Jamila, Henna for African-American Hair, or Punjabi Prime

Today, I sent an email to Mehandi's customer service and as expected, they were prompt and just as helpful and informative as the website!  I wanted to share the emails with you all because I think it will help you potentially make a decision about which type of henna you might try.

My initial email:
Subject: Jamila, Henna for African-American Hair, or Punjabi Prime


Hello -

I am completely natural and this is my first time using henna.  I still have a brownish color on the ends of my hair.  I don't want a very bright red color so would you recommend Jamila, the henna for African-American Hair, or Punjabi Prime?  I read that naturals love all three!

I can't decide!

Thanks so much!

Elisa

First response:

Great question Elisa,

Punjabi prime tends to be brighter, and Jamila varies a bit from one box
to the next. I would go with the Henna for African Hair. Its consistently
a nice and not-to-bright color. You'll love it!

Second response:

I see that ***** answered you, but I will also chime in to add that, with your dark hair,  you won't get bright red in any case!  Pure henna is like wood stain - it's adds a translucent stain over the base color.  Over dark brown hair, you'll get a beautiful auburn/mahogany!

So with that said, I am going to order the henna for African-American hair.  I want to take "baby steps" before I try Jamila or Punjabi Prime.

Also I talked to my manager at work who is from India and she gave me some advice.  She advised me to stay away from mixing henna with lemon.  She highly recommends using honey and green tea.  She told me that I am giving her the itch to use henna again!

Exploring Henna

Afrobella posted about henna yesterday and Curly Nikki has a whole section on her site dedicated to her experience and love for henna!  Ever since my alopecia discovery, I wanted to give my hair a rest from the chemical dyes, so I stopped coloring my hair.  I thought I wouldn't miss having some type of color in my hair, but I was wrong (I should have known better).

So my longing for color led me to research and think more seriously about henna for quite some time now.  I think that I am going to try this out once I am officially unemployed on July 19 (doing the happy dance), just in case my hair looks crazy.  Curly Nikki's site is extremely informative and the comments from her readers are great as well.  It looks like most naturals love the henna from Mehandi.  They sell 100% pure henna and also have a very informative yet hard to navigate site (muddling your way through the site is worth it).  The free e-book is an amazing wealth of knowledge; I am still reading through it.

In terms of which henna to use, I am trying to decide between the Jamila, Ancient Sunrise Henna for African-American Hair, and Punjabi Prime (PP) varieties.  Since half of my hair is a medium/reddish brown, my fear is that I'm going to end up looking like a strawberry, so I THINK that I am leaning towards the henna specifically for African-American hair because it produces amber tones.  But I have heard great things and seen beautiful pictures of results from Jamila and PP.  Le sigh.

Besides the color, henna seems to do wonderful things to your hair!  People report that their is stronger, thicker, shinier, and at times the curl pattern is slightly relaxed (this is not permanent).  I am most excited about thickening up and relaxing my curl patter.  I will definitely blog about my experience in depth and maybe do a few videos.  Oh and don't forget, my videos for NaturallyCurly.com are up on YouTube (search by my name: Elisa Dobbins).

I was surprised to find out that some people henna several times a week.  Being that it is such a lengthy process, I can't imagine doing it that much.  But it sounds like people get hooked.  The more you do it, the more you hair benefits from the henna.

If you are a henna honey, please let me know which henna you prefer and I would love to see pictures!

I'm an Afro Glitz Web Award Nominee!

Lovelies - I am an Afro Glitz Web Award nominee for "Best Hair Blog"!!!  There are some other really great hair blogs that are nominated as well, so the catch is that the category  must be narrowed down to 6.  Please vote for me if you enjoy the content and what I'm doing.  I truly appreciate the love and support!!!

10 Day Veggie + Fruit Cleanse

I have been a busy bee preparing for my move to Ithaca and my last day at work (YAY - 10 days and counting)!  In the meantime, I am doing a 10 day veggie and fruit cleanse with my boyfriend's cousin.  She suggested that this would be a good time for me to cleanse my system and get ready for the next big step in my life - business school.  So I already don't eat meat (yes - I do cheat every once in a while), so I am hoping this won't be too bad, but I will miss carbs (oh how I love carbs)!  I'm sure my hips won't miss them!


This morning I had a great mint fruit salad full of watermelon, pineapple and grapes and I am pretty full.  For lunch, I made my favorite soup - Vegetarian Ribollita, but without the sourdough bread, cannellini beans and Pecorino-Romano cheese.  So basically it is a hardy cabbage soup.  For dinner, I am going to have some yukon gold potatoes and steamed veggies and maybe a strawberry watermelon smoothie if i get hungry after that.


I'm curious to see if this will have any effect on my hair.  Granted it is only 10 days, but I am still wondering if I will notice any kind of change in how my hair looks and feels.

My hair is still growing very fast which is great because I hope to be able to cut out the rest of the color at the end of this year.  I am still adding coconut oil to my deep conditioner and my hair is loving it.


**Let me clarify.  Yes potatoes are carbs, but they can be used in moderation in the plan that I am following.  You are only supposed to resort to eating potatoes or other root veggies after you have eaten steamed or raw veggies and are still hungry.  I know me and I will be hungry tonight, so I will be having some potatoes lol.***

J'adore l'huile de noix de coco!

Translation - I love coconut oil!  So I am trying to brush up on my French as I want to study abroad during my last semester at school (Spring 2012).  


I digress - so I wrote an article for The Coil Review about organic, extra virgin coconut oil, so I have been experimenting with it in food preparation (makes great scrambled eggs) as well as in my hair.  Here are the ways I have used it for my hair thus far.


1. Pre-shower moisturizer - I've read that coconut oil is the only oil that your hair will absorb.  Not sure if that's 100% true (meaning I'm not sure if there are other oils out there that will do the same).  So before my shower I put a quarter-sized amount through my hair and took a steamy shower.  My hair felt super soft after.


2. Deep conditioner - Last night I added coconut oil to the Redken Butter Treat conditioner I use.  I put a plastic cap on and sat under the dryer for 25 minutes.  I rinsed it out and then soaked my hair with KC Knot Today and detangled.  I decided to do a dry twist out.  Let me tell you.  Blowing drying my hair (on the warm setting) was a dream.  My hair was and still is amazingly soft!

Bantu Knot-Outs aren't just for long hair beauties!

I've been intrigued by bantu knots for a while now, but never thought I could achieve a cute look due to my length.  So last night I was watching TV and decided to try something new.  Starting with dry hair (I washed my hair and styled with Knot Today and KCC on Sunday), I lightly sprayed my hair with a water/aloe vera oil spritz and proceeded to make little bantu knots all over my head.  I secured the ends with bobby pins and went to sleep.


I woke up this morning with a cute, curly fro!  I will have to try this on wet hair and make a video about it.

Chocolate Coils + Dermatologist Visit

Since I got more of a cut, rather than a trim last weekend, I was nervous to wash my hair and wear it curly, but I was too excited to care.  In my last post, I mentioned my current issue with central scarring alopecia.  Well I am happy to report that while I was combing my deep conditioner through my hair last night, I literally only lost a few strands of hair.  Months ago, I was losing clumps of hair, and was honestly scared to wash my hair, let alone come through it.  I attribute the minimized hair loss keeping the faith, the regimen and scalp injections my dermatologist prescribed, and the great trim I got last week.

I had an appointment with my dermatologist this morning.  Nothing good or bad to report.  I received 7 more Kenalog scalp injections.  I am scheduled to go back in June for another round.

My hair is definitely shorter, but my curl pattern is much more defined since I lost the raggedy ends and I love my new rich, chocolate brown color.  The first picture shows the length in the back; you can definitely tell it's shorter.  And hopefully in the second picture you can see the curl definition some.  I am still using the Kinky Curly product line and don't plan on straying from my current routine.

 

This is why I can't keep my hair straight...

So after paying a pretty penny to get my hair blown out + trimmed + colored, I find out that it is supposed to rain for the next few days (I usually check the weather before I make an appointment, but I was so excited that I forgot this time around).  FML.  I woke up this morning determined to get to work not looking like a poof ball, so I did something that I probably shouldn't have done.  I went to work in my pink and green scarf with my hair wrapped underneath *gasp*.  So I made it through my bus and metro ride without seeing someone I know.  But I get into the elevator and of course there is someone from upper management riding up with me... oh well.

I was willing to look a hot mess if it meant saving my hair and best believe that I will be putting my scarf right back on my head when I leave to go home!

I did a damn good job though.  My hair still looks fresh!

 

Time for a blog update!

So even though I am working on a new site, I couldn't resist the temptation to update my blog now!  It was time for a change.  Big changes are still ahead!

Central Cicatricial Alopecia

On February 22, I was diagnosed with central cicatricial alopecia. This type of alopecia is also known as scarring alopecia because inflammation destroys the hair follicle causing a “scarring” below the scalp’s surface. "Central" refers to the area in which the alopecia starts (the center top of the head) and the fact that the alopecia spreads out.  At first, I was devastated – I cried for days. The dermatologist said that the likelihood of my hair growing back was slim but that she would do her best to stop the hair loss from spreading. So my doctor immediately started me on rigorous regimen of creams (some twice a day) and scalp shots (every six weeks).

 


I waited a while to share this because I was still coping with the news.  But now I am in attack mode! :).  I think the hair loss has stopped (for the time being) but I am prayerful that my hair will grow back in the affected areas.


So part of the reason I wanted a darker hair color, was to help my hair to look thicker (because of all the hair I lost at the top/front of my head) and to just give my hair that healthy look that darker hair usually has.  And as I would like to eventually go back to my natural hair color, so dying my hair darker will allow me to grow out my color without the extreme differences in color.


So today, I went to see Nicole and we talked about my situation.  She agreed that going with a darker, richer color would be a good idea and a great change.  She used a demi-permanent chocolate color and I am beyond happy with the results.  She trimmed a LOT of my hair but it looks so healthy and I feel like I have a new head of hair.  Wearing my hair straight is a challenge because I have to hide the thin top section, so I am still not completely comfortable wearing my hair blown out.  I will be sure to keep everyone updated on the situation.