Lush Henna - Anyon done this without destroying the bathroom?

[AprilSeptember]

Ok. My thin, fragile hair has had enough. I have gone full-hippy (as DH calls it) and bought a block of Caca Rouge from Lush.

I like this more now I have found out it literally means "red shit"

After watching every single video I can find, I am excited to be a flame-haired Merida type, but less excited at the UNHOLY MESS everyone seems to make.

I am thinking, as I have chin-length baby-fine hair, can I do this upside-down over the bath to avoid destroying my bathroom? If I fill a bowl and then just sort of dunk and scrub until it's all in? We're about to put the house on the market so if I can avoid dying the bathroom orange, that would be ideal.

Or is newspaper/a tarp/the garden my only option?

Help!

No need at all to grate it. Just chop into chunks and put in a bowl with boiling water over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave it for a while to melt, then squish and stir with a spatula. The runnier the consistency, the easier it is to apply. It thickens as it cools, so add more hot water if it solidifies too much while you're applying it.

I put newspaper down on the floor and stand in front of the mirror with the bowl in the sink. A dye application brush is useful for touching up the roots, but not necessary if you're doing the whole lot. Always use gloves! Use a cleansing wipe afterwards to remove excess henna from hairline, especially behind your ears.

I put in a pyrex bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Add a bit of boiling water from the kettle until it melts. If it's too thick, which it always is, just keep reboiling the kettle and adding little bits more water until you have the consistency you want.

Then carry carefully up to the bath and away you go.

How long do you leave it on for? And does it cover greys?

I leave it on for about three hours. It covers greys, but if you have dark hair they appear as redder 'highlights'.

Eek, inspired by this thread I now have henna applied and am waiting patiently.
I was planning to do 4 hours.

I’m hoping it’ll turn out alright, it was possibly a bit too thick, so not sure it’s penetrated all the way to the roots, it just kind of clumped up on top.
I have dead fine hair so hopefully it’ll have found it’s way through.
Time will tell. I’ll report back.

I put mine on the roots first. I just add it to the parting, then part again and add some more, and repeat. I do about five partings from front to back. Once I've done them, I squoosh the lengths up on top with henna and swoosh it all about a bit. Then I stick on a disposable shower cap from a hotel, some cling film, and a towel.

If you have very thin hair does it not make your scalp seem very white in comparison to the darker hair?

And how long does it take for the roots to show?

And how do you stop henna-ing your hair? Or once you've started you have to carry on for ever?

Roots in my experience show the same as with any dye, so it depends how fast your hair grows. Mine are visible after 2 weeks and obvious after 4 weeks.

I don't know about how you stop! It does fade over time so if you were growing it out it would gradually become less noticeable.

Pickle I think that’s where I went wrong, I kind of went from my hairline back, and by the time I’d realised my mistake it had all dried on top

@ScreamingValenta

So do you just do a root top up every 3 weeks or so after the initial henna covering?

It fades. You have to keep doing it.
Spread Vaseline round your ears & hairline to avoid dyeing skin.
It makes your hair really shiny & soft because the Lush one also has cocoa butter in it. Love it. Takes ages though.

Because it fades, you don't get quite the same roots showing. I need to redo my roots shortly- I'm just going to make up a small amount and do my parting. The length of my hair will cover all the other roots.

I redo my hair every 3-4 weeks and alternate just roots with doing my whole head - it's worth doing the whole head because it keeps the colour vibrant and has a conditioning effect.

I leave it on for 4 hours, wrap head in clingfilm and then a towel.

As I've gone more grey, the marron colour looks very ginger on the grey/white hairs (my hair is mid-brown and the marron makes it a lovely chestnut colour). I bemoaned this fact to the girl in Lush, and she gave me a really good tip; do a sort of ombre thing with the henna, starting with mainly brun (the brownest shade) at the roots, and then mixing in more of the marron as you apply it down the length of the hair. So I made up a main bowl of brun and marron combined (about two thirds brun to one third marron), and a smaller bowl of just marron. I applied the original mixture to the roots, and areas with the most grey (especially those bloody annoyingly wispy bits around the hairline), and then added in more and more marron as I went along. It looked much more natural (and less bright ginger at the hairline!).

I only do the full thing every 4-6 months, and just touch up the roots inbetween. The overall colour fades a bit over time, but never goes completely. 3 segments (so half a block) is ample for my shoulder-length hair. Am just about to do DD's waist-length, thick mane, though, and will be buying two blocks of rouge for that!

That's a good plan. I quite like the brighter greys- like highlights. But we'll have to see what that looks like over time.

Ok, it's on.

Thanks to whoever said sit in the bath - absolutely no clean up at all and I did get it everywhere :)

Currently got a carrier bag and a beanie on my head. DH and the kids are in stitches.

How long do I sit here for?

Also - by sitting in henna bathwater will I get a lovely tan on my legs

@Eminybob how did it go?

I use the bowl/dunk/squeeze method you're contemplating. It's very effective.

Shouldn't stain your porcelain or bath - just clean it straight away. Good luck!

Put Vaseline or thick moisturiser around your hairline first. Wrap in cling film.

It was fine. I kept it on for 3h 45m in the end.

It’s not a drastic change in colour, as I used brun. My greys aren’t as covered as I’d like.
But as pp have said it is supposed to develop more over a couple of days.

Do you still have yours on?

It's the henna that covers the grey so if you use brun, you won't get as much grey coverage.

If you went marron you'd probably get more. Or did rouge to cover the grey and then brun after to get the colour you actually wanted as the brun would then take over the red. However that is a huge amount of work.

Well I didn’t know that! I only did it to cover the greys. Poo.
Maybe I’ll go back to box dyes

I’m interested in this for my hair. I’m probably 90% grey/white at the roots but dye it a mid-brown. Would this a) cover and b) last?

Washed it off a couple of minutes ago - which I did with conditioner (again, thanks for the tip). Bathroom, hands and back of neck show no signs of going orange.

My hair is still wet, but definitely more orangey. I've been trying to achieve a copper finish over about a year of bleaching and the professional dyes I tried barely worked, or I got a much more blue-based red than I liked. This looks (fingers crossed) like the coppery ginger carrot-top I was aiming for :)