After much deliberation I decided to take the plunge and Henna my hair. I ordered 400g of Henna from a reliable seller on Ebay and ended up using 250g on my hair.
I mixed it up in a great big pudding bowl with orange and lemon juice until it was a mashed-potato consistency, then covered the bowl with cling film and left it to sit for around 16 hours. I added more orange juice to thin it, wrapped a sheet around my shoulders that I usually use for painting, and started glooping it on my hair.
I started at the back and tried to section it out as much as possible. It got tougher the more hair I added until it just became a muddy mess. I rubbed my fingers through it trying to massage the henna deep into the hair and glooped more on until it was thickly covered. Quite a lot of it splattered about and I ended up with henna on my face a neck which stained them orange for a while, but that soon disappeared. Unsure as to how evenly I had applied it I figured I’d done the best I could so I wrapped my head in cling film and proceeded to wait for four hours. I just drew and did computer stuff as per usual. I had to stuff the edges of the cling film with tissue paper to stop liquid-henna running out. It felt really warm and heavy on my head.
After four hours I ran a bath and soaked my hair in it. It helped get the majority of the muddy henna out and I showered the rest, washing my hair with teatree shampoo as I normally do but with extra conditioner. I figured all the henna was out when the water started to run clean. So I got out the bath, towel-dyed my hair, and ran off to my D&D game. I didn’t get a proper look at it til afterwards.
As you can see it is quite a difference from my dark-blonde hair! I’m pleased with the colour. I had worried it would look orange but it is definitely red! It seems really even all over and I don’t seem to have missed anything after all! I’ll be interested to see it in daylight and wonder how it will turn out in a few days time when it settles to its ‘true colour.’ Overall I’d say dying hair with henna is a piece of cake!
I found Henna For Hair a really useful resource.