Henna, the day before

Danish language lesson: There is this delightful danish term called tøsefornærmet.
Loosely translated, I guess butthurt would be the closest single word.
The meaning is a little different though: It means that overly dramatic, disproportionately offended reaction that a teenage girl can display. The kind of overreaction that is as ridiculous as it is funny. Think "Hmpf!" and the nose firmly in the air. There you go, that's what it means.

Tøsefornærmet is exactly how I feel about 23andme not finding any pheomelanin in my DNA test.
It's illogical, I know.
But I guess that's how feelings work. They're not always rational.

Anyways.
Ever since, I have wanted to enhance the red tones that I apparently don't have.
(Hubby insists that I do and I have always described my hair colour as "Not really blonde, not really brown, but with some red tones", so... Meh, what can you do?)

I have done (light) henna on and off since 2014. I have a recipe for a very light henna gloss that I have been using with a few tweaks ever since.

So... Henna-time!

It's been quite a while, so I'm just going to grab my old notes...

First step is to have the supplies ready and clear the schedule.

There are three main parts to the supplies I need:

• The actual treatment supplies. Both for the henna gloss and the conditioner afterwards.
• The supplies for entertaining myself while I wait out the worst of the dripping in the bathtub (It's actually surprisingly hard to kill that much time in a bathtub)
• The supplies for entertaining myself while I wait out the out-of-bathtub part of the treatment. 

Day one (Planned for tomorrow)

Henna gloss supplies (The recipe itself)

• Cassia
• Conditioner(s)
• Henna

Why is my frozen henna marked with "Not eatable!"? This is why.

Other supplies for the henna gloss

• Bandages, several
• Cling wrap
• Heating pads
• Heating cap
• Warm hats

Other supplies
Time! Clear your whole day for day 1.
Prepare a comfortable "henna nest" set up: Blankets, pillows and towels on top of it to protect it. Make sure to have good support of your back and head.
Entertainment in general! This is the biggest challenge: To be able to entertain yourself while you wait out the time while being unable to move around very well. It's just generally mildly uncomfortable to have all this stuff piled up on your head. Think books, laptop, tablet, phone, DVDs, TV etc. I strongly suggest watching something with subtitles as the cling wrap and warm hats seriously mess with your hearing!
Wear some dark and old clothes you don't care about.

• Facial masks and pedicure/manicure supplies or something else to pass time with
• Snacks, food and drinks
• Scented candles or something else that is nice and relaxing
• Something nice for the bath, like bath salt or fizzers

Day 0: Preparations
Clean your hair of product and go to bed with "naked", product-free hair.
Make sure you have no appointments for the next day.
Prepare the "henna nest" if you can.
Get some snacks and entertainment ready if you can.

Day 1: Henna
Mix your henna mud.

Igors recipe henna gloss for calf length, iii hair
100 g cassia
5 g henna (From freezer, unless Mr. Igor has eaten it!)
Approximately 700 ml cone-free conditioner
2 ampoules Lador perfect hair filler

Prepare a "nest" in your couch or bed: Pillows, towels, entertainment and snacks within reach.
Prop pillows up so you are comfortable half-sitting up. You need to be comfortable as long as you can. Have pillows under your knees. Have music or scented candles or something else relaxing ready.

I have a stack of books ready: A childhood favorite that I recently bought and made me feel extremely nostalgic.

Bring cling wrap, heat pads, bandages and warm hats into the bathroom.
I suggest bringing your laptop into the bathroom for entertainment here. Have a series queued up so you have something to kill the time with in the bathtub.
Take your henna-mix and apply it to your hair. Section off hair so you can get all the way to the roots.
The mud is rather thick and can be difficult to distribute, so patch it on in sections.
You want to avoid too much messing around with it, since it is so grainy and rough on your hair and scalp.
Because the henna-mix is so light, you don't have to worry about stains everywhere.
Once you have your hair covered in the henna-mud, wrap cling wrap around it.
Use the ends of the cling wrap to cover the hairs at your neck.
Cover everything with warm hats and a heating pad.
Don't wrap the around bandages when you get in the tub.
Just wrap the cling wrap and put warm hats over.
You want the worst of the dripping to be over with before you get out of the tub.
You only get that by actually allowing it to drip out.
Draw yourself a nice bath and angle the laptop so you can see it from the tub.
Henna and cassia are actually very good for your skin, so see this as a treat for your skin as well as hair.
Add bubbles or fizzers or something else to the bath to make it more fun.

I have bath fizzers and a bubbly facial mask ready to go!

The bath is the only way I have found the dripping to be tolerable: No matter what I do, it will drip. I have seen other people experiment with packaging tape to keep the moisture up under the cling wrap, but... brr. Seems very uncomfortable to me!
But allowing it to drip down while I'm warm and wet in the bath anyways, severely limits how freakishly annoying it is.
Dripping henna mud while you're out of the bath is seriously like a kind of Chinese water torture.
I like to stay in the bathtub for about an hour. It cuts about 80% of the dripping and makes the whole process a lot more tolerable.
Wrap the bandages around your hair to keep the rest of the dripping down. Don't wrap too tightly as it will cause headaches and discomfort.
Rinse yourself off, dry yourself off and get in some old clothes.
Then get in your prepared "nest".

I have set up a nest already, with lots of towels and even a heating blanket for extra comfort!

Put on your heating cap to keep your hair and mud nice and warm.
Even if you have a desired time-frame to keep your treatment on, it will never harm your hair to keep the mud on for as long as you can stand it!
The key is to limit irritations like dripping, keep yourself comfortable with a nice "nest" and have some entertainment ready.

Not sure if it's possible, but I have picked up some pedicure-supplies. Maybe I can kill some time with that tomorrow. Maybe I can't, I can easily imagine it would be too uncomfortable to bend over to focus on my feet with so much (dripping) weight on my head?

You may want to limit fluids as going to the bathroom with henna mud on your head is mildly irritating.

I have picked out a plate of sushi from today, for being easily accessible food for tomorrow.

I even made blueberry muffins for snacks!

Once you are done with your henna-treatment, wash it out gently by soaking your hair in the tub and slathering conditioner on.
Using conditioner will also help you get the last leftovers of mud out.
Even after rinsing with water alone looks clear, your conditioner may turn green when you apply it!
Your hair might feel cranky and dry as you rinse it clean. That is normal.
It will feel awesome and strong once you add some regular conditioner or leave in-conditioner.

Okay. I feel prepared!