Black Henna & Nose Rings

Once again, I am born anew.



The first thing I have to say is holy jesus do not ever try to henna your hair alone. You might have a mini breakdown and end up taking cute pictures like these in the process.



Other things you must not do:

1. If the instructions say you can use either rubber or latex gloves, it means use latex gloves. Using rubber gloves to henna your hair is like trying to play piano with mittens on.


What it looked like with the suggested amount of water added to the powder.

2. When the instructions say use either a tint brush or a 1 1/2" paintbrush, take their advice and don't throw caution to the wind and use a 1/2" paintbrush.


What it's supposed to look like.

3. You must also not assume that because you've dyed your hair by yourself plenty of times with normal hair dye, you should also be able to henna it by yourself, right? No. Henna is not built for the consumer. You are painting clay onto your hair. This is not quick and dirty, squirt it in your gloved hands and smear it all over your head hair dye. This will make you call your mother begging for help halfway through because you've realized there's no way you can paint the back of your head.



The whole process took me about 4 hours (I have a lot of hair, but still), including preparing the concoction, applying it, waiting an hour with that plastic turban on my head, and washing it all out in the shower. This is about 8 times as long as it used to take me to dye my hair. Do I regret it? Hell no. It's so good for your hair and now my tresses are black as night. But will I ever do it by myself again? Also hell no. This is something I would actually pay to have done.

But I will take in the same product, because it worked wonders.


Black henna: henna (red by default) mixed with indigo. Gave me slightly blue-green ends on the bleached part of my hair.

A couple days after this ordeal, yours truly went to finally get her nose pierced.


Me saying, "let me see this hollow needle you speak of."

I couldn't have had a better experience. I went to Fatty Zone in Mountain View (half head shop, half piercing place). The guy who pierced me, Mark, has been doing this shit for 20 years, so I wasn't worried. There was moderate pain for like 5 seconds and then it was over and I had a lovely little gem in my right nostril.

With each of these "modifications" (though when I say that I think of things more along the lines of, like, corset piercings), I felt a little more like myself. A work in progress, an unfinished art piece, a project in self-fulfillment. As if I'm an image in a coloring book, slowly filling myself in (and often scribbling outside the lines).

xoxo
Juliana