(warning to any guys who might be reading: This particular post contains extensive information regarding fashion and girls' rendition of how their hair looks. Continue at your own risk) My room mate was able to go home for a while and brought back Henna as part of my gift. And I've always known that Henna was used not just to paint crazy patterns on your hands and feet (that freaks out fellow students, who at first think you've burnt your hand terribly... and then immediately afterwards ask if you have gotten a tatoo. And it also starts an intriguing conversation with the barista at the coffee shop down the road, who has tatoos in Hebrew and is fluent in modern Hebrew and is interested in the fact that you speak Hungarian. Not that any of this has happened to me...) but can also be used on one's hair to give it a wonderful, silky feel as it is moisturized and nourished. I also knew that it tended to give one's hair certain hues pertaining to the individual applying it. Now, you see, my sister has used Henna before on her long blond hair. And it made it slightly darker, a little copperish, but very attractive. Add to that her incredible tan and I thought that it looked amazing. However. my hair is not my sisters. Now I'd gotten strawberry blond highlights a few months ago and they've grown out and faded. And my hair has just in general been driving me nuts, 'cause the style is grown out of it and its thin and wispy and if I don't do it just so its wispy and crazy and bumps up in one spot making my skull look square-ish and my bangs stick straight up or lump in a particular direction making my prominent forehead resemble that of a Klingon's from Star Trek, and on the left side swoops gracefully in and on the left side flips out, making me look like I'm generally traveling in a left-to-right direction at all times and my hair has followed suit.
Yeah my hair was driving me nuts as you can tell.
Now, if I keep my hair ridiculously moisturized and style it for a half hour then it looks fine. The exact same at all times, but at least not an eyesore.
(note to girls reading this: Now is NOT the part where you all swoop in as supportive gal friends and go overboard with affirmations on physical appearance, because I'm being rather tongue-in-cheek with my self deprecation. It keeps me humble. I like how I look and have a good self image. Chill.)
SO... Henna. It has moisturizing qualities. It makes hair silky. It prevents breakage and "the falling out of hair" as the packages says.
Voila.
My room mate helped me mix it; you make a paste that in texture resembles chocolate mousse and in appearance resembles something you'd find in the back field after the cows had been there. And it smells very earthy. Not a bad smell, just earthy.
My friend came over and goofed off with her feet while I applied it to my hair. She laughed and said it looked like I had gotten in a mud fight and lost. ;-)
SO I left it in for the prescribed three hours after that; you CAN leave it in for four hours, if you'd like.
Now, while I left it in, I wasn't watching my hair. I left it unsupervised while I tried to figure out Microsoft Word on my computer, talked to my mom on the phone, made dinner, cleaned a little...
And then I looked in the mirror.
Now, it just looked LIGHTER at that point. I could see there was some... shall we say... some slight changes in the color tone of my hair, and a lot in the highlights of it. But that was fine. It was driving me nuts anyway.
So I rinsed it. And I didn't think it was that bad when my hair is all dark and full of water and doesn't resemble whatever color it is supposed to be at that point in time. But I could see rather vibrant red on my scalp. I just figured that was because Henna makes your SKIN so red, but for whatever reason, as the chemical make up of hair and skin are different, my hair wouldn't be THAT red... so then I dried it.
And... you remember on Anne of Greene Gables when she dies her hair to turn it a beautiful raven brown, because she doesn't like that its red, and it turns out green? Well my hair wasn't a raven black, but now it was definitely no longer any kind of washed out blond.
As my other room mate said, I look like Cheryl from the old Archie comics. Which is fine, a new unique look for a new semester that will hopefully be unique in a GOOD way. However, I am just not sure I have the wherewithal to carry t he look and reputation that comes with Miss Cheryl Blossom at this school...
SO I'm a redhead now. Actually its more of a brunette. I don't have any other really good pictures of me yet, because I rinsed it out at 11 pm last night, and today is Saturday and I am not going anywhere or making myself look like anything other than a bed-head college student with too much homework to read.
But I'll try to post some better pictures soon.
The other thing is that when you put the Henna on your hair, it starts to dry right away. SO you really have to know what you are doing to get it all even. AND I had the washed out highlights in my hair, AND as I said my hair strands are thin but there is a lot of it. So it was rather difficult to get the same amount of Henna distributed evenly all over my hair. So the 'under hairs' down by my neck are still more brown, its just the 'top hairs' that have gotten very patriotic for Valentine's day. ;-)
Oh well. I'm a unique person all the way around, and now my looks just prove it. ;-)
~Princess Ouch~
