enough, the "air bubbles" between my hair and the saran drive me CRAZY. Also, I should remember never to do this on a school night, because I was waking up at one hour intervals, all night long. Exhausting.

[Mrsbaybeegurl]

I wrap in saran wrap and then plastic grocery bag, then I wrap my head tuban style in a towel, drape another towel over my shoulders, place another towel over my pillow and lie on my back and because of ALL my protection never toss and turn until I wake up and jump in the shower in the A.M! Okay okay, I get that may be wayyyy over done but I love my bedding ad orange-ish red stains on bedding looks a little on the yuk factor side. As of lately I hardly have any on my towels but there has been a few times I was glad I used caution because all my towels had some henna mud on them(which would have been my sheets, clothes pillow...)!! Better safe then sorry especially for something as permanent as henna!

BTW I have been doing this about 3 years, in the early days I used to also cover my pillow in a trash bag then place a towel over that, I can now skip this step as I know I won't leak that much lol

[Viscountess]

I put my pillow inside an old t-shirt. It won't slide off and bunch up at night like a towel.

[Obsidianei]

I would be worried that just a t-shirt would be too thin... on the other hand, I don't think I really care if my pillows get stained, I only worry about the pillow cases so I guess I can do without and just throw an old pillow case or a t-shirt over it..

[Viscountess]

Oh its not just a t-shirt on the pillow, I wrap my hair in plastic and turban it - the t-shirt catches any drips quite nicely without worrying about bunching of a towel. if you have thin t-shirts, put a towel UNDER the t-shirt then put the pillow and towel inside the t-shirt and sleep away

[Obsidianei]

Haha yeah I didn't think you were doing it without saran wrapping :) can't imagine the mess! (both on bedding and on face...)

Really good ideas, thanks :)