Henna Demystified – Part 2

By Rebecca Bailey for No More Dirty Looks

Yesterday, I covered some general information about henna.  Today I’m sharing my recipe and some techniques that work well for me. For more info, check out Henna For Hair.  If you start with a kit, like one of these, it comes with dyes, instructions, a funnel-shaped plastic bag for applying the henna, and gloves (definitely use gloves!).  Each kit covers collar length hair.

These days I’m using 2:1 henna to indigo.  My grey ends up quite red, so my naturally medium brown hair ends up a rich auburn with redder highlights.  This is my current process for doing my roots (more hair to cover needs more mix):

1.  In a pyrex measuring cup, mix ½ cup henna with a half and half mix of lemon juice and filtered water, stirring with a silicone spatula (don’t use metal).  The liquid can be anything acidic, but don’t use vinegar – I made that mistake the first time and it’s horribly stinky.  I don’t measure the liquid, just pour a bit at a time and mix, adding more liquid as needed, until it’s mashed potato consistency. Cover with plastic wrap, touching the plastic wrap to the surface to keep air out.  I leave it for about 12 hours for the dye to release, but if you keep it somewhere warm, say 95 degrees, it would only take a couple of hours.

2.  When the henna is ready, mix ¼ cup indigo with a tiny scoop (~ 1/8 tsp) of salt, add filtered water and stir until it’s a yogurt consistency.  Then scoop the indigo in with the henna, and mix well.  I use the funnel from a kit to get the henna/indigo mix into a plastic hair dye bottle from the beauty supply store.  I cut the tip to make a 6mm opening, perfect for root application.  You can also put the henna on with the funnel or your fingers.

3.  I part my hair in the middle and start there, squeezing a line of henna mix down to my scalp, as far back on my head as I can.  Then I use a comb to make the next part about ¼ inch away and squeeze another line.  With my gloved fingers I make sure the hair is pushed into the line of henna.  I can get most of my head done like this, then flip my head over to get the rest of the back.  That part is not perfect, I just let the tip of my applicator part the hair for me and it’s fine, though not as precise as using a comb.  I check to make sure I’m covered, especially at the hairline.  If I were going to do all of my hair, at this point I’d keep adding henna in sections and massaging it into my hair.

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Henna Demystified – Part 1

By Rebecca Bailey for No More Dirty Looks

The last dirty product I ditched was hair dye.  I loved the fun of coloring, but more than that I am very emotional about covering my grey.  One day I hope to rock an edgy silver bob, but that’s a decade or two off still.

If you are one of those who embrace your natural aging process—and your grays—more power to you.  But if, like me, you want to cover them and stay clean, henna is a great way to do it. It’s also a fun way to play with color, and easy too.

Almost everything I know about henna I learned from Henna For Hair and from experimenting on my own.  I highly recommend checking out that site for recipes, techniques, and the chemistry of henna.  They cover everything.  And they sell the body art quality henna I have used for over a year.

Here are seven things you should know.

1.  Henna, in combination with other plants known as cassia and indigo, can do any color from strawberry blonde, through the reds/auburns and browns to black.  It cannot do a true blonde, and it cannot make your hair lighter.

2.  High quality henna covers grey beautifully, and is permanent.  You will need to do your roots as often as you would if you were using conventional dyes.  Every so often you will probably want to pull the color throughout your hair, since, just like your natural color, exposure to the elements can fade color.

3.  Real, pure henna will not damage your hair and is non-toxic.  Sometimes there are boxes at the store that say henna on them, and it might be some version of henna mixed with other chemicals. I’ve never seen pure henna at any store.

4.  Transitioning from conventional dye to henna is not as hard or scary as it seems.  You can henna over conventional dye.  There is a learning curve with henna, but once you get your routine down it is easy.  Gorgeous, healthy hair is well worth it to me.

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Six Reasons Aging Isn’t as Awful as the Cosmetics Industry Claims

By Alexandra Spunt, author of No More Dirty Looks

Aging sucks, right? Gray hairs, wrinkles, sagging skin, and all the gifts of girlhood gone in the blink of a birthday candle. Certainly according the the beauty business it’s enemy number one. Flip through a magazine and you’ll see just how much money goes into researching—or is that branding?—the latest and greatest anti-aging ingredients. And while few turn up sound science, and others are downright sketchy, women pay out the nose for these products because we seem to have accepted that this is our fate: to fight aging, well, until the death.

Obviously we all want to look our best. But on a recent drive back from Vegas—a strange place indeed—I got to thinking about aging, and why it is that I’m not really buying how bad it is anymore for our looks. And it’s not for lack of vanity: I can obsess over five pounds and that cyst on my chin with the best of them. But in my twenties, it was this idea of aging that really got to me: Every tiny new crease came under the looking glass, every new hair in an unwanted place was bemoaned. And it’s not that any of this has magically stopped, but I definitely don’t dramatize these changes like before.

Then it clicked. The reason I don’t obsess about aging with the same fervor as I once did is because I don’t buy, or buy into, the anti-aging products. My word… Natural beauty, you really are the gift that keeps on giving!

So I slather on the best creams and oils I can find, say a few prayers to the skin gods, try to stress less, eat sardines, and hope for the best knowing that I’m doing my best. And it turns out, if you’re not too worried about wrinkles and gray hair  (I’m still a little worried obvs) getting older is kind of awesome. Here are six things I like about it. (Siobhan will do a similar list some time soon!)

And we would love to hear yours! (Note when I say aging, that may mean changes you’ve noticed from 20 to 25 or the things that you’ve learned now that you’re 60.)

1. Your skin is more consistent. Except in more extreme cases like the one I described here, according to our experience and the testimonials of other women, your skin does balance out with time.

2. You’re more comfortable in your body. Putting aside those five pounds or the cellulite on your thigh, living longer in our bodies often helps make us more at ease in them too. We realize sometimes the weird quirks make us interesting, we finally understand that the stuff we’re so unhappy with are things the lovers in our lives rarely notice.

3. You dress your body better too. And luckily these days fashion is all about dressing to the beat of your own drum anyways. Don’t look great in skinny jeans? Me neither! As we get older we’re more inclined to find the uniform that makes us happy, rather than trying to mold our bodies to the latest trends.

4. Unhealthy habits are easier to kick. Personally, my older body is a lot more sensitive than my ten-years-ago one. Case in point: After a few days in Vegas, my lungs nearly collapsed when I exercised, which apparently is what happens when you spend four days in second-hand smoke and scented air. This kind of sensitivity generally makes me less drawn to unhealthy foods, excessive drinking, smoking, and other bad habits I used to relish.

5. You don’t sweat the small stuff as much. With time we realize that even the crappiest of moments do usually shift. People get forgiven, arguments get resolved, bad hair days give way to good hair days. Such is the cycle of life.

6. You’re rewarded for your hard work (on yourself). Siobhan and I talk about this A LOT. If you are willing to put in the work, face your issues, look at what you’re holding onto from the past, you will be rewarded. How? Depends on each person, but maybe you’ll be less reactive, generally more content grateful, and less anxious. Maybe you’ll smile more which, as the photo above exhibits, is a very beautiful thing.

Other reasons getting older isn’t as bad as they claim: Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, Susan Sarandon and French women.