Caca Rouge!

[marthamagic;]

So after deciding I wanna be ginger for a long, long time I decided to bite the bullet and give up chemical dyes and go with henna.

I got some henna from Lush and used 5 of the squares (it comes in a block of 6 squares for about £8) it's no more expensive/messy than Directions in my opinion!
I started trying to grate the block but it was no use, my house is too cold and I'm too weak so I ended up chopping it up into smaller blocks and just pouring water on it whilst the bowl is over a pan of boiling water to keep it warm).
Once it was all melted and stirred I went upstairs and filled my sink with hot water and sat the bowl in there.
I applied the henna to freshly washed damp hair as I've heard it makes it stick better, it was so so fun mushing mud into my hair haha and I didn't make too much mess, everything cleaned up really easily and none of my clothes are stained cuz I washed them straightaway.

I left the henna on for about 5 hours, the instructions say to leave it for an hour but it doesn't damage the hair to leave it on longer and I wanted a darker and longer lasting stain.
After 5 hours I rinsed it out expecting the worst but with a lot of rinsing and loads of cheap conditioner I got it all out, I then conditioned my hair and then rinsed, it only took about 15 mins to rinse completely.

Here is the final result!

[ainsleymac]

Very pretty colour!

[PippaCarney]

Ooh this is lovely, what colour was your base? I've been toying with the idea of using henna...

[marthamagic;]

It was a slightly faded ginger but it's blended my natural dark blonde roots to exact same colour as the lengths

[FizzWhizz]

So pretty! Hair envy!

[Robyness]

Oooh I like that its a gorgeous colour to stick with.
What's henna like for the condition of your hair, does it make it feel awesome?

[zaralily]

oooooooooh, so pretty ^_^ xxx

[marthamagic;]

What's henna like for the condition of your hair, does it make it feel awesome?

It's made my hair really really shiny and it feels thicker and has more volume, I've noticed it's a little bit drier but I don't know if that's due to central heating/cold weather because my hair's been pretty dry for a while now but it's getting better.

[Robyness]

Volume I like! Totally might look into it to give my hair a bit of a rest next year

[Inquisitress]

Wow, that's lovely

[Ilex]

It looks beautiful. I *love* that cut and colour on you, it's perfect!

[Member-I]

It looks fantastic!

[stormofdamnation]

Your hair looks like it's in fantastic condition, and I love the colour! I'd like to go back to ginger when my hair's a bit longer.

[KittyLost]

Beautiful colour! It suits you so well too! I've often toyed with the idea of Caca Brun but always back out.

[marthamagic;]

Thanks everyone! I love it so much more than the permenent dye I was using before, my hair is so soft, strong, shiny and ginger! My curl has also actually improved, I'm guessing this is due to the amount of cocoa butter in the Lush henna mix.

I love henna.

[LauraC]

This is beautiful!!

[tanpopokitty]

Soooo gorgeous. I'm also extremely jealous of your wave.

[Aeryu]

Reminds me of copper shades, gorgeous result.

[theodora]

Only just saw this, but it looks awesome! Also, hair can feel a little on the dry side shortly after using henna from the resinous coating. It's a good idea to use a moisture treatment (something with a humectant like glycerin, honey or aloe) right after doing a henna. I just mix a couple of spoons of cheap honey with my conditioner and plop it on and leave it on for a while.

[anwen]

Oh, that's lush! Um. No pun intended? I'm sorely tempted to try this to even out the two tone mess of my hair, if I can't get the ginger out with another go of colour b4, but is it a really terrible idea over bleached/generally quite processed hair? It's in decent condition (aside from the iffy bit that doesn't seem to take dye any more, but even that feels/looks okay).

[marthamagic;]

I'd definitely strand test before putting it all over your head.
And remember... HENNA IS PERMANENT.

As in it doesn't bleach out, it binds to your hair shaft so if you're after a quick fix that you can come back from don't use it.
Also, if you do use it and your natural hair colour is quite a lot darker than your processed hair you'll have a noticable line where your natural hair's been hennaed and your bleached hair has.

I put my henna over chemically dyed ginger hair and my natural dark blonde roots and it's blended really well but like I said, if your hair's darker it might not be so forgiving.

If you do decide on henna definitely, definitely strand test and make sure you only use BAQ (body art quality) or Lush henna otherwise your henna could be mixed with all sorts of nasties that could melt your hair should you want to try to get rid of it.

[anwen]

Yes, this would very much be if I decide to stick with the ginger (I have had quite a lot of compliments on it, which helps). I'll probably just end up going with one of the Adore gingery colours - my natural hair's a bit darker than the current colour, though I'm not honestly sure exactly how much as I've not had it natural in so many years! And yes, would definitely go with the Lush stuff, although I think I tried it once before and my hair didn't really get on with it. Maybe Adore is more sensible...

[VioletJeff]

This looks lovely, and your eyebrows are also pretty good haha

[Frou]

Gorgeous. This is the red I want, I just don't want to use henna since I get bored of things way too easily!

[marthamagic;]

So I've been using henna for about 6 months now and this is what colour/condition my hair is in now.