My “hippification” began during my two years as a grad student at UC Berkeley, though I didn’t realize it at the time.
In 2008, this Jersey girl moved to the East Bay, exchanging shopping malls for farmer’s markets and Italian delis for backyard farming. I took classes with Michael Pollan and delved into biodynamic farming. My friends brewed their own kombucha and avoided antiperspirant at all costs.
Go Bears!
After graduation, I moved back to the East Coast and the “culture shock” felt like a slap in the face. Where were all the backyard chickens? Not in Southwest D.C., apparently.
Through Paleo — and especially the Paleo community here in D.C. — I rediscovered many of the things I took for granted while ensconced in my Bay Area bubble.
I started to seek out responsibly sourced meat and joined a CSA. I discovered the value of oil-cleansing, mineral makeup, chemical-free deodorant, and “barefoot” shoes. I’ve even got a kombucha guy.*
A year into my Paleo journey, I found myself covered in “hippie” goodness inside and out, from face to armpits and right down to my feet. Almost head to toe — almost. Until this last Friday, my head wasn’t entirely covered.
And then I got henna’d.
For those who may not know, henna is a natural hair color option for those of us who want a chemical-free way to dye our hair.
Liz from Cave Girl Eats, the Paleo Beauty Queen, has a great post on henna if you’re looking for more information on how it works and how to do it yourself.
I contemplated following Liz’s instructions, but the process seemed long, labor-intensive and messy. Like, CSI messy.
Liz’s bathroom sink, post-henna. (Click photo for Liz’s post.)
For a long time, I put henna out of mind and tried to ignore the growing patches of scraggly white hairs that were forming on my head.
I thought I had come to terms with going gray prematurely, until my friend Stacy (the same Stacy who hooked me up with my kombucha guy) divulged that she had found a salon in northern Virginia that does henna.
On Friday, I joined Stacy and three other friends for an afternoon at the salon. We took turns getting muddied up with a mucky concoction that smelled like a hamster cage.
The ladies who wanted a very red result chose to use henna infused with ginger. I wanted to preserve as much of my naturally brown hair as I could, so the stylist mixed up a batch of henna with coffee grounds.
“Before,” circa March 2012. It was hard to find a photo of my hair down. Note to self: enough with the ponytails.
The mixture had to sit on our heads for four hours, so we put on shower caps and passed the time by going out to dinner and visiting a nearby Whole Foods.
Yes, we walked around in public like this.
We got plenty of stares and a few people asked what we were up to. Guesses included: We were an off-shoot of the Red Hat Society (Shower Cap Society?). We were a cult. We were part of a “truth or dare”-style television show. Only one woman recognized why we looked so silly.
“Is that henna?” she asked conspiratorially, her voice hushed. We happily handed her a card and told her, “Go see Roya.”
After 5.5 hours (we got held up at Whole Foods), I spent another 45 minutes standing under my shower trying to get all the gunk out.
Creepy eyebrow. This pic belongs on a dating website, no?
Brown water pooled up around my ankles and dislodged coffee grounds splattered everywhere.
When I was finally clean, I stepped out and inspected the results: My medium brown hair took on a darker, auburn hue. The grays, miraculously covered, turned a lovely gold-flecked red. The result is reddish-brown hair with natural-looking highlights.
Still brown, but significantly more red. (Sorry about my lack of face. And my giant hand.)
The best part, though, isn’t the color or even the gray coverage. It’s the condition of my hair! So soft and so shiny.
The henna is supposed to last 3-4 months. I will do an update to this post with my long-term results, so stay tuned.
* I realize that for a lot of people, none of my new habits are particularly radical. But for me, and I assume for many others, it’s a pretty huge deviation from the norm and, I believe, a step in the right direction.
