Hello hello internet people! I’ve actually done something moderately interesting that I’d like to share with you!

A quick note before I go on–this officially marks my 100th post! I feel as if we should celebrate in some way. Know that I made brownies and I intend to eat them joyously! Thank you all for continuing to support my ramblings and I hope to have many more posts in store for the future!

Now, back to the point…

As those of you who know me well know, I’ve got some major hair envy when it comes to anyone with red hair. If I could steal Karen Gillan’s hair, I would. For a more “mainstream” reference, Emma Stone’s hair in Easy A. I want THAT. But I’m also too poor to afford a salon and terrified that home dye will end up with fire engine red, which I definitely cannot pull off.

Enter henna hair dye, as produced by Lush. My good friend Lesley had used the stuff before and was happy with the results, so I figured I’d give it a go. Especially since one block (good for two times) is only $30. So Lesley and I split a block of Caca Rogue Mama, which is supposed to turn you into a gorgeous redhead, and thus began our adventure.

Mando SMASH

The block arrived. We smashed it with a hammer, divided it up into bowls, and poured boiling water over it and stirred like mad until we achieved a substance that looked like mud and smelled like some kind of hippie den.

Then, quite counter-intuitively, we both grabbed giant hunks of it and started smearing it enthusiastically in our hair. This part, while very messy, was actually a lot of fun. How many times do you get to intentionally slather your head in mud? Then we gave each other hair massages, trying to make sure we didn’t miss any major spots. After that, we wrapped our heads up in saran wrap and settled in for the long haul.

Nothing more tough than saran wrap, yo.

Because it was my first time, I only waited about an hour and a half before I washed it out. Lesley, who has black hair naturally, left it in over night. This didn’t actually make as much of a mess as I would have expected. It wiped up pretty easily, and most of it fell on the newspapers, as planned. It was a little terrifying, however, when I started trying to rinse it out. It did come out easier than I would have thought, but my shower essentially looked like Sandman had dissolved in it. That all washed away pretty quickly and I was left waiting patiently for my hair to dry so I could see what it looked like.

And it looks amazing (if I do say so myself)! It’s not quite as dramatic as I’d hoped (probably because I was scared to leave it in too long and to add any of the ingredients that can “pump up the red”) but my hair feels soft and has a gorgeous red glow that I’m in love with. Maybe next time we’ll go a little more bold, but I have to say all in all my henna hair dye adventure was a definite success! I definitely recommend this to anyone who isn’t afraid to get a little dirty and smell a little like, well… earth.

It’s no Karen Gillan, but it’ll do!