For several years now, I’ve been coloring my hair with crushed leaves. Recently I dabbled in red, and I love it. People are frequently curious about how I color, so I thought I’d do a quick post.
In the photo to the left, there are crushed indigo leaves (black result) and crushed henna leaves (red). I’m digging the 2-tone look lately.
The thing about henna is, it’s a commitment. It’s chemical-free and actually good for your hair, but you can’t dye over it with something lighter. I don’t think there are blonde options. I do have a rather alarming amount of gray these days, and henna does the job on keeping them quiet. I’m not ready for that yet.
Henna does smell kind of like tea leaves. Or hay. I find the red color “bleeds” when it gets wet for a week or so after. The red fades over the course of a few weeks, so I touch it up when I want to give it a boost. I love it, but not everyone does.
The green powder is indigo and the brown is henna. I mix it with warm water to a pudding consistency and put it on hair that’s been washed with Dr. Bronner’s soap and towel-dried.
While my hair is up in a towel, I apply a homemade salve around the hairline and to my ears. Henna definitely stains skin!
I separate out the portion from my ears down in the back and slather on the indigo (gloved hands are a must!). Then I tuck the indigo part into a little bun. I section the top using jaw clips and just apply the henna a bit at a time, working from root to tip and using my hands to saturate the hair. Gather it in a bun on top of my head and….
Cover it in a bandana. Make funny faces. Go to bed and leave it in all night. If I had a nice pillow I’d probably cover it with a dark towel, but most of the time I use a dark towel as a pillow anyway. So the leaves do their thing while I snooze. It won’t fry the hair or do any harm at all. In the morning I wake up, grab a cup of coffee, do some stretching and then rinse it out until the water is pretty clear. No soap!
 And, voila! You can see the 2 colors in this photo. |
All styled up. |
Leaves 🙂 |
