Henna Lovers, and Mehndi Mamas! - Page 4

[lmevans]

Anyone know if it's safe to henna your hair during pregnancy?

Also, I'm having a hard time deciding which one to get (from the hennaforhair website). My hair is dark brown, with greys. The goal is to cover the grey....but my whole head isnt grey....

Any suggestions? Please? lol Never done this before.

[brightonwoman]

first of all SUBBING!!!

I have been using henna in my hair for three years--I get it from henna caravan--they sell the old body henna for use in hair (As in last year's henna) and it is good quality. I just mix it with water for my hair, never tried anything fancier than that, but it works nicely.

I've just started getting more involved with body henna myself. I had someone do my belly for me when I was pregnant the first time, and wasn't really that happy with it. The design was meh, but more especially the henna was completely gone in just over a week...I dont' know how she mixed her henna but obviously it didn't last.
I got togther with a couple of friends and hennacaravan's "expecting" kit and did a group effort belly design with this last baby, and it was awesome (also it lasted over two weeks--clearly a quality paste makes a huge difference!)...then I had all this leftover henna, and I just couldn't stop playing with it. I drew on most of the family I think... Then I stuck it in the freezer for a few months, but this week I had a girls' night out and brought it and 5 of us drew all over each other and had a ball. After that I'm starting to think of going into this professionally--I know I need to spend a lot more time practicing, but I'm thinking of perhaps setting up a booth at the farmer's market and doing it with just a little donation jar--I am not super slow but I'm not super fast, and if I did donations rather than set prices then everybody would feel fair about it I figure, and I'd be able to cover my expenses while I'm learning. I have a little flickr page of what I've doodled on the family this week...I'm definitely not feeling pro yet, but I am having fun.

Here's a question in regard to oils--the "expecting" kit came with lavendar, since it's safe for pregnancy of course. So that's all I've really worked with. I like lavendar, I like the way it smells, I'm content with the time that the stain stays...is there any good reason to dabble with other EOs? I'm thinking that it might be good to stick with lavendar for kids too, don't you think? I mean, if the other oils have potential dangers for pregnant women then doesn't it make sense to avoid them for kids?

[brightonwoman]

Originally Posted by lmevans

Anyone know if it's safe to henna your hair during pregnancy?

I did, and my baby doesn't have extra fingers or anything imo, henna is a lot safer than something like nail polish...I figured if it was ok to do my belly then it was ok to do my hair.

I use plain jamila henna with water though, no blends, so i can't speak to that.

[ewe+lamb]

I was looking for this thread the other day - thank goodness you managed to find it and posted other wise i don't think I would have ever got there - lol, we've been cracking out the henna, did some really good little ones on my dd's hands, feet and legs and have had loads of interest from the north african ladies around here so think I shall be getting some work soon, i need to work on some extra designs and remember to take photos of the work, I always forget!!! Thanks for bringing this thread back!

[Kidzaplenty]

So, for those that do body art henna, do you mix the henna just like you do for hair? Henna plus lemon juice. Or is there more to it? And then, when you apply it, how long do you leave it on?

Maybe I am thinking wrong, but, don't you wash it off after a while? And when you do, does it stain the rest of the skin? Or do you just wash it fast?

This whole body art henna stuff sounds so cool.

[ewe+lamb]

When I mix our henna we mix the powder with lemon juice, honey and a little essential oil such as tto or lavendar - earlier on in the thread there is a discussion as to what folk like to use and various different websites. Once the henna has dried you can rub it off but if you use water then the actual stain is removed as well, it's best to leave the stain for at least 24 hours, personally when the henna is dried I do the algerian thing of dabbing it with a mixture of lemon juice and sugar - or honey, and leave that on for as long as possible so that it is sealed - I know others use liquid latex but i find the sugar solution fine enough - I'll see in the future what i want to do. Best of all you can just have fun - we love it!!

[Kidzaplenty]

Isn't body art henna supposed to last for a couple of months or so? I know when I did my hair and tested the henna on my palm it was there for about three weeks or so, and I just left it on for a tiny amount of time to test the dye release.

Perhaps it is the quality of the henna that makes it last longer. I thought about playing with my children to see what it would look like.

[Theia]

Too cool! I'm sitting here with henna on my hair and just saw this on new posts while I wait for my henna to take. I've not done anything myself other than my hair but a girlfriend of mine has done a few designs on my hands.

A little ways up thread someone asked about how to cover greys with henna, and I add 2 tablespoons of ACV for that purpose. For my hair I use black coffee instead of water, an egg, a bit of EVOO, ACV, and usually some powdered Rosemary to help with the smell. Rosemary is also good for your hair, but I'm not sure about it's safety during pregnancy/nursing, although I ate it when I was pregnant.

I'd like to get into doing mehndi art on myself and DD. This thread and all of the wonderful pictures is very inspiring.

[brightonwoman]

I have always blended the powder with plain water for using in my hair. It is permenant, although of course the hair grows out, and the color does fade...but it doesn't wash out.

The only way I've mixed henna for skin painting is with lemon juice, sugar, and lavendar EO--that was the directions in the kit I got and I just stuck with it cuz I'm a novice. As for how long it lasts on skin, that depends a lot on the person and the placement...basically the henna is permenant on skin as well, but of course our skin sloughs off bit by bit and so usually the skin in a given place is totally replaced within 2-3 weeks (some places are faster, or because of skin oils/body chemistry the skin doesn't take the dye as well to begin with). I think the shortest I've had is about a week, the longest is about 2 1/2...that's on my body. ymmv of course.
Typically it stains darkest on the hands and feet, and gets paler the closer you get to the center of teh body. Faces have a lot of oils and usually don't stain very well.

[Kidzaplenty]

Actually, I have heard that good quality henna when the dye is released slowly with lemon juice an cooler temps will not fade on hair when properly applied. I have hennaed my hair for the first and second time in the last couple of months, and it has not faded one bit. Of course, I am dark haired, so perhaps if I were light haired it may be different.

I have read that if you release your henna dye with a high temp, or quickly, with water it will fade. Maybe that is why mine did not fade. I used straight lemon juice and let the dye release in a cooler spot for 12 hours.

[WasabiMommi]

I was a professional henna artist before I had my baby girl I did many indian, paki, iranian weddings as well as a few block parties, festivals and b-day parties. I loved it, it was a lot of fun! I do it occasionally for myself and friends these days...