Caca Noir Mama Hair Henna by LUSH Review

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(More customer reviews)Note: This is a really long review, intended to help pre-henna users who have lots of questions. To skip the background story and general henna overview, scroll down to the paragraph with the two asterisks (**) above it. Now, onward!
During a recent trip to LUSH SoHo, my hairdresser (who also happens to be my mother) started freaking out when I mentioned that I wanted to try their Caca Hair Hennas. She shrieked, "Don't EVER use henna on your hair!! It'll break it and make it fall out! That stuff is HORRIBLE!" Shocked, I had no rebuttal. Now that I know more about henna, I'm surprised a LUSH Sales Associate didn't come over and kindly enlighten her! I left the store feeling bummed, as I knew of no safer, more natural, 100% vegan way to dye my hair.
However, like most offspring, I don't always trust what Mom says at face value -- even though mine happens to be an accomplished hairdresser and salon owner. Bored at work, I spent the better part of three days researching henna so I could see what the deal was.
Hairdressers flip out when you mention the word "henna" because they mistakenly think you're referring to one of the junk henna dyes available in the beauty supply industry. Those dyes actually contain very little henna and are full of toxic additives, like PPD. Junk henna dyes can severely damage hair that has previously been dyed or permed, and the additives can have terrible effects on people's nervous systems. My mother has confirmed that, in cosmetology school, surprisingly little is taught about henna except the sweeping, generalized fallacy that "it makes hair brittle" and to stay far away from it. Given the crappy henna products generally available in the professional beauty supply industry, this makes sense.
This is not the kind of henna that LUSH sells. (Phew!)
The highest grade henna is called Body Art Quality (BAQ) and comes from the top 5% of the henna plant (lawsonia inermis) crop. Henna contains a red-orange dye molecule called Lawsone; true henna will not dye any other color.
All LUSH's Cacas contain pure BAQ henna and do not contain harmful additives, chemicals, or metals of any kind. Three of their Cacas also contain BAQ indigo, from the indigofera tinctoria plant, which contains a blue dye molecule. When indigo is mixed with henna, the resulting dye is brown. LUSH's Caca Marron has a little indigo (result = burgandy, deep red wine), Brun has more (rich, spiced brown), and Noir has a lot (dark brown, black).
Pure BAQ henna and indigo are perfectly safe -- just like apples or basil, which are safe for most people unless they have an allergy. For the great majority of people, henna makes their hair healthier, stronger, bouncier, less tangly, and more lustrous.
One way to dye your hair with henna is to purchase BAQ henna and/or indigo powder from a reputable retailer and then mix it with water, lemon juice, and olive oil to make a paste. LUSH has simplified this process: They take pure BAQ henna/indigo and add herbs, lemon juice, and cocoa butter (instead of olive oil), and form it into a bar.
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So here's how I ended up using my Caca Noir. As a quick note, my natural hair color is mousy brown with no greys; hairdressers call it Dark Ash Brown.
1. My hair is short -- a shaggy pixie cut -- so I used just 1 square of the big block. I kind of sawed it off with a large bread knife over a cutting board.
2. I donned the latex gloves LUSH includes with each Caca bar and used a stand-up cheese grater to make a loose, leafy powder. The powder is grass green at this point and smells strongly of spearmint, oregano, and alfalfa. It took me 5 minutes to grate 1 square, as the Caca starts out very hard and tends to melt on the edges where you're holding it.
3. In a Pyrex dish, I mixed the leafy powder with warm (not boiling!) tap water to form a pasty goo about the consistency of yogurt. Caca Noir contains lots of indigo, which loses all dye capacity if subjected to high heat. So ignore the directions included with your Noir and don't use the double-boiler/"bain marie" to melt it (but it's okay to do this with the redder Cacas). After mixing Noir with warm water, the scent quickly morphed into mint + a common acrid-smelling recreational herb, which was pretty gross. Next time I'll add in fragrant herbal tea or essential oils to dilute the eau-de-weed scent.
4. I leaned over the tub (to prevent dripping accidents) and scooped up some goo in my gloved hand. I applied the henna in patches to my dry hair, rubbing it into the roots and making sure to thickly coat every strand.
5. I left the Caca in for 2 hours, head unwrapped. Most Caca users turban their hair in Saran wrap/cling film to maintain a warm temperature and bring out the henna's redness. Caca Noir can have a red undertone if you wrap it or a blue undertone if you leave it unwrapped.
6. It took about 10 minutes to fully rinse the Caca out of my hair. (The finer you grate it, and the shorter your hair is, the easier it tends to wash out.) Then I used Jungle conditioner, rinsed, Go Green shampoo, rinsed, and Jungle again. I towel-dried my hair and went to the mirror to check it out.
Results: Wow wow wow! My mousy brown hair has turned the most glossy chocolate brown! (I imagine that with multiple applications, you could get a really deep black.) There aren't really any hints of red or blue -- it turned out neutral. My hair is softer and 500% shinier than it was pre-henna. The strange minty-pot scent did stay in my hair for a few days, but since it's short and doesn't blow in my face, I didn't notice it much.
A few general notes for pre-henna users:
- Check LUSH's forum and hennaforhair[dot]com for waaay more information on Cacas and henna.
- Henna is semi-transparent, allowing your natural color to determine how red/dark it turns out. Repeated and/or longer applications will lead to more intense color. Last, the color will continue to deepen for several hours (and even 3-4 days) after application. Don't freak out if your hair isn't *immediately* as dark as you wanted -- it will get darker, I promise!
- Using henna to dye your hair is an adventure: you're never 100% sure what color it will turn out (I mean, you have a very close idea, but it's the color nuances that you won't be able to pinpoint ahead of time). It's beneficial to do a strand test -- I did several and chose the shade I liked best.
- It's best to apply henna to shampooed (not conditioned), dry hair, as it will have a harder time "sticking" to an oily/moist follicle.
- Henna will stain uncovered skin, clothes, towels, rugs, furniture, etc. Use gloves (I seriously can't stress that enough), lean over the tub/sink, put down a layer of newspaper on the floor. Apply a thick strip of moisturizer around your forehead hairline to prevent staining.
- Do NOT use a harsh shampoo when washing the henna out of your hair, as it may strip the color. LUSH's Big and I Love Juicy shampoos are notorious for stripping the color out of freshly hennaed hair, so you'd probably do well to avoid those.
Good luck! Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions!

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