HENNA! A review of LUSH's Caca Brun

I've been thinking about henna-ing my hair for a while and finally decided to take the plunge. I've got a terrible cold, but while JJ is at work and PP is at school, I've actually got enough alone time to do this since it takes a few hours. It's sad when I get excited about being sick in order to have a lazy day to my self. Ha!

I so went to my local LUSH store and talked to the really nice sales girl about the henna. I did not want to go red, just a nice rich brown. I had my eye on the caca brun from reading online reviews, and she agreed. Her only concern was the blonde highlights I had which she said can turn green - yikes! She told me to do a strand test and sent me on my way with a block o' henna, some nifty samples and a deep conditioner (oops) called H-Suan Wen Hua. I won't even try to pronounce that.

Hair sample before strand test.

I got home and snipped a little chunk of hair that included a highlight and some natural.The sales girl told me I could just pull some out of my hairbrush to test, but I found that gross. Hehe. I mixed up a little of the henna with hot water and let the hair sample sit in the mix for about 3 hours. A lot of people have issues with the smell but I love it. It's like strong green tea mixed with earth. But I'm weird like that.

Caca!

After three hours, I honestly didn't see a big change. I was actually planning to return the henna and just stick to my toxic chemical dyes. Boo. BUT - when I got up the next morning, the hair was darker and had a much richer look to it. I knew the henna would oxidize over a few days but I did not expect to see a difference so soon. Since I'm still hacking up a lung and taking another day at home, I decided today is the day!

My "before" hair is naturally a mousy light brown/dirty blonde which I hate. I've traditionally highlighted all over for blonde but I am so sick of being blonde. About a year ago I started coloring all over with a darker brown and leaving just a few highlights peeking through. But no matter what, the color fades, my hair is breaking off, my ends are disgusting and the color is just not what I'm looking for - that delicious chocolate/coffee brown. It was so stiff and stretchy when I would blow-dry it, I ended up wearing it in a pony tail most of the time.Here are some before hair pics:

Before - It looks much more red here than in real life??

Before - About two inches of natural color roots.

I am not going to go into a long step-by-step process on how to mix it all up because there are so many already out there. I suggest looking at YouTube and even the Lush website. The product reviews have lots of advice. But, I used three blocks for my fine, just below shoulder length hair. I mixed my henna with really strong coffee and used the double boiler method. When I transferred my little boiling pot of poo into the bathroom, I began applying in sections, starting with the roots. The mix did begin to get cold and that made it harder to apply because it was getting chunky and stiff. After I had applied, I saw a tip to use a crock pot to keep it warm while applying. Next time, I will definitely do this! I twisted my hair into muddy henna dreads and piled them on my head while I proceeded to veg out to old 90210 episodes on the Soap Network. Ahhh.

Two hours in, I did a color check by pulling a little piece from the back and washing the henna off. It wasn't quite as deep brown as I was aiming for so I decided to let it go another 1.5 hours. Getting there, but still not quite. After another hour (total of 4.5 hours), I decided to shampoo and see my results.

All I can say is... WOW. I LOVE IT. The brown is just what I am looking for and I have just the tiniest bit of lighter highlights still peeking through. I really hope it continues to deepen over the next few days. It is so soft, has body and hallelujah - no stiffness or stretch when blowdrying! I suck and did not take immediate after pics, but here are some a few days post-henna.

Sister and I - she's obviously the blonde :)

My adorable husband

A few things I recommend/will do differently next time:
1. Keep the mixture hot and make it a little thinner for the application. Mine was thick and got hard to spread.
2. Definitely do a strand test.
3. Do a color check a few hours in. I think if I had rinsed it after the first two hours like I planned, I would not be as happy with the color change.

Will I henna again? You betcha. I read a ton, and I mean a TON of reviews and how-tos before I did this. And most were true. Does it make a huge mess - yes. Does it take forever - yes. Is it unpredictable and a little scary - oh yes. Does my hair look amazing - yes, yes and YES!!!