Logbook

( Body washing/hair care routines etc... which I am sure some of you couldn't give a rats arse about so I will be nice. )
(But, cause I am occasionally evil and everyone likes footnotes :)
* Conditioner - avoiding silicon, -cones and other varnishes used to glue spit ends down. Luckily this can generally be done by giving up on the expensive conditioners and going for the cheaparse budget stuff. I'll take $1-2 per L if I am going to be slathering it on.
** Some people use caffiene to wake up in the mornings, I use a shower... and occasional Milo.
*** My rant on chemical free was a couple months ago. Suffice to say, if you wish to be chemical free, I will happily put a sticker on your back saying "Vacuum head" and kick you out the airlock to join the rest... Edit: Though as such, I probably shouldn't snap "No it isn't, it has substance" at the shop assistant going through their soap ingredients and insisting they are chemical free. After their sign for "chemical free" henna, they are 2 down on the three strikes and I am not buying there again after telling them so stakes. Nice smelling soaps though. Will save their SLS free olive oil soap for emergency grubbiness.

(Cause you can't replicate/reliably deviate from it if you don't have a record of what you did previously)*

Mixed 1 packet Pico's Dark Red Egyptian Henna (125g) with apple cider vinegar (~1 cup?), ~1 tsp cinnamon (for smell) and 1 tsp cloves (smell and colour). Mixed and added cold tap water until a very slightly goopy clay mix. Covered in glad wrap and left overnight (~11pm onwards).
This morning mixed ~1 1/2 cups boiling water with 1 10g sachet gelatine (to make more of a gel mix - see here). Added large tablespoon of honey. Mixed this with the henna clay to make thinner mix which thickened upon cooling. Divided hair into coiled sections al la here
Then Z got to stand in the bathtub and goop. Sectioning the hair first made things easier but the battle between the henna-ed hair and the clips was clearly going to be won by the tentacular mess trying to be free. Slightly gelled mix was apparently also easier to apply. This was then showercapped and then gladwrapped ala here. And left...
Curiously, while it is dripping a bit (after about 55 min), the drips are mainly of clear coloured liquid and less of the muddy gunk. It is definitely staining orange - I have interesting marks on my chin and fingers and Z's legs to prove it.

Will give it another half hour to maybe hour while I eat toast in a patch of sunlight to warm it up a bit. Oddly enough the time limit is set less by the dribbling and more by how long I can stand that large a weight on top of my head. Also how long before I run out of dry bits of shirt to wipe my face with.

* Previously we had made the henna mix up with hot water and random acids available - cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, red wine etc, left it about half an hour and then applied. Left on for an hour, then washed out. Curiously, the Pico's henna is much browner in cour when mixed and may or may not have a much faster dyd release time cf other supplies. The much greener stuff we go from the indian grocers got much less colour out, but we may have not waited long enough for dye release. The Pico's stuff definitely seems to work better on average though.
And for future reference, the henna dyd release chart (time and temperature) is here.

( Possible hair cleaning techniques and hair rantings )

Thank you to the LJ draft saving facility...

Oh dear. Second girly (hair and clothing) post in less than a week. May be slightly mitigated by the shifting rocks and car driving posts over the weekend, but still... Back to shock wave propagation in Type II Cepheids...