Ingredient Spotlight: Henna

Henna is the common name for the shrub Lawsonia inermsis. The plant is best known for its green leaves, which when dried, powdered, and mixed into a paste, are used for skin and hair dying. Other common names for the plant are the Mignonette tree, Egyptian privet and Mehndi. This plant grows as a native shrub in Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Palestine and  Syria. There plants may reach 8 to 10 feet high or more. The henna plant can also be grown in the United States in USDA growing zones 9b, 10a, 10b, and 11. The plant likes full sun and needs to be taken inside when the weather gets cold. I grew this plant in Daytona Beach for a while. It was growing really well for a while, but if I recall right I did not give it enough water. The plant can also be grown indoors. Cultivation is possible from cuttings or seeds.

Henna is used decoratively and medicinally in India. As a skin dye henna is popular as a wedding body decoration particularly for brides. The bride's hands and soles of her feet are painted in elaborate fertility and floral designs. This plant is also used in traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine for treatment of skin irritations such as heat rash. Henna leaves and flowers may be applied in external preparations to inflamed skin conditions including burns, boils and sores.

The henna powder was used in ancient times is a hair dye in countries where it grew natively. In the late 1800's it also became popular as a hair colorant in Europe. By mixing the henna with other herbs different shades of color can be achieved, for example Indigo powder can be added to darken the color. You can check out our latest blog post to learn how to dye hair red naturally with henna.

How to Dye Hair Red Naturally with Henna Powder

Dying hair with henna is easy to do. I will explain the steps to dye your hair with henna in this blog post. We like using henna as a hair dye because it conditioning to the hair. Regular chemical hair dyes damage the hair cuticle. Henna is also is very compatible with our shampoo bars and diluted vinegar rinses. As hair dye, henna works best on lighter colored hair. Aquarian Bath is now offering powdered red Henna for hair dying, which is what I used to dye Tessa's hair (above).

How to Dye Hair with Henna

Preliminary precautions: Some people are allergic to henna. If you have never used henna before, then it is best to do a patch test on your skin. Make a patch test on the inside of your wrist with a little bit of henna mixed with water. Wait 24 hours to see if your skin has a reaction. If there is no reaction then you can begin the process below for dying your hair.  

Hair Prep: For best results, start out with clean dry hair that has been brushed and divided into smaller sections with clips. It is a messy job, so try to get help from a friend if you can. Wear your old work clothes, or black to avoid staining good fabrics.

8 oz of red henna powder now available at Aquarian Bath

Ingredients: The first step is to put your henna powder in a bowl with the juice of one half of a lemon and 1 tablespoon of oil such as Extra Virgin olive oil or grape seed oil. If you do not have lemon juice you could use vinegar instead. The lemon juice or vinegar helps the henna color stay in the hair for a long time. For short or thin hair you may only need a couple ounces of henna. For longer or thicker hair you will need more henna. Eight ounces works for my shoulder length thick hair. You can start out with a moderate amount of henna add more to the bowl if it looks like there is not enough. 

Form a Paste: Mix the henna, lemon juice and 1 T of oil with enough hot or boiling water to form a paste with the consistency of a creamy soup. At this point you need to decide if you have enough henna paste in your bowl to completely saturate your dry hair. If you think there may not be enough henna paste to completely cover your dry hair, then add more henna powder and water. Let the paste sit for around 30 minutes to allow the lemon juice to react with the henna powder.

Coat the hair evenly and wait: Next apply the henna paste to your hair completely covering each strand down to the roots. Avoid applying the paste to the forehead and around the ears and neck, because the henna paste will also stain the skin temporarily.  Leave the henna paste on your hair for 30 minutes to 2 hours. The longer you leave the paste on your hair the stronger the final hair color will be. You can freeze any leftover paste in a jar for future use.

 Rinse clean: Here is Tessa's hair after approximately 30 minutes of dying.

Wash as usual: Here is her hair after a couple of washes.  You can see that the bright orange fades out to a more natural looking color.  

North Hollywood: Best Vintage Dressed prize from Aquarian Bath

Aquarian Bath is sponsoring one of our customer's special events in North Hollywood this weekend, January 24th.  If you are in the area ladies, put on your best vintage outfit, and head over to Tonya Kay's Pinup Pole show for vintage cars and dance performances from Tonya's crew. You could win first prize shown below, which includes an Orange Lavender shampoo bar, Hemp Oil soap, Henna shampoo bar, Lavender Patchouli Perfume, 2 cedar soap decks, a Vanilla Chai soap, a Eucalyptus, Lavender Tea tree Lip balm, and Lavender Spearmint Salt soap.  

Blue Springs Manatee Photos

We took a half day off from work at Aquarian Bath to visit the manatees at Blue Springs last week.  Hope you like the photos that Scott and I took. Scott took the under water photos with his Gopro. 

Favorite spot for an annual photo.

Scott got these images of the nursing manatee with his "Gopro on a stick" contraption.

I helped him get these shots when I saw other manatees about to swim by by giving him direction where to turn the pole as he was laying down on one of the docks, "6 o'clock, 5 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 3 o'clock."

We probably saw a dozen altogether.  You can watch them during the winter on livestream:

Payne's Prairie Gators

This is the second set of Payne's Praire photos from Gainesville.  Pictures by Aquarian Bath's VP, Scott Johnson. We didn't really get so close to the alligators. Scott took the pictures with a tripod and a camera with a zoom lens. Winter is a great time of year to visit Payne's Praire, because the gators are cold and not moving much at all.

Look out!  This alligator's tail was in the walking path. We almost didn't see it. 

Thanks for looking. I'll be posting manatee photos soon also.  

Cory Trusty, president

Aquarian Bath

Payne's Prairie Winged Wonders

This beautiful collection of photos are from Payne's Prairie in Gainesville Florida. They were shot by Scott Johnson, our VP at Aquarian Bath. I will save his gator photos for another post! We also saw wild pigs and a buffalo. Hope you like the pictures.

Florida Museum of Natural History Photos

We spent last weekend in Gainesville Florida for a short weekend vacation after a hectic 2 months of shipping holiday orders.  I will post some photos from our favorites spots.  First, the University of Florida Museum of Natural History.  The fossil collection is amazing.  My favorite was the terror bird (below), which preyed on mammals, and looks a lot like a chicken.

Daytona's Museum of Arts and Science also has a giant sloth skeleton, but the UF museum has two or three towering giants.

The fossil room has many different species.

The giant bear dog, an evolutionary dead-end.

Extinct Rhinoceros species.

The special Megalodon shark exhibit costs extra. The A to Z shark Sharkabet artwork by artist Ray Troll made this exhibit worth the extra price.  His whimsical shark illustrations are realistic and often have fun settings, for example the nurse sharks (above) and dog fish (below). Spoiler alert: sharks are not bony fish, the model of the Megalodon is made from metal, and you can see Megalodon jaw replicas in the free part of the museum.

In the butterfly rain forest. The docent was very knowledgeable and friendly.  She offered to take a family photo.  The butterfly rain forest costs extra and is a must see. Florida residents receive a small discount.

Many species of butterfly were willing to sit still for photographs.

Owl head butterfly. 

The 6th mass extinction is said to be underway and due to human activity. Three hundred thousand species are estimated to be lost each year. Which are next? Endangered or threatened species are shown in the gallery above. Florida's last remaining pine rockland habitat is the only know home for a species of beetle previously thought to be extinct. A Walmart and theme park are currently planned to take over this area.

For news about threatened species please follow Extinction symbol on twitter.

Later on I will be posting some new Organic cotton pillow fabrics, and other photos from our Gainesville trip. Hope you liked the photos.

~Cory Trusty, president

Aquarian Bath