My Henna Hibiscus treatment experience on Natural Hair

So I finally got a henna + hibiscus treatment sometime in May. To be honest, this was not the first time I would be doing a henna treatment, but the first time in over a year. I had previously been using the henna bar from lush cosmetics, but it is really expensive for henna, in my opinion. Once it finished, I stopped doing henna treatment, but nappilynigerian’s rave about it, and Anna’s experience with it made me try it out once again, this time, with hibiscus.

So I started by using a blender to make a paste out of hibiscus flower, because I did not have hibiscus powder then. 

Be warned that this is not the best method, cos it will leave hibiscus residue all over your hair, which will take days to get rid of. It is better you use hibiscus powder in your mix, and this can be found on our online store. I then mixed the hibiscus paste with henna paste, added a little lemon juice for acidity, and soaked it for 8 hours.

If you use the powder, the paste will be extremely red.

I then applied the mix all over my hair, with my bare palms. I had the mix in my hair overnight, cos the day was already over, but anything from four hours is okay. The next day, I proceeded to wash off, shampoo, and followed up with a deep conditioner.

To be honest, I felt my hair was going to be coloured, but after getting the treatment, it wasn’t. I later found out that it hardly colours black hair, but it does colour white people’s hair. In fact, I met a young Nigerian lady with grey hair, who uses henna to cover up her grey strands. Henna actually dyes her hair reddish. I later found out that if your hair is rich in melanin, making it black, you will hardly notice the colour effects of henna, but doesn’t mean it doesn’t have effect. But since grey hair, red hair, blond hair, etc. are not rich in melanin, you see the visible effects of henna. In fact, the effect of henna is so strong that it dyed my palms red for 2 weeks. 

It was strange, going around with red palms. I looked like a mutant, and everyone kept asking questions. It dyed my fingernails permanently, till the dyed part grew out and broke off. As I type this post, half of my nails are still red.

Since hair and nails are very similar, I am very sure it also has colour effects on our strands, but we can’t see it. If you choose to use hibiscus in your henna treatment, please wear a pair of gloves. You have been warned. Here are real life pictures of my mutation when I went to speak and present at seminar two days later.

It was only when the pictures of the event came out that I realised how ridiculous I looked, speaking and presenting with read palms. I just hope those hands did not distract my listeners, cos they sure are distracting me, just by looking at the pictures.

Now, here is the twist. Even though I used my whole palms to apply the treatment, the back of my hands were not turned red. Why is that? Still brings us back to the melanin issue. There is melanin on black skin, but not on our palms. The treatment dyed the palms, but not the skin. Same logic for black hair vs grey and blond hair effect

After my treatment, to be honest, I have experienced less shedding and breakage. I know it is not due to the treatment alone, but I believe the treatment takes a large part of the credit. I will definitely be doing this treatment every two or three months.

If you want to get your own henna or hibiscus powder, don’t go too far. You can place your order for it on the African Naturalistas store here. They are just 500 naira for every hundred grams, and you can’t even finish that at once. Place your order now.

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