When going natural doesn't work

I loved the idea of using henna, I really did. Now that I'm going to start having Ralph's ex-mother-in-law do my hair (no, I'm not worried about her purposely dying it purple or shaving it, she's very nice), I have to find my own hair color. I called my ex-stylist to ask what color she used on my hair, but, seeing as how she's now lost my business, she never called me back. Oh well.

My fellow "no-pooers" on Live Journal all use henna, so I thought I'd give it a shot. The kind most of them use, though, is extremely expensive, as it would cost me over $45 dollars. And the site said I might need to repeat the process before desired results. Seeing as how I'm doing this to save money, that wasn't an option. So I looked on another website and found Light Mountain for only $7.99. Much better. Of course, I know cheaper price means cheaper product, which could mean not-as-good results. But that wasn't my only problem.

When the box came it had two packages of powder, one of henna, and one of indigo (or black henna, as they called it). I had to go to the store to buy distilled water and then heat it in a non-metal container and then pour it into two separate containers to mix (with a non-metal spoon) with the two herbs. I then had mix the concoctions until they were a grainy paste and let them sit for an hour before using them. I packed the glassware containing my pastes into the car and drove over to Martha's. As soon as she saw that I had henna, she said, "Oh, yeah, that stuff is not so good. Many hairstylists won't use it because it's so time consuming." But she agreed to give it a shot and proceeded to spend the next two hours painting paste into my hair.

She put the henna on first, which turns the hair a reddish color but needs to be a base for the indigo, otherwise I'd look like a blue-haired old lady. I had to sit with the mud on my head for about 15 minutes, then she started the laborious job of rinsing it out, only to have to repeat the process with the indigo. After all that, my hair really didn't look that much different, since I'd had it dyed so dark before. The roots were reddish, but there was no indigo in sight. Sigh.

I have nothing against Light Mountain, I'm sure it works for some people, and it might have worked for me, maybe I didn't something wrong in the mixing. Even if it had worked, though, I don't think I'd do it again, as it's so involved and there are so many steps. To me, unfortunately, it's just not worth it.

Martha was so nice, though. Even after I made her do that with her knowing it wasn't going to work, she volunteered to come to my house on Tuesday and bring real dye and fix the mess I'd made. I swear she's a saint.