Henna for Strength

A week ago, I noticed that my ends were breaking off. My loose twists were out, but as I finger detangled, I noticed shorter pieces of hair sliding off into my hands.  So, I decided to henna my hair.

Except for knots and splits that I personally trim off, I'm rarely ever forced to contend with breakage that's beyond my control.  

You shouldn't have to either.  

Lessening breakage is primarily why I go without

 combing.  

You guys know that already. 

I'm always examining my ends- a habit I've picked up as a natural- to stay abreast of how well my hair is faring.  Years of this semi-obsessive behavior have thought me some things about my hair.  I've learned that the strands of hair on the crown of my head 

are:

*the biggest in curl diameter 

*the slowest growers

*the thickest in strand width

*the silkiest with defined clumped curls

*the easiest to detangle

They're also hardier in that they almost never split, and that they also have little to no SSKs.  I'd call my crown my 4a section.  It seems to withstand the trauma combing can induce, the best on my head.

4a sections

Around most of the perimeter of my head, the strands

are:

*the tiniest in curl diameter

*the fastest growers

*the thinnest in strand width

*the coarsest with defined clumped curls
*easy to detangle but fragile

The hairs here, split all the time (I'm constantly monitoring and trimming them), and because the curls are so tiny in this section, I have to deal with a higher occurrence of SSKs, and mid-strand splitting that seem to be exacerbated with comb or brush use.

some 4b/4c sections

But, months arise when finger detangling isn't enough.  Sometimes, I like to have a clean slate-flawlessly detangled hair, with zero shedded leftovers.

These are the rare months when I do a thorough brush detangle.  A necessary evil, because my 4b and 4c sections don't seem to handle it well, and because, I'm always loosing inches of hair, to mid-strand splits. 

More on mid-strand splits

Curly hair can certainly be fragile, but breaking (or splitting) hair really isn't normal.  If you notice breakage, don't accept it.  Instead, try to scout out the cause, and try to mitigate it.  Every strand on your head won't be perfectly preserved strands of healthy hair, but work towards attaining that, anyways. 

 

Tips on lessening breakage

I decided to finger detangle with ghee butter/oil, that I scored at the Indian section of my farmer's market.  Dynamite blogger Natmane with the dynamite hair (seriously y'all, check her hair out) from Deepbrown & Kinks reviewed man shanu (cow's butter) exactly a year ago on her blog.  I swear, the instant I saw the jars of ghee arranged on the market shelves, my eyes lit up at the prospect of finally being able to personally test drive this stuff.

Courtesy of Deepbrown & Kinks

Admittedly, my jar of ghee didn't have the yogurty consistency I'd been expecting.  Instead, what I uncovered was a golden liquid, with lighter-weighted chunks of butter floating about underneath the oil layer.  
Smells of movie popcorn butter, and hints of caramel, wafted up to my nose the closer I peered in to check it out.

Oh!  In case you're wondering what ghee is exactly; it's basically, refined or clarified butter, where the milk and saturated fats are boiled off, and the pale ghee oil is left over.

It is purported to be full of vitamins A, D, E, and K.  It also has a high burn point, (400 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit) making it useful for heat styling and for protection from the sun, and it has a higher shelf life than many other oils.

We really should be eating it, but one thing at a time, right?  Lol.

 My hair seemed to soak up the ghee really well, and I plan to continue to use it, especially since I've finally started scraping the bottom of my tub of coconut oil.

Taking my own advice, I decided to henna my hair because, it definitely needed a shot of a strengthening treatment to curb the breakage.  

Henna is supposed to bind to the cuticles, thus fortifying hair strands, and lessening breakage.  It's also used to promote strand thickness.  

More on henna

So, I thought it apt to finally put to use, the bag of henna I won from Blackgirllonghair's shrinkage contest contest two years ago.

Henna by The Hair Shebang

Jamila Premiere Qualite Henne also recommended

I mixed in 100g of the Hair Shebang's pure henna with Trader Joe's Refresh Citrus Conditioner, 250mL of  Baraka Rosewater, and unmeasured amounts of water (I kept adding it in until my mixture was creamy).

 I should've doubled up, however, on my mixture because 100g was only enough to thoroughly coat half of my head.  

Henna has a muddy texture, though it isn't exactly gritty to the touch, I suspect that microscopically, henna particles are possibly jagged.  So, I was extremely careful to not run my hands down my hair, in the motion that I would use with a conditioner.  This was in an effort, to not introduce more tears to my cuticle layers, that could result in additional mid-strand splits.

I would scoop up clumps of henna, and sort of pack/pat them onto sections of hair.

Length check! Waist length?

Afterwards, I covered my hair in a plastic cap, and left the treatment on for two hours.  In the meantime, I also mixed up my post henna treatment.  Henna can dry out the hair, so a serious deep conditioner to remedy any dryness, is usually recommended.  

*Scoops of mayo

*3 tablespoons of ghee

*3 capfuls of olive oil

*3 tablespoons of honey

Stir until smooth and even

Two hours later, I carefully rinsed out the henna.  I stood directly under the shower stream, and rinsed out each section (2 in total) separately.  I was deathly afraid that my pipes would clog up, so, I periodically would use my toes to agitate the drain to clear up any blockages.
Lol.  

Post henna rinse

Some curls hung lower than usual.
No evident color deposits from the henna.

After  a lot of rinsing, I deep conditioned over night with my mayo mix, and shampooed in the morning.  Finally, I co-washed with my Trader Joe's Citrus conditioner (I really just needed something scented to coat the warring smells of the henna, mayo, and ghee lol), and I trimmed an inch of hair off.

See those edges?  Those curls indicate uber hydration from my deep conditioners.
Curly hair that shrinks is healthy, happy hair.

So!  After all that work, how does my hair feel, and was it worth it?  

Well, right away, my hair felt "springy".  It also felt "strong".  Cliched, but it really did!  However, after reports of major dryness post henna (thanks Naprika! ;-P) I tempered my wonderment at my stronger feeling hair, and upped my moisturizing regimen (twice every day).  Two weeks later, my hair feels exceedingly soft.  I still see breakage, but I feel more armed.

I've also got boxes of Jamila left over, so I think I will revisit henna in the months to come.

Any henna lovers out there?
Do you henna for color or just for it's fortifying properties?