Taking The Shit Out Of Hair Dying

I was unfortunate enough to start going grey when since I was 13.A long white hair was spotted by a school friend, I was mortified that I had one just as I was  going through puberty.

Life sucks sometimes.

My dad never let me dye my hair but it was ok for me to have it permed, in fact he had his hair permed at one stage (it was the 80′s).From the ages of 12 I had my hair permed by mum and by hairdressers as I got older and my hair grew longer.The fashion of perms fizzled out and I was left with speckled grey hair with a little wave in it.By the time I was 17, I was wearing my hair up in a banana clip and brought it forward to cover my greying roots.

When my dad and mum split, I was 19 and the first thing I did after leaving home to live with my mum was to dye my hair.

I loved it.

But my best friend said I really ought to try natural henna.I did it once but couldn’t be bothered to use it again and I went back to chemically dying my hair.

Then I became pregnant.

I read lots of things about what not to do when pregnant and breastfeeding but hair dying I wasn’t too sure on.I just left it longer in between dying and wore hair bands to cover my greying roots.

Now I have 3 children and 17 years on from when I first started dying my hair the process is becoming more of a concern for me.I suffer from psoriasis and this means if I have a flare up I can’t dye my hair and when I do I have a flare up.

It’s a vicious circle.

So during the Easter break  I went to my favourite handmade cosmetics shop LUSH.

I’ve been growing out the black and going back to my natural hair colour so I could go red.So I chose Caca Rouge which is priced at £7.75 and comes wrapped in paper as LUSH are committed to helping the environment.

Once home I read the instructions in the LUSH Times (but you can find them on their website) and began collecting the stuff I needed.

• Block of Henna
• A wooden spoon
• Boiled kettle
• Instructions
• Saucepan
• A heatproof bowl
• Ultrabalm (it’s better than Vaseline)
• Rubber gloves
• Clingfilm
• A dark towel
• A comb or brush with wide teeth
• 2 hours to kill

1. As I have shortish hair I put half the Caca rouge into a Pyrex dish (I used a large knife and rolling-pin to break it) and covered it with boiling water.I left it to soak for a bit before I gave it a good mix.It has to look like un-whipped double cream.I did have to add a tiny bit more hot water to get the right consistency.

2. The bowl then goes on top of a saucepan half full of hot water (a bain marie).The henna was heated up until it became quite warm.

3.To stop staining around my ears, hair and neck line I applied Ultrabalm.

4. I then put on some rubber gloves and sectioned my hair.Starting from the back, I put the henna on my dry hair (washed earlier on in the day) applying to the roots and working the henna down to the ends.I only used half of the half block in the end.

5. To make the red more intense I wrapped my head in clingfilm.To stop bits falling all over the place I wrapped a towel around on top.Then I waited for an hour for the colour to develop.

6.After an hour I washed out the henna which took some time but unlike chemical dyes my bath and shower curtain didn’t get stained.

So this is the result.

An amazing red colour and if I had time I could have repeated for another two days to intensify the colour.My usual chemical dye costs a couple of  pounds cheaper but considering I could get 4 coverings out of it, it’s worth the extra money.I’ve had no flares ups of psoriasis since and I will be using it again from now on.

28. May 2012 by Aly Hodge
Categories: WE LOVE | Tags: caca rouge, cosmetics, hair dye, handmade, henna, LUSH, natural | 13 comments