How to Henna your Hair

The Benefits of Henna

Today's post is dedicated to the henna process. Henna has some wonderful benefits, and these include:

• Shiny, more manageable hair
• Less breakage and splitting ends
• Smoother texture
• A slight reddish/ brown hair tint (depending on your natural hair color) in the sun and other lit areas

My Henna Process

Now, I have been applying henna to my hair for the past three years. I typically henna my hair once every three months. In this post, I show you the steps I take to prepare my henna, the process of how I henna my hair, and my post-henna treatments.

The morning of...

I prep my henna mixture. I use the following products/ingredients start with :

Jamila Henna, can be purchased online or at your local indian grocery store

8 drops of Real Lemon 100% Lemon Juice

3/4 cups of water

Steps to Create Mixture:

1. I start by pouring the Jamila Henna in a plastic tupperware bowl (specifically used for henna and henna only).

2. I add 8 drops of lemon juice to the henna. Lemon juice has lightening agents for hair. In the past, I have added honey to provide additional moisture. Additionally, I have also added conditioner to my henna to create a henna gloss. I received this idea from Henna for Natural Hair. There are multiple ways to mix henna and this article provides a great overview.

3. I add 3/4 cups of water to the henna and lemon juice.

4. Then I use a plastic utensil and begin to stir the products/ingredients together. 

Initially, the mixture is watery, but as stirring continues, the mixture will thicken, which is normal. 

5. Once the mixture thickens and no lumps in the mixture are detected, it should look like this.

6. I cover my mixture with a lid. 

7. I then take the henna mixture and place by the window so the heat can allow the dyes in the henna to release. The henna mixture sat by the window for 9 hours (while I was at work). 

Once I shampooed my hair using Naturally Athena Goddess Clay Cleanse, I untwisted each section of hair, applying the henna to each section.

This is how my hair looked once the henna was applied. 

I covered my hair with a plastic bag for three hours. After three hours, I rinsed with warm water. Then I conditioned my hair for 30 minutes with Naturally Athena Goddess Conditioner. It's important to condition your hair after you complete the henna process. Henna almost reminds me of a protein treatment, strengthening the hair strands. Like a protein treatment, it can also cause your hair to be a little dry. Therefore, conditioning the hair is a must after a henna application. Following my conditioner application, I then moisturized my hair with Naturally Athena Goddess Curl Creme to prepare my hair for box braids. 

24 hours of braiding later...

Until next time,

Be faith-filled, fearless, and fabulous,

Kurly Ken