home tutorials recipes aprons/patterns Soaps

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Hen Day - Weeding and Henna Dye Tutorial

Today was a very eventful Prairie Hen Day. We went to Vea's house. She worked really hard sewing up some great shirts for her daughter's shop.
We came over to help her clean out her flower beds.
Hen Day 1Hen Day 2
We weeded for a couple of hours and things were greatly improved.
Hen Day 6
Hen Day 5Hen Day 2
My kids had a short day at school so they came over and helped weed too.
Joe made a pretty great find.
Hen Day 3
It's a good thing Miyuki couldn't make it this time. Hee Hee
We also had some Good Food.
Salad
It was my turn to fix the food and I chose a South Beach Friendly recipe.
This was originally a Flank Steak recipe. I didn't have any Flank Steak so I used chicken.
Here is the Marinade.

Marinated Flank Steak Salad (only it's chicken today)
3 garlic cloves crushed
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1-2 tsp. hot sauce
1 tsp thyme
Mix and put it in a bag with your meat (chicken, beef or pork).

Cook it up in a frying pan with all the sauce. Let it cool just a bit and slice it up and serve it on salad with a little ranch dressing.
It is sooooo good.

NEXT we had quite an adventure! I dyed my hair!
My fellow Hen, Jill, is a proficient Henna hair dyer.
I mixed up the dye last night and let it set to get the henna to work.
PHD 1
It has the consistency of a fresh cow pie. (smells like one too)
Here it the recipe I used.

Emma's Henna Hair Dye Recipe
250 g henna powder
10 black tea bags
2-3 Tbsp ground cloves
2 Tbsp paprika
1 2/3 Cup lemon juice
Olive oil (some)
Mix all the ingredients together until it is the consistency of yogurt. (that is where I add the oil till it gets that way). Leave this to sit and work for 12-24 hours. The henna needs time to activate and has to have an acid to do that.

You can get more detailed and better information at Henna for Hair.

This morning, before we started weeding, Jill put this stuff on my head. It was a bit thick so she added some water to thin it out.
Henna Dye 1
Really work it in all over.
Henna Dye 2
(yes it felt as nasty as it looks)
TIP You can put a thick layer of petroleum jelly around your head to keep from having an orange ring of skin around your face. I don't have any as I detest the stuff and refuse to buy it. You could also maybe use those strips of cotton that they use when you get a perm.

Next we bagged it up to let it set.
Henna Dye 3
Then we had to wait. Weeding took up most of that time but we finally quit waiting after about 3 hours. (they recommend at least 4)
Then we had the chore of washing the gunk out. That was a chore! The recommended way is to use about 1/2 a bottle of cheap conditioner to help you get it out.
Well, I left that home so we had to improvise. Shampoo helped a little.
Then I had the brilliant idea to use Vea's marvelous hand-made Lye Soap. It did the charm. It really lathered up and got all the gunk out. The I rinsed my hair with about 1-2Tbsp of vinegar in about 2 quarts of water. I rinsed it with water again after that. All the gunk came out. I was very impressed.
It took an eternity to dry as I have hair that is thick enough for about 3 people.
Her is the finished result.
Henna Dye 5
Inside, it just looks auburn. Outside in the sun, it is very red.
I like it. (jumping and giggling) Bryan likes it too. :o)
It has the wonderful aftereffect of making my hair smell like gingerbread.

8 comments:

Emily Cole said...

Lucy - It looks very natural for you! I would not be so brave to put all that mud on my hair, but great job and I'm glad you had a wonderful Hen day! Em

LJ said...

it looks so wonderful! one has to have free undyed hair to do henna right?

Princess of Everything (and then some) said...

Your hair is beautiful!!

Janice said...

I'm not sure I'd want all that muck on my head but I sure like the way it turned out!!!

Jeanne said...

We should have done mine while I was there. I want to try it. But I know that I couldn't do in myself.

Lucy said...

You let me know when you are coming again and we will do it!

zakkalife said...

I agree with em, it looks very natural, and wow I saw the pic of all the hair you cut off

At first, I was scrolling down the site quick and thought the henna dye was the marinated flank steak, LOL

GlowWorm said...

I had a shock today about henna--check it out, I blogged it.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...