How to grow out Henna

Hello Lovelies!

I love henna, I love the vibrant colours and the durability and nothing will make your hair as shiny and strong as henna. Unfortunately there might be a time you want to go back to your original hair colour. I always believe that true beauty lies in everything natural. So going back to my chestnut hair colour was always somewhere in the back of my mind. The last time I coloured my hair red was January 2012! It has been two years! My hair grows about 2 cm every month, which means my natural hair colour is about shoulder length now. It is a looong way to go! And it is easy to get frustrated and fed up on the way and relapse & colour your hair again. Here are some tips that helped me a lot on my way back to my natural hair colour.

1. Love your colour. 

Yes, that's true - you need to be ok with your hair colour no matter what colour you have. Do you have ashy brown hair? Light blonde hair? Mousy brown or dark brown? Go to Pinterest (I love it!) and build an inspirational colour board. Every colour that grows out against a vibrant henna shade is bound to look mousy, grey boring and yes somehow not taken care of and oily. You need to be brave and trust that your own hair colour will look beautiful once it has grown a little more and you can see it's beautiful colour shades. Every time you want to run to the drugstore and grab that bottle of hair die or mix your favourite henna recipe - be brave and look at your hair style inspiration board. You might be surprised to see how beautiful your colour is once it is visible. It also helps if you give a way your henna box and hair dyes to friends and family. It's just less temptation to go back on a weak moment.

2. It is ok to cheat a little.

The first 10 cm are the hardest. You don't know why you have to look like a little skunk and anyway natural hair colour is overrated?! So it is ok if you do cheat once in a while. Go and buy rinsable colour mousse, one time colour enhancer, whatever you want. Just make sure that they are 100% rinsable to prevent resulting night mares! All the hair dyes I have used are 100% rinsable on my medium brown hair, but if your own hair colour is very light be aware that there might be a slight colour tinge left. I will list down my favourite products.

3. Go for a slight fading

Embrace the ombre look :) We are very fashionable right now. If your own contrast is very strong you might want to think about dying your hair with less red tones until you have a smooth fading colour that will not bother you too much. If you are using dark red henna, use medium red the next time, and the a brownish henna with red undertones until you are close enough to your own colour.

4. The 2 weeks rule

Everytime you really want to go back to henna ir hair dye - take a break! Think about it for 2 weeks and if you are still strongly feeling about going back to red again then do it after two weeks. Chances are that you will change your mind soon and the regret any impulse decisions you might have done.

Help - need a smoother fading?

Try these rinsable colour mousses:

• Feuermohn - accent , lasts about 3-4 weeks very vibrant and beautiful. You can see the colour here on me : 
• Revlon - Copper Nutri Colour 740 , creamy and just a slight reddish hint, washes out in two washes. 
• Wella Colour Fresh Dark Copper, lasts about 4 washes, very natural orange tinge.

What do you think about the natural hair colour debate? Do your wear you own hair colour or prefer another colour?

Classic Hair Length

Hello Lovelies!

One of my lovely readers just pointed out that I did not post my classic length hair picture yet :) So here we go, this picture is 1 month old, but as y'all know - nothing much is changing. I now have red/brown ombre :p ! Thanks to the sunlight the henna really shows up again. I think that's it I will not grow my hair longer. But who knows I might add some face framing layers or change the colour a little bit. Lately I feel like I need more self-confidence and going red is my power colour, like some blondes like to go blonder and blonder and blonder. Will be rinsable again I think though :o) 

Review: Aubrey Organic's White Camellia Shampoo

Hello Lovelies,

If your hair is as dry as my hair and curly or wavy it is like a special quest to find a shampoo that is not drying out your hair and causing frizz. Aubrey Organic's is my favourite hair care brand and the White Camellia series is especially formulated for very dry hair. I had the conditioner as well and it is for sure one of my favourite conditioners! But be warned that this series is really only something for very dry hair - I don't have european fine hair, my hair is coarse and very thick. This series would be a good choice for women of colour as well, my roommate uses my shampoo on her shoulder length afro from time to time! I like to alternate White Camellia with the GPB Series (one of my favourite's as well! But causes a protein overkill from time to time so you need to alternate anyway). I usually dilute my shampoo, but White Camellia needs to be used pure otherwise my hair does not get clean.

INCI: Aqua, glycerin, decyl glucoside, sodium cocoyl hydrolyzed soy protein, oryza sativa extract*, prunus amygdalus dulcis oil*, camellia japonica seed oil*, glucose, xanthan gum, simmondsia chinensis seed oil*, rosa rubiginosa seed oil*, glyceryl linoleate, glyceryl linolenate, citric acid, tocopheryl acetate, pelargonium graveolens flower oil*, lavandula angustifolia flower oil*, macadamia ternifolia seed oil*, citrus grandis extract, glycine soja oil, glucose oxidase, lactoperoxidase, ascorbic acid, aloe barbadensis leaf juice*, alcohol denat., (38b, lavender*), hamamelis viginiana water, daucus carota sativa root extract, beta-carotene.

Ingredients

Lots of almond oil, soy protein and camellia oil! Camellia oil was especially used in Japan and is a famous though very expensive hair care oil. 

Fragrance

Like all AO products the fragrances are all natural and without artificial components. Which makes them pleasant for me but it is not the soapy dove smell that comes with regular drugstore products. White Camellia does not smell floral but more herbal/mossy and it has definitely some eucalyptus like fragrance. My favourite AO smell is honeysuckle rose which is a very sweet flowery smell btw! 

Effect

My hair is heavy and takes much longer to dry. The curls and waves are defined. If I do not rinse it well it leaves an oily residue. And it is an absolute frizz killer!

Did you try any of AO Products? Did you like them or do you prefer another brand for organic hair care? 

Flechtwerk- Flower Power Spring Up-Do's

Hello Lovelies!

I hope all of you are enjoying spring time and spending as much time as possible outside! I am so excited for today's post - flower power hairstyles! I love a simple braid or bun with pin in flowers. I think it is always a cute and romantic look without overdoing the bling. While taking the pictures I noticed that you can see my natural hair colour very well - I got a new camera for my birthday last week! I am still working on the manual focus sorry for the blurriness. I am excited how the girl's hairstyles will look like! My bun is a messy wrap around bun with a dutch lace braid to soften the look. Have a look at the girl's posts,  Heike, Nessa, Bobby, Wuscheline, Lenja. I just pinned in red poppy/bobby pins. I love the colour combination red, blue and white during summer! Reminds me of the sea and sailors somehow :) . You can get flower clips at H&M, Claire's or do them on your own, like Rachel does here on this tutorial.

dutch lace braid

flower up do

messy bun

Natural Hair Colour

And here is my natural hair colour! My own colour has  grown up to armpit length/ bra length depending on which layer you are looking. It is medium brown with lots of golden and red streaks in it! Who could have known that my own colour would be so nice! It was quite a surprise for me for sure ^^ I do miss my vibrant red henna though. But I always think that nothing is a beautiful as natural beauty. I am looking forward to go back to occasionally red tones with rinsable colourmousses. I really want to post a review about non-permanent red hair dyes which will help you also while you are growing out your colour. Hopefully in a few weeks :)

growing out henna