I Am My Own Favorite Experiment Take Two: Henna

I'm a bit, as they say, adventurous with my hair. It's been long, it's been short, it's been brown, it's been purple, it's been red, it's been highlighted, and yes, it's still on my head. I cut and dye it myself because I am a) a cheapskate and b) terrified of having anyone to blame for a hair catastrophe but myself. So I woke up this morning, rather bored with my current color (which is, surprisingly enough, my natural hair color) and decided to dye it with henna. Prepare for a hair odyssey, my friends, that began at 10am this morning:


Observe: my natural color:



The set up - more cooking than cosmetology:

Essentially, henna (the green powder) plus acidic water plus pectin equals a kind of lumpy hair gel:



After letting it sit for a 1/2 hour to let the dye release, you get this lovely concoction:

Mmm mmm mmm! The time is now 11am.


And now for the fun part! I glopped (this is a technical term) the gel onto and into my hair:


And wrapped it in a plastic bag:


Then I sat for an hour and a half looking my loveliest. At this time it occurs to me that I have basically cemented plant jelly to my hair and I had to figure how to get the darn stuff off. Well, with my shower on full blast, two heaping handfuls of shampoo and a whole lot of scrubbing, I finally got it all out. I may still smell like I slept on a hay bale, but I really like the result:


My final thoughts? Since henna is plant based and non-toxic, I failed to poison myself with the usual wasteland of chemicals in off the shelf hair dye - pro. I had an excuse not to shower until after noon on a Sunday - pro. The color is really neat - pro. I got to play with mud all morning - pro. On the other hand, clean up was a bitch - con. Did I mention my hair smells like hay? Con. Will I do it again? Absolutely - pro.

The time is now 1pm.