FocusPositives

One of my favorite buns had little braids in the middle. I tried it before I knew how to  make my sock bun looking nicely. The technique I saw didn’t work for my annoying hair. When I saw the bun again while surfing the internet I thought I’d give my “Gutsy Sock Bun” technique a little challenge and see if it would work. With some modifications,  my “Gutsy Sock Bun” technique  handled my disobedient THICK, STIFF, and LAYERED hair very well. Let me know if it works for you as well. Enjoy!

Materials:

• Scissors
• A sock
• A doughnut or a DIY sock doughnut
• Rubber bands
• Comb

Directions:

1. Cut a 1″-2″ hole at the toe of the sock and your ready to start !
2. At the highest point where your bun will sit, grab a small circular section of hair and tie it up. Don’t grab too much hair for the top, you’ll need more hair at the bottom to cover the sock and mesh donut.
3. Select a tiny bunch of hair. braid to the end and tie it off. If you have longer hair you can braid half way down or a little more to save time. The ends of the hair will be tucked and hidden inside the bun.
4. For my bun I did about 8 braids, you can do more or less according to your preference. I think the more braids the better the bun looks.
5. Grab the rest of the hair and tie it up and finish off with using “a bun with a gut” technique.

KEY POINTS:

• The thinner the braids the easier it is to conform to the shape of the bun.
• Keep the braids wrapped in the center of the pony tail
• Spread braids evenly over mesh donut

Here’s a quick tutorial for those of you who use your hair bun mesh donut very often like me. The mesh donut will eventually either completely or partially break apart. The mesh material is very sturdy, there’s no need to create waste so don’t throw it out. I’ll show you how simple it is to fix in the video below. Enjoy!

Materials:

• Needle
• Needle threader (optional)
• Matching thread

http://youtu.be/SrTZSHoHWP8

This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclaimer for more information.

My natural hair color is black. I have lots of premature whites growing in. Love them or hate them a lot of women are growing out their greys these days. It’s also an opportunity to have fun with colors. I love henna, it completely covers my white hair and makes it shine brilliantly with glowing red and orange hues. Henna gives my course hair softness it’s never had before. I especially like that henna is all natural and doesn’t contain any chemicals. My biggest problem was I had a hard time coloring my hair without dripping it all over my clothes, the ground, my face…very messy! Everything I touched was dirtied with henna. The process took me hours and I wouldn’t know if I covered all my hair roots. Rinsing the henna off was enough of a chore, to top it off, dishes and tools used to prepare the henna had to be washed also. What a chore! I am lazy, I like to keep things simple. I’ll show you how I cut my henna process by half and eliminate part of my cleanup with one simple tip.

How to prepare henna:

Materials

• Box of body art quality henna
• Juice of grapefruits or lemons (orange juice shown below)
• Strainer
• Two Ziploc bags <– this is the key

Note: Metal may chemically interact with the henna and ruin the dye, so DON’T USE anything with metal in it when mixing the henna. Ex. use plastic spoons or glass bowls not metal spoons or bowls etc.

Directions

Henna is ready when it  changes from green to brown.

1. Double up the Ziploc bags. The Ziploc bags will be your mixing bowl and application tool. Pour the box of henna powder into the Ziploc bag.
2. Juice half of a grapefruit first. Using the strainer, pour the juice into the bag. Carefully push air out and seal both layers. If you feel comfortable you can use one bag. I use the second bag for security.
3. Massage the bag gently to mix the juice into the henna. Continue to add juice until you reach the consistency of super thick yogurt.
4. Set sealed bag in a warm place (under the sun, on a heater set to the lowest heat, a warm spot in the house). Wait about 24hrs or until the dye in the henna are released.

How to easily apply henna on your own hair:

You will be less tired if you have this type of dryer

Materials

• A henna bag prepared 24hrs ahead of time
• Pair of plastic gloves (reusable)
• Take out chopsticks (reusable)
• Plastic wrap, enough to wrap around your head.

Directions

1. Cut a small hole at the corner of the Ziploc bag.
2. Squeeze henna directly onto the roots. Push henna into roots, work evenly to end of white/gray hair growth.
3. Wrap head with plastic wrap and leave henna on for 3-6 hours. You can shorten the time to 1-3 hours, color will be less intense.
4. To make colors stronger and come out faster add heat with a hair dryer alternating between on and off.
5. Rinse hair clean with water only. (DON’T USE shampoo OR conditioner)
6. Wait at least 24hrs before shampooing.
7. The color will oxidize and get darker after a few days.
8. Repeat as often as you like. It’s 100% safe & natural.

My experiences with henna:

Ever since I learned the benefits of henna I’ve always used Reshma, 100% Henna. It’s been about 5 years now. It was cheap and easily accessible from my local Indian store. Often the packaging differed slightly but I was happy with this product. Recently the packs of henna I bought were going against the nature of henna and not releasing dyes but was still coloring my hair. This seemed odd and there were no guarantees to what I bought. This experience prompted me to look for safer options. I color my roots as often as every two weeks so I want something more safe to put my nerves at ease. I have mostly experiment with dark brown and 100% henna. I am looking forward to experimenting with other colors. In the interest of health, color and saving time, I found a few organic options to share with you.

I listed the pros and cons of each product below after using them. Brands are not listed in order of preference. I bought all my products below at full retail price at a local Harvest House store. I was not as web savvy at online shopping as now. If you like to shop online and save a few bucks, the affiliate links are listed below for your references.

My most used henna: Reshma, 100% henna

Reshma, 100% Henna is the cheapest, best texture and most convenient brand I have used. The only down fall is the inconsistency of quality. Lemons and oranges produces an orange copper color. Grapefruit gives my hair a redder tone that I like.

Pro:

• COVERAGE: 100% covers my whites
• APPLICATION: Easy to apply and sticks very well to my hair
• COLOR: Permanent, colors my hair orange brown to red-brown
• PRICE: Cheap, $2.99-$3.99 at local Indian store
• TEXTURE: Fine powder makes consistency easy to apply
• STORING: Can be prepared ahead of time and stored in freezer if you have left overs

Cons:

• ORGANIC: No
• PREPARATION TIME: Two day preparation
• CLEANUP: Easy, no dripping
• AUTHENTICITY: In some packs, colors did not release in preparation but still colored hair

Organic henna: Light Mountain Henna, Dark Brown

I like the fact Light Mountain Henna is organic and colors my hair a darker shade of brown that doesn’t have the copper orange tones. I just wish it didn’t flake as much while applying. I will add yogurt as suggested next time and give it another try to see if the texture improves.

Pro:

• ORGANIC: Yes
• COVERAGE: 100% covers my whites
• APPLICATION: One time preparation and application of indigo and henna
• COLOR: Permanent, colors my hair dark brown
• PREPARATION TIME: Saves time with same day preparation, 1 hour color release
• PACKAGING: Premixed indigo and henna in one pack

Cons:

• STORING: Can’t be prepare and stored if you have left overs
• TEXTURE: Powder becomes gritty after it’s mixed and doesn’t stick well to my hair
• CLEANUP: Henna mixture easily flakes off and drops all over the place

Organic henna: Light Mountain Henna, Color The Gray, Dark Brown

Overall I like the results of Light Mountain Natural’s Color the Gray Conditioner in Dark Brown. The color was much darker than using henna alone or the premixed indigo and henna packs. The color was dark brown with a tint of red.

Pro:

• ORGANIC: Yes
• COVERAGE: 100% covers my whites
• APPLICATION: Separate application of indigo makes color more rich than premixed combination of henna and indigo
• COLOR: Permanent, colors my hair dark brown
• STORING: Can prepare and store henna in freezer if you have left overs (Indigo has to be used the same day it’s prepared)
• PACKAGING: Separate packs of indigo and henna allow you to prepare henna ahead of time to release more dyes for a richer color and separate applications creates a blue undertone black color

Cons:

• PREPARATION TIME: Twice the work separately (Preparation, application, leave in and rinse off) for henna and Indigo
• TEXTURE: Powder becomes gritty after it’s mixed and doesn’t stick very well to my hair
• CLEANUP: Henna mixture easily flakes off and drops all over the place

Non-permanent henna : Surya Brasil, Dark Brown

Surya Brasil Henna Dark Brown Cream was the easiest one to use. Although it’s the most expensive, it’s also the most convenient when I needed to do small touch ups in the front. It’s especially great when I’m in a rush, it requires no preparation or cleanups.

Pro:

• ORGANIC: No
• COVERAGE: 100% coverage with white hair but the color is on the light side
• APPLICATION: Very easy and precise tip for retouching roots
• COLOR: Non-permanent, colors my hair a light brown
• PREPARATION TIME: No preparation time or clean up, it comes in ready for use
• STORING: Easy seal lid
• PACKAGING: Tub like toothpaste makes application very easy

Cons:

• PRICE: Expensive for a small tube
• QUANTITY: Not enough to color my whole head
• LASTING COLOR: Not permanent, it washes out in a few weeks

I want to try: Light Mountain Henna, Burgundy

Burgundy seems really nice. I like the purplish tint. I will update with pictures once I try this.

In general I had a hard time making the regular sock bun work for my hair. So I came up with a technique I call “a bun with a gut“. This technique was created for short layered hair. My hair has grown very long since the creation of my sock bun with a gut. I wanted to test my creation on long hair to see if it would work just as well.

It worked like a charm! I didn’t need to be concerned with the length of hair. It just all rolled up nice and tight without any conscious work on my part. I loved the results, the bun turned out perfect without any help from hair products! This hairstyle is easy, fun, well put together and especially helpful when you are in a crunched for time. Once you’ve mastered this technique, it’ll literally take you about a minute to do. Check out my  original post  A bun with a gut: An alternative DIY sock bun for stubborn hair ( perfect bun every time ) for more details.

Overview:

Video Tutorial:

Che Che wearing French braid

~Inspirations from
Title: The Hippocratic Crush II, oncall36小時II
Genre: Medical drama Character: Che Che (車車)

I’ve always loved the effortless clean look of the French braid but I could never get it right with my hair being super thick, straight, and very slippery. No matter how tight I pull my hair or how finely I braid it, my french braid always turn out poofy and loose at the top and would always fall out very quickly.  I recently saw a Chinese drama, The Hippocratic Crush II,  and a girl Che Che (車車) in the drama had a really cute french braid. I thought I’d try to replicate it. It turned out pretty nice and I wanted to share it with those who have similar issue with their hair. Not only did it stays in place but also slimed my face a great deal. This also works very well if you want your short bangs up and off your face.

I hope it will work for you and you will like it. For more tutorials in the future support by liking ^_^