Lush Caca Marron Henna Hair Dye Review and How-To

I have known about Lush's henna treatments for quite some time, but being the giant wimp that I am, I've never had the guts to try it before now. As a matter of fact, I've never had the guts to try any hair coloring treatment before. Perhaps starting off with practically-permanent henna was a bad idea, but I never said I was all that bright. Regardless of my intelligence quotient, here are my thoughts on my experience.

I started by trying a strand test about a week ago. I mixed up about half a square of Caca Marron with some boiling water and applied it to a relatively hidden chunk of hair. In order to mimic the actual effects as much as possible, I put a zipless sandwich bag around the chunk, secured it with a hair elastic, and let it sit for four hours before washing it out in the shower. The following morning there was no obvious change to the color, but over the next couple of days it did darken up a bit, so I decided to proceed.

 

For the actual event, I used a cheese grater to pulverize three chunks of the block plus the leftovers from the test chunk. I mixed it with about two cups of boiling water and let it cool while I finished my prep work. I covered my bathroom sink and floor with newspaper, slathered my hairline, ears, and neck with Vasaline (ew), and rounded up all the mini claw clips and hair elastics I could find.

Rather than follow the directions and recommendations to a T, I divied up my hair into tiny ponytails all over the place, pulled them up into a claw clip and only let down a few at a time. For each tiny ponytail, I removed the elastic, spread the henna on from root to tip with a brush I bought at Sally's, and then consolodated the multiple mini ponytails into mini claw clips. My roommate helped me with the back and when my head was fully slathered with henna goop, he wrapped me up in plastic wrap and I stuck an elastic headband (one of the wide fabric ones) around the whole thing. I may not have applied as thick a layer as you're supposed to, because I had at least 1/3 of the stuff left, but I did apply a relatively even layer and I don't think I missed anything substantial, just a spot above my ear.

 

Cleanup wasn't too terrible. I trashed the newspaper and ginormous grubby shirt I wore and rinsed out the bowl and other utensils with super-hot tap water. Didn't bother soaping because I'm incredibly lazy, didn't want to henna the kitchen sponge, and won't be using any of these items for anything other than henna in the future.

Then I waited. And waited. And waited. Actually, I only waited for four hours, which isn't so bad. Some people keep the henna on for six or eight hours, but since this was my first experience with henna and I wasn't looking for any crazily drastic results, I didn't bother torturing myself for more than four hours.

As for washing it out, that bit sucked. Kind of a lot. I rubbed and I rubbed and I rubbed and then there was still more grainy sandy crap in my hair. So I stuck my head under the faucet. Nope, still in there. I ended up using about half a bottle of 88-cent conditioner to rub it all out, then I shampooed and conditioned with my normal stuff and called it a day. Not as bad as it could have been, and nothing in the shower stained, but still not the most enjoyable part of the process.

Now, about the smell....Everybody complains about the smell, and no, it isn't great, but it also didn't seem quite as bad to me as it does for other people. I did my grating on the deck, cracked a window in the kitchen, and hoped for the best in the bathroom. All in all, yes, my house smells like henna, and yes, my hair smells like henna, and yes, I am getting sick of it, but once it's in your nasal passages, you kind of stop noticing it until you smell something else. The scent itself is similar to a coffee shop, but with a little less coffee and a little more herbal....something. And no pastries, which is sad, but for fantastic hair, I guess I can live with it.

Speaking of fantastic, yes, my hair did turn out fantastically. I LOVE it! The color is even, natural-looking, rich, and gorgeous. I was afraid my hair would turn maroon/purpley or straight up clown red, but I ended up with an awesome brown darker than my natural brown with a coppery red glow in the light. It's nothing too obvious or drastic, which makes me love it even more.

My recommendations for anyone considering using the Lush hennas are:
1. Don't go it alone! Get some help. Wrangle one of your friends into giving you a hand so that you have someone to help you with the tricky areas and keep you company while you're sitting at home with your incredibly fashionable cling wrap hairdo.
2. Get one of those hair dye brushes. You will regret it if you don't!
3. Don't do this in the summer. Just a guess, but my head was sweaty enough and I found the smell clinging to everything as it was without throwing extreme heat and humidity into the mix. If you are going to do this in a miserable southern summer, do yourself a favor and crank up the AC for the afternoon.
4. Have something to do. Don't sit around poking your head like I did. Plan to spend the day watching entire first season of Friends or knitting a pair of socks or something. Anything! Don't sit around bored or it will make your day drag like you wouldn't believe.
5. Do utilize the cheap conditioner trick. Your hot water will not last the three hours it will take you to rinse everything out otherwise.

Have you ever used henna? Do you think you ever would? Tell me all about your experiences in the comments!