Another henna journey post incoming 😃! In timey-wimey fashion xD, I have already covered first the 2022 and the the 2020-1 henna'ings, and today is 2019's turn. My henna adventures started in 2010-11, followed by a Manic Panic experiment in 2013, a long hiatus after that, and then the return of the henna again in 2019 until today. This post, as per usual, will include a hefty pic spam xD.
✨2019 September henna'ing✨
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| The 2019 mix: Three boxes of (expired xD) Jamila henna and two boxes of (stale-ish xD) Radhe Shyam henna. |
In September 2019 I went back to henna after a very long hiatus (my 2013 Manic Panic experiment was the last time I had dyed my hair). This henna was a bit of a fail because welp, although I was lucky to get some Jamila henna as part of an online hair swap back in 2015-6, I didn't use it until 2019, so of course, it had long since expired 😅. I had kept it frozen all those years, and some dye still remained, so I did get some lovely red tones for a while (even if not as intense as with later henna'ings). But the colour did fade a lot after the first month or so 😭 (with fresh henna the tone may fade a little bit over time, depending on the hair porosity and the henna brand, among other things, but it pretty much stays put otherwise).
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| The two henna powders, which I mixed with a strong infusion of red tea and hibiscus flowers, as well as a tablespoon of lemon juice. |
To try to boost the weakened henna dyeing power of my years-long-expired Jamila, I mixed the whole 250 g of Jamila henna with 200 g of fresher (but not by a whole lot) Radhe Shyam henna - which is a brand that I have used on and off, and I actually started my henna experiments back in 2010-11 with Radhe Shyam (and used it again in 2020-23 alongside my now favourite Khadi brand), but my general consensus is that it's definitely not the freshest or strongest henna on the market, for sure. I have always experienced less intense results and faster fading with more than one Radhe Shyam box, as compared to Khadi henna, for example.
For this henna'ing session, I dyed my whole hair, and the full head of hair I of course have to use rather more than I usually do for my root retouches. Usually, in this case I tend to use approx. 300 g (three boxes) for my (usually) mid-thigh and (F ii/iii) hair. This time, though, it was a whopping 450 g (5 boxes!!), as I wanted to use all of the Jamila in one go, and also had to add at least some Radhe Shyam to boost the dyeing power as much as possible.
I mixed the henna powder with a strong infusion of red tea and hibiscus, which I routinely did with my 2019-23 hennas to try and enhance the red tones (now I've read that it doesn't really do that much to enhance the red tones of the dye, really, if anything it's a really subtle effect, so lately it's just been warm water). For the acidic dye boost, I now use and a couple tablespoons of vinegar for the acidic dye boost, but in 2019-23 I used freshly-squeezed lemon juice, with can be harsher for the scalp and also promotes a darker result (which is not what I'm currently going for, I prefer copper to true red highlights generally) - so I now prefer to use a milder acid like vinegar, preferably apple cider vinegar). After mixing the henna powder with the warm infusion and the lemon, I left both mixes - the Jamila and the Radhe Shyam - to oxidize overnight, something which may or may have not helped in releasing some of the remaining dye in my stale 2019 henna mixes 😅. From 2020 onwards, however, I mix my (mostly Khadi, some Radhe Shyam) henna paste shortly before use and I've experienced strong dye releases in this way, with no need to leave the mix to rest overnight. Henna'ing is time consuming as it is, so that works for me xD.
The next day, I used some of the remaining tea and hibiscus infusion to stir the henna paste into the right consistency again and mixed the two henna types together. Back then, I had pretty much henna'ed my hair twice (in 2010 and 2011), so my finesse and my practice was very much lacking - so when it came to actually applying the henna I did a mess of epic proportions in the bathroom 🤣🤣. To see the whole sink full of plastic bags and everything stained muddy and orange (at least there was some dye left confirmed xD) makes for amusing pictures, for sure, but my gods, was it difficult to clean it all up. Fortunately, the bimonthly henna process nowadays (involving mostly root retouches) is much easier and makes a minimal mess at the kitchen table xD. But back in 2019, I finally succeeded in finishing up and wrapping my henna'ed hair in tin foil and plastic shower cap, and waited some 3.5 hours before rinsing it all off (I do 2 hours of waiting time nowadays, but with the weaker dye release I wanted to make everything count as much as possible xD).
LOL xD
The initial results were quite nice, overall, the hair had intensified auburn red tones and felt a little thicker, and the scalp felt cleaner as well (as is usual with henna use). But yeah, like I said, after the first month or so the colour faded quite appreciably 😅, until I henna'ed again in September 2020, a year later. But here are some pictures of these henna results while the full intensity of the colour lasted 🤩:
These are from the same day of the henna'ing, just after the hair dried, night-time, fluorescent light:
The morning after, direct sunlight:
And some pictures during the first week and month (approx.) after henna'ing, in durect and indirect sunlight, and also featuring a cinnamon bun (cinnabun) and a Valkyrie (knotted) ponytail, one of my favourite go-to length-shortening styles:
