Henna Hair

 I have never colored my hair before. The closest I've gotten is when my mom sprayed something in it when I was seven that would let the sun make it a little lighter, I think. But now I'm going gray. I wouldn't know myself, but Franklin has told me, the kids in the village told me, and now my neighbor who was checking me for lice told me. I didn't have lice, but I did have gray hairs. She matter-of-factly informed me that here, when you get gray hair you either color it or put henna in it. So, for fun, I decided to go for it and try some henna.

You can use tube henna, but my landlady said that will turn your hair unnaturally orange because of all the chemicals. You can use the real leaves after grinding them. We have a tree in front of our building, but if you do that the results might be a little uneven, so my landlady used powder from a store that grinds the leaves and doesn't add chemicals. You just mix a little water with the powder and put it on your hair.

Here my bhabi mixes the henna.

Here she's applying the henna.

Here's then henna sitting on my hair.

 I've seen many before and after pictures. Here's my best I'm-so-upset-with-my-before-state-that-I-can't-even-smile look.

And here's my best now-that-I-have-done-something-I-could-not-be-happier look.

 

Do you notice any difference? I think my hair actually looks orange-er in the first pictures. Maybe we should have taken the pictures in the same lighting. Or maybe I should have actually left the henna on my hair for as long as my landlady told me to. But I was afraid my hair would turn the color of the orange outfit I'm wearing in the before picture. 

Well, I'm happy with it. I never, ever wear my hair down anyway. Heat and a baby do that to you. So, the only people who will probably ever know that I did this are the people who read this blog, village kids who like to dig through my hair, and neighbors looking for lice. :)