Review: Lush Caca Brun Henna Hair Dye

I have been dying my hair for years, it started with a few bleach highlights pulled through a cap (ouch!) when I was 10 or 11. Since then I have always dyed my hair with colours, bleach, semi-permanents, demi-permanents, veggie dyes, sun-in, lemon juice and anything else I could get my hands on to change the colour of my barnet, as you can see in the picture below...

So, the last 10 years of hair-dying has definitely taken its toll, leaving me with very dry, snapping hair. Also I've noticed in the past year that my hair is getting a lot thinner, especially around the crown area. So in an attempt to ward off chemical-induced male pattern baldness I started looking into healthier hair dying options.

This is where henna comes in. From researching on the internet I found out that henna is meant to be much healthier for your hair than commercial dyes, and definitely healthier than bleach. It is a depositing dye, which means it does wash out eventually, but by repeat applications of henna you can end up with a long lasting colour. Real henna produces a orangey-red colour, however it can be mixed with other natural ingredients such as indigo to produce browns and other colours. Henna also doubles as a protein treatment, leaving the hair a lot stronger, smoother and glossier. Henna is also great for people who have allergies to commercial dyes as it's made out of more natural ingredients.

I'd heard that lush did great hennas for beginners, and as I wasn't not confident enough to mix up my own henna dyes I thought it was for the best to get one of theirs. Lush Caca Brun (£8.25 from Lush) is made up of 35% henna and 65% indigo, to produce a brown hair colour with a reddish hint. The dye comes in a solid block form made up of 6 squares. It also contains other ingredients to condition your hair whilst you dye. The block is a greenish-brown colour and resembles a block of dry mud.

So, I crushed up one block of the henna and mixed it with boiling water, adding it slowly to create a ketchup-like consistency. The mixture has a rather odd smell, which I can only describe as a mixture of cut grass, leaves, coffee and ponds cold cream (what?!) It isn't a particularly pleasant smell, but not unbearable.

I then applied the mixture to my head with a tint brush, and then covered it in a disposable mob cap. The instructions say to leave it on for 1-6 hours, dependant on how dark you want the result, and to wrap it in cling film if you want a more red colour. I didn't particularly want it to be really red, so I left it open, however it started crumbling off, hence why I put on the disposable mob cap. When I have brown hair I like it relatively dark, so I left it on for the maximum amount of time.

After 6 hours of walking around my house looking like a dinner lady I went to rinse it off. Firstly I rinsed out the henna as much as I could, until the water run pretty much clear. I then took a generous amount of conditioner and worked it through my hair massaging it in as if it was a shampoo (I read that shampoo strips the henna out of the hair too much as some of the ingredients need to carry on working for 24 hours). After rinsing out the conditioner and blow drying my hair I was greeted in the mirror with smoother, glossier hair which looks brown indoors, but has a vibrant auburn tint in the sunlight... I LOVE IT! The only negative I have is the rather odd smell of the mixture seemed to vaguely linger in my hair for a couple of days after, which is not too much bother, considering all the good its doing to my hair.

Overall I think this is a great hair-friendly alternative to hair dyes. I will definitely re-purchase, however this wont be very soon as I'm only using 1 block a time, so it will last me ages. Also, I'm thinking about trying out some of their other hennas (Caca Noir).

UPDATE! Results Picture.

Have you tried out Caca Brun or any of the other Lush Hennas? let me know how you've got on with them in the comments below! 

Thanks,

  Cameron :)