Thursday 14 August 2008

Henna

21 henna - beforeLittletree decided she wants to dye her hair, so I dug deep in our storage boxes and found some Henna that was left over from when we hennaed her hair when she was almost 2.5.

I took the obligatory "Before" shot:

Set about mixing up the Henna;

22 henna -preparationand rubbed the gooey mud into her hair.

25 henna application

I didn't put it into all of her dreads, but all the fringe at the front, and about half of the dreads. When it was done, she sat around for about 2 hours waiting for it to set.

26 henna application

27 henna rinseThen we ran a hot bath and rinsed it all out.

Interestingly, the colour didn't really take, I suspect because the Henna was so old. It did make a difference; you can see which hair was dyed and which wasn't but it's so close to her natural colour (the parts that aren't sun-bleached), you would never tell if you didn't know we'd done it.

Littletree had red hair when she was born (as did I), but it faded to a golden ginger-blonde. She still has red-head colouring - the gingery eyebrows, mad freckles, and white-as-pale skin, so it suits her.

"After" shot:

28 henna - afterIn the "After" shot you can see the contrast of the curl from the front of her hair going over a non-dyed dread on the side, but it's nothing like the effect the exact same packet of henna made 2.5 years ago:

seq cute 5

11 comments:

  1. Oh she looks way cute! I love it! I think the colour did not take totally for a reason there, this is really her colour! (Years ago my MIL put Henna in my hair, as a rule they leave it on wrapped in either glad wrap or paper over night! It stinks but it works)

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  2. yeah, it's totally her natural colour when it's not sun-bleached.
    I didn't take a photo of it when it was wrapped, coz she didn't want any photos taken when she had a weird thing on her head.

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  3. She is such a pretty child.
    I like her hair better before the dreads though..
    she was so cute with her curls and shiny hair.

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  5. I can see a slight difference, although not as strong as the one from 2.5 yrs ago...she is such a cutey :-)

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  6. `Just love her eyes in that last pic...

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  7. She is such a cutie - those big brown eyes make such an impact against her fair skin!

    I love the really bright colour you got last time, I'm tempted to go looking henna to turn my hair that colour!

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  8. What a cutie!
    And those pretty brown eyes...
    I think henna must not have a long shelf life. I used some that made my hair that amazing red colour and I used some a friend had for a while that she got from an Indian shop that didn't really colour my hair but dried it out. I had it on for hours - I suppose the fresher the henna, the better the colour.

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  9. We have some henna in our freezer - a friend who put it on for us told us that it was the best way of storing it, so we kept what was left over. Haven't tried it yet, but I'll let you know the results when we do! :)

    The Broken man

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  10. She is just such a cutie! That smile makes my 4 yr old son smile at the screen. Love your blog --

    Chicago Jen

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Thanks for your lovely words, witty banter and entertaining discussion :)