So!!
I've always wanted red hair - always. Since I've been aware of the ability to change hair color, I always knew that I wanted - nay, needed - to be a redhead.
However - I've got that good stubborn hairtype stuff on my head, and despite going through almost every brand of hair coloring, I was never able to get REALLY red hair.
In - May, I believe it was, of last year I bleached my locks, and dyed them red. It looked good - very good actually, but the red drained out in a matter of months - and I ended up with mostly blond ends - and very strained, dead, limp, locks.
I took out my locks in May, and not having learned the bleaching = strained hair lesson previously - I gleefully jumped into bleaching my hair ultra PLANTINUM blond
......and dying it a rich, rich red on top of it.
Finally - I had my RED hair.
Just to keep track of it in my own head, I did this the weekend we moved into the house - so let's say May 1st.
But - in a matter of 2 and a half months (It's what - the middle of July now?), not only do I have roughly an inch and a half of new growth, my hair is also slightly more orange than it is red. :((
I desparately wanted my red back - like, crazy desparate. I mean - it's ALREADY been bleached, I might as well take advantage of it, eh? But - at the same time, I started learning more about my hair, and about how to hug it and squeeze and hold it and love it, and I decided that I reallllly wanted to see just how long my hair could get. Natural. Loose. Healthy. Long. And none of those things - esp. the healthy and long part would be supported by dying my hair again. But, man, I REALLLY wanted to be a redhead.
Starting talking to one of my girls, who happens to have some of the most GORGEOUS long, henna'd red hair (I wonder if she's on this site???), and she suggested that rather than me dye it (after I casually mentioned that I had picked up some dye from Sally's that day) I henna it. I knew that she henna'd her hair, and I SOOOO loved the color - and I knew that she has naturally brown hair.
I HONESTLY don't know why henna'ing my hair never occured to me. I think that because my previous henna experiences were rather - twiggy - I never thought that henna COULD be a fine enough powder to actually get into - and more importantly get OUT of - my curly coily hair. But - I trust this friend, and I love her hair - so I started reading about henna.
The more I read, the more excited I got.
Henna gently joins WITH your hair - actually seeping into the strands, without having to BREAK them the way peroxcide and most other dyes do.
Henna is supposed to thicken hair strands (which makes sense, considering it's actually adding color molecules to your hair - WITHOUT destroying any of your own) which I would LOVE considering I have some of the thinnest, baby fine hair ever!
Henna is supposed to loosen curls (probably because of the above mentioned thickening of hair strands, thus making your hair heavier, thus increasing gravities pull on the curl, thus strecthing it out - oh yeah, I've thought about this) and - man. I figured out that my hair - stretched - is about 6-7 inches long. In it's natural, dry, curly state (like the srunched down fro that I usually wear)
Henna strengthens your hair (once again, the adding molecules without destroying others bit) which helps me retain length, so I can have long hair. I mean - 1.5 inches in 2.5 months... that's a little over half an inch a month. Let's say my hair grows half an inch in a month - in a year, IF I keep all my length, my hair would be touching my shoulders. Another year, and it'll be hitting my armpit. Another year, and it's at the middle of my back - and with one more year, it'll be about waist length. That's FOUR years. That's really not that long - esp to have HAIR that long. Hell, even five years ain't bad.
So - I'm reading ALL this good stuff about Henna, and I'm like - hey! Why the hell not! The worst that could happen is that my hair gets a dark, dark purlish red - and um.... that's not a bad thing in my mind, considering that my natural hair color is so dark.
Not only can I grow out my hair HEALTHIER and STRONGER - I can also go to the extremes of redness.
*happy happy dance*
So! From reading http://www.hennaforhair.com , I figured out that there are several mixes that I could use to get the color I wanted. So - I ordered 2 samples of henna, plus a sample of tumeric, plus a sample of cloves, plus a sample of pectin (because I figured that would make it more convienent to use, considering henna's reputation for dripniness. I ordered them from Mehendi.com on Thursday (I think it was) and got it on Monday.
I wanted to mix the henna with red wine (to make it redder) so my final recipe/plan was:
Liquid: 3 pts wine to one part water (I used Barefoot Shiraz)
Henna Mixes:
a) Henna only (2.5 pt)
b) Henna and Tumeric (2pt H, 1pt T) (because, as far as I understand, adding tumeric (either 1/3 or 1/2 the quantity of henna) brings a coppery golden glow out - which is something I LOVE about my current (orangey) hair color - the golden underglow - it really looks like metal sometimes).
c) Henna and Cloves (3pt H, 1 pt C) (because I didn't want to go TOOO brown, but I wanted to maybe tame the henna a bit down from orange into red)
d) Henna and Tumeric and Cloves (3pt H, 1/2 pt C, 1 pt T) (because I wanted the goldenness of the Tumeric, but I wanted to tone down the orangeness of the henna)
So - I prepared all of my mixtures (1 pt equaled out to 1/2 teaspoon) in little plastic cups (that I had left over from beading) and stirred and mixed the dry powder nicely. The first two mixtures took about a tablespoon of winewater, and the last two took about two tablespoons.
I stirred, and it turned into a nice, gloopy, sticky, almost mucusy greenish spinach smelling mess.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - the wonders of henna!!
I wrote the mixture initals on each one, and sat them in the windowsill (hot, unaircondioned, Western Tennessee windowsill) of our house around 6:15pm.
I tested to see if the dye release had occured by putting a dab of henna on the heel of my foot. I figured that was a 'safe' place to put it, one that I wouldn't get brushed off too easily, and one tht I could easily check.
By 7:00pm, the dab from the HTC combo had turned a spot on the back of my foot a deep, rich orange. Ooooh - I LOVE the color of henna.
I mixed in the hair - two 'hairballs' into each mixture - one hairball to come out at 10pm, the other hairball to come out the next morning - basically, a 3 hour steep, and a 12 hour steep.
At almsot exaclty 10pm, I took the first batch out - I couldn't really tell a difference in the color - until I compared it to the 'untouched' hairball I had left out. Lovely, rich colors - didn't seem as dark as it could be.
In non-henna news, I hopped in the shower around 11pm, slapped a shiteload of conditioner in my hair, put shower cap on, and went to bed. My classic 'Oops, I've waited too long to remoisturize/comb my hair, and now I must do some emergency wetmaking work' solution.
The next morning (this morning, actually), I rinsed off the rest of the henna off the samples, and tucked them in a safe place. I figured I would let them oxidize, THEN compare colors. All the same, I couldn't see that much difference between the 3hr and the 12 hr sample - I couldn't really see the additional darkness. I was especially glad that I had saved an undyed piece - that way I could tell the difference between the dyed bits and the undyed ones.
I LOVED the color. Loved it, loved it, loved IT. I couldn't really tell the difference between the color mixes, but dammit, they were ALL pretty.
So - as soon as I got to work, I promptly ordered 500 grams of henna from http://www.mehendi.com - I hoped that the earlier I ordered it, the more likely I would be to get it on Saturday - but I see my samples came from Ohio, so there really wasn't that big of a time difference.
So.
Now I wait. I RRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEAAAAAAALLLYYYYYYYYYYYYYY want to be able to dye my hair THIS weekend, but I'm preparing myself for not getting the henna until Monday, which means I wouldn't be able to dye my hair until NEXT weekend. Arrghh!! Arggghhh!! Doubledamn it all!!!
So - this is the start of my hennaheadedness. *twitchs* Now I must wait to get henna. But - a sammich is calling my name, so I will end this VERYYYY long entry.
Kiya's Kinks
Quick (well, not really) history of me & mah Hair.
When I was little, my hair was usually braided in two cornrows down the side of my head - I wore a headpiece most of the time, so it wasn't like I really NEEDED a style. And considering the fact that I HATED getting my hair done (combing through all my curly twisty goodness HURTED) - neither me nor my mother were really interested in experiementation.
I got my first relaxer over Christmas break of '95 (my freshman year of college - or freshwoman, as we called it at my allfemale, 99% black college), and my hair was below my shoulders - and I promptly chopped it all of to a pixie cut. I lived with the pixie cut for about 4 years - getting the occasional perm, but more often, getting my hair braided with artificial hair. I never really LIKED my permed hair - I have almost baby fine hair (and a arseload of it) and when I had a perm - I looked like a wet cat. I couldn't keep a curl because of how fine my hair was, and I quickly got sick of slapping lye on my head - and it was always the 'extra strong' stuff because of how nappy my hair is - despite the fact that it's fine as all get out.
I got my last perm in Feb of 99, and started keeping my hair braided almsot all the time. Sometimes, I could put them in double strand twists - but it was a PAIN. I would have to give up a day almost every weekend to undo, condition, grease, and redo my hair. I knew I wouldn't go back to the perm, and I knew that I was sick of spending 300.00 every two months to get my hair braided - and if I was going to keep it braided ANYWAY - why not just get locs?
So, November of 2001, I started locking my hair. I loved it - in the beginning. It was wild and wooly and EASY to manage and bouncy and - just - the bee's knees. But as they got older, and as I dyed it, and as my locs got weighed down with more shed hair - they got skinner and skinnier, and harder and harder - until there came a point when I realized that I didn't LIKE my hair much anymore. So, I started taking the locs out (cuz there was no way in hell I was going to cut all my hair off).
May 2006, I had loose hair for the first time in five years. It's - it's seriously amazing stuff. I'm in - awe, almost - of my hair. A lot of the awe is from ignorance (I've done more research on hair in the last month than I've done my entire life!) I realized that taking care of extra kinky, super fine hair is something - unique - really, and I have to learn what it - needs, what it likes, what helps it grow. My goal - eventually - is to have loose, natural hair that goes about to the middle of my back. Not loc'd, not permed - just - my hair, out and natural.
*sigh* My hair grows FAST too - in the 2 months since I've dyed it, it's grown at least an inch and a half - which is on the high end of the normal range - however, the challANGE! for me is learning how to take CARE of my hair, so that I keep all that length. One thing that I'm going to have to do is stop dying it - I KNOW that's causing my ends to dry out and break off and just generally do things that are not conducive to lots and lots of hair. However, I stubbornly refuse to live with fading red hair (ie, orange!) so - I'm going to start using henna (all natural, no funky metals) to dye my hair. I have a friend in Nashville who has some of the most GORGEOUS red hair - and she's been using Henna for years. Her hair also goes to the middle of her back - so it certainly doesn't IMPEDE growth.
So. That's my hair ramble. I've gone over bits and pieces of this - but I wanted to write it all down - so that 6 months from now, when I'm bitterly cursing all this damn hair, and want to chop it off, I can read this, and remember how - glorious - my real hair really is.
I'm so happy to have found the Long Hair community - funnily enough, I stumbled across it a LONG time ago - which got my started on oil cleansing for my face (which I SWEAR by). And I'm thrilled that I can make a journal here, because I DO need someplace to track all of my wonderful hair exploits and pictures.
Hairyh
I'm going to ramble on about my hair for a little while here - you can move along, really, nothing to see here.
So. Hair. It's always an interesting topic for black women - what do do with it, how to take care of it, how to style it, how to get it to grow. Any conversation involving more than three black women for ANY period of time will eventually stumble across the subject of hair.
It's not just hair for most of us - it's a symbol - truly, in the black community, the concept of a crowning glory ain't just limited to those hats. An out and fluffy afro makes most people think of the 70's, and Black Panthers. A short permed style - also known as the Halle Berry - gives the impression of sophisticated elegance. Locs - earthy/Return to Africa vibe.
And I'm not even going to get INTO the good hair/bad hair issues we have, remmants of slavery, rather akin to our just as sad skin color issues. So - hair - for most black people - is WAAAYYY more than the stuff that's on your head. It has - meaning.
Most black women though, they relax (also called a perm - but it's to make hair straight, not curly) their hair - to make it straight, and shiny, and easily managable. Or, they get weaves (to do the same). Or they get the Jherri Curl (which seems to be much more popular in the South). Or - if they decide not to straighten their hair, they chop it all off and rock an itty bitty afro, or they loc it up - or they keep it braided.
All of which, are really valid - and usually gorgeous - ways to wear your hair. I was one of the loc'd up crowd, until I got sick of how - dead and dry and limp and STRAIGHT my hair was. My natural hair is, in no way, shape, or form, straight. In fact, it's some of the kinkiest, curliest, nappiest, hair I've ever seen - and I LOVE it. But - I have no CLUE of how to take care of it.
When I was little, my hair was usually braided in two cornrows down the side of my head - I wore a headpiece most of the time, so it wasn't like I really NEEDED a style. And considering the fact that I HATED getting my hair done (combing through all that curly twisty goodness HURTED) - neither me nor my mother were really interested in experiementation.
I got my first relaxer over Christmas break of '95, and my hair was below my shoulders - and I promptly chopped it all of to a pixie cut. I lived with the pixie cut for about 4 years - getting the occasional perm, but more often, getting my hair braided with artificial hair. I never really LIKED my permed hair - I have almost baby fine hair (and a shitload of it) and when I had a perm - I looked like a wet cat. I couldn't keep a curl because of how fine my hair was, and I quickly got sick of slapping lye on my head - and it was always the 'extra strong' stuff because of how nappy my hair is - despite the fact that it's fine as all get out.
I got my last perm in Feb of 99, and started keeping my hair braided almsot all the time. Sometimes, I could put them in double strand twists - but it was a PAIN. I would have to give up a day almost every weekend to undo, condition, grease, and redo my hair. I knew I wouldn't go back to the perm, and I knew that I was sick of spending 300.00 every two months to get my hair braided - and if I was going to keep it braided ANYWAY - why not just get locs?
So, November of 2001, I started locking my hair. I loved it - in the beginning. It was wild and wooly and EASY to manage and bouncy and - just - the bee's knees. But as they got older, and as I dyed it, and as my locs got weighed down with more shed hair - they got skinner and skinnier, and harder and harder - until there came a point when I realized that I didn't LIKE my hair much anymore. So, I started taking the locs out (cuz there was no way in hell I was going to cut all my hair off).
May 2006, I had loose hair for the first time in five years. It's - it's seriously amazing stuff. I'm in - awe, almost - of my hair. A lot of the awe is from ignorance (I've done more research on hair in the last month than I've done my entire life!) I realized that taking care of extra kinky, super fine hair is something - unique - really, and I have to learn what it - needs, what it likes, what helps it grow. My goal - eventually - is to have loose, natural hair that goes about to the middle of my back. Not loc'd, not permed - just - my hair, out and natural.
*sigh* My hair grows FAST too - in the 2 months since I've dyed it, it's grown at least an inch and a half - which is on the high end of the normal range - however, the challANGE! for me is learning how to take CARE of my hair, so that I keep all that length. One thing that I'm going to have to do is stop dying it - I KNOW that's causing my ends to dry out and break off and just generally do things that are not conducive to lots and lots of hair. However, I stubbornly refuse to live with fading red hair (ie, orange!) so - I'm going to start using henna (all natural, no funky metals) to dye my hair. I have a friend in Nashville who has some of the most GORGEOUS red hair - and she's been using Henna for years. Her hair also goes to the middle of her back - so it certainly doesn't IMPEDE growth.
So yes, I've found a new obsession. It's odd how the things that I'm getting into all link together. I'm eating better, so I can lose weight (10 pounds lost so far!), and that helps my hair grow!! Along with all the water. It's - funny, really - how much jsut being healthy supports - everything!
So. That's my hair ramble. I've gone over bits and pieces of this - but I wanted to write it all down - so that 6 months from now, when I'm bitterly cursing all this damn hair, and want to chop it off, I can read this, and remember how - glorious - my real hair really is.
hurmph
My hair is - well. *sighs* It's - it's an interesting mass of stuff. It's funny, I realize that I have no CLUE as to what to - DO with it. I love it, love it, love it, and if I didn't work for corporate america, I'd most likely be freeform locking it (possibily the messiest hairstyle EVER) but as it is, I'm trying to keep it neat and soft and purty without becoming a product junkie. Humph. I would cut it all off and start from the beginning if it wasn't for the fact that C would have a kitten, and the fact that I ADORE my color. Love it, love it, love it. Not loving the roots quite so much, but - *ppphhfft* love the color!
And Dude! I've got a lot of hair! *LOL* I untwisted the twisties (cuz they were starting to get fuzzy after a week of sleeping/wetting/scarfing them, and I've got just like - hair EVERYWHERE. I didn't expect it to be so, so - expansive. It's like - POOOF. It's still soooo dry though - Ah! I need to go to the Beauty Supply spot and - ah! Sears should have a good toolkit if I can't get one at the local hardware store - but I need to go to the Beauty Supply store and get some moisturizer for my hair.
And maybe a deep conditioner too....cuz my hair is PARCHED from the chemical fandango I put it through. Thankfully, because the locs actually DID protect the ends of my hair, this head of hair is most likely the healthiest I've ever had - I don't have a SINGLE split end - and I want to keep it that way. *scratches head* It's so cool to have hair again. Remind me of this when I start bitching about it in about a month or two.
I'd now like to show ya'll some pictures that demonstrate the amazing transformation that is part and parcel of becoming a homeowner and moving within the same week. Now - to let ya'll know - when I'm stressed, I pick apart my locs. And every May - without fail - I do something radical to my hair.
So.
Before moving - looking like who did what, and Why, dear gods, WHY????!!??
After the move - looking like gravy that belongs on a biscuit (okay, I'm picking up WAAAYYY too many southernisms)
Rowr!
a) No, I actually didn't cut any off - as I picked apart my locs, I realized that MOST of the length was old shed, dead hair - which I suspect is why my locs lost all their luster.
b) It's red. RED. I was blond for a second, as that is the only way I can ever really get RED hair - but year, it's - RED. I need to shampoo it this weekend and see if it needs an extra batch of dye. My hair is strong, stuborrn, and very chemical resistant.
My hair is in a STATE to say the least. I need to do wash it and do my roots so badly it's a dangoone SHAME!! As locks mature, they tend to get skinnier - but as they get skinner, the fact that there is 'loose' hair at the roots becomes more obvious - and boy, is it obvious right about now.
My hair is - dense - thick - almost rich - it feels most alive when the little bits at the bottom are running wild. That's why I don't really want to tighten it - or more accurately, a wonderfully subconsious reason I keep 'forgetting' to do it over the weekend. Freshly tightened hair is - lovely - in it's own very regimented way - but nappy hair feels so much more ALIVE. *grins* I could almost convince myself that it is.
I've heard that the legend of Medusa actually came from when the Greeks stumbled a bit deeper into Africa than they expected, and ran across a tribe of locked women - and I can understand why they thought there werre snakes growing from their heads. 'Organic' locs - as in hair that just allowed to tangle all about itself without any 'management' - is rarely neat looking, never corporate, and looks (and feels!) like a living thing.
