Spices and Herbs by Elaynn

There seems to be a lot of information on the web regarding using Henna for coloring hair red. I too, use Henna.

Most of us know that Henna is of Egyptian origin and is an integral part of the Eastern culture.

The quality of the Henna and the color it imparts to the hair depends on its source and country of origin;

Persian Henna is the finest, producing a deep rich red;

Egyptian Henna gives more orange results

and Chinese is the cheapest, being of inferior quality.

Henna can be mixed with other organic substances to modify the color: such as, coffee, wine, eggs, lemon juice and onion skins. Indigo shoots and Betel nut may also be added.

I have seen Black English Walnuts hulls also be suggested to bring a darkening reddish hues, although I personally wouldn't suggest anyone to use Black English walnut hulls for dark hair color. I had some experience with hulling walnuts by hand and the hulls literally burned the skin on my hands a crispy black! Talk about hurt and sting! The skin peeled and after about a month, my “new skin” came in. However, my nails had a moon on them that was much darker and it took almost 4 months before that cleared up.

Some people like to use a combination of Henna and indigo to get the color they desire, such as a darker brunette, black or light brown. Indigo is a very deeply pigmented blue plant. When mixed with Henna, it can produce lovely shades of color for those with darker hair.

Often times Henna and indigo dyes are mixed with something acidic to help the color take, such as lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. While the process is a bit more time consuming than traditional commercial hair colors, it is usually well worth it. Many who use natural dyes feel that it makes their hair look shinier and healthier.

I have and do use Henna in my hair, as I like the reddish tones. I have found that when I bought red hair coloring products in the store, they didn't last very long and the color would change every week. Not only that, we all know that there is a possibility of the commercial hair dye products being dangerous to those of us who like to dye our hair quite frequently.

My natural hair color is blond and it does depend on your skin color how Henna will turn out for you. For instance I'm very fair skin and if I don't mix the Henna properly, it will turn my hair orange or yellow. So, the darker a person's skin is, the easier, in my opinion, it is to get the desired results.

Here's my formula that I fiddaggled around with and finally seem happy with:

( before you get started: don't make the dumb mistake like I did the first time I did this of using coffee grounds! What mess that was to get out of my hair!)

OK, here we go:

½ coffee scoop of coffee. Make the coffee like you make your morning coffee. When the coffee is ready, keep about 1 ½ cups hot.

1 coffee scoop of Henna (or 1/8 cup)

1 egg

½ teaspoon of ground cloves

1 tablespoon lemon juice

( you can also add ¼ cup of red wine)

Take a small saucepan that is non aluminum, and put in the Henna and pour the coffee in. Mix real well. Add the egg and ground cloves, mix again. Add the lemon juice, and red wine if you're using it. Mix again.

It's a puke color and should be similar to looking at fresh cow poop.

Heat this mess in the small saucepan til hot, but, not boiling.

On your hands rub cooking oil or olive oil and rub it all thro your hair and scalp.

Put on rubber gloves, and rub the mess you just made in the saucepan all through your hair. Bring it through from the scalp to the ends of your hair. ( this is a whole lotta fun!) Work fast, this mess has to stay very warm.

Pile your hair up on top of your head, and put a shower cap over your hair. Wrap a towel over that, turban style.

You need to keep your head warm, so, sit in the sun (but, not outside) or near a wood stove. Maybe under a full hair dryer, put on low.

After about 1 ½ to 2 hours it should start turning blondish. Wait another 15 minutes more. It needs to stait turning reddish. You can only tell how it's doing by looking at the edges of your hair. ( kinda, sorta) The longer it stays on, the redder it gets. However, be careful that it doesn't start to turn orange.

Rinse out,very well. Then shampoo. Towel dry your hair, enough so that it is not dripping wet and add a conditioner and leave on for 45 minutes. Then rinse that out. You really can't tell what the color will be til your hair is dried. Don't worry, it won't be green.

Fortunately, you won't have to do this for another 2 or 3 months.

You will have to experiment to get the right color that you want. I suggest writing down everything that you do, so, that when you finally get it right, you can follow your written instructions. If you are fair skinned, give my instructions a try first, then, you will be able to get an idea about tweaking things to get the color you like.

Well, this is way off herbalism and I thought I'd give you all a rest!

Do you know where the military “taps” that we hear at funerals for those who at one time served in the military, came from or what the words are? Many people don't, and I would like to share with you what I read , about twenty years ago, in a local newspaper ,written by a local historian.

The “taps” song came out of the Civil War. In 1862, a Captain in the Union forces ,heard during the night, the moans of a person. He had no idea if the person was of the Confederate or Union army, but, he crawled over and pulled the man over out of danger, only to find the man died. Also, the man was of the Confederate army and when the captain shined a light on the man's face, he discovered that the man was his own son!

The young man had been studying music in the south when war broke out and without telling his father, had enlisted in the Confederate army. On his person was a piece of paper with musical notes. Heartbroken, the father asked for permission from his superiors to give his son a military burial despite his enemy status and asked that the musical notes be played. Thus, what we know today as the “taps”. Here are the words:

Day is done/Gone the sun/From the lakes/From the hills/From the skies/All is well/Safely rest/God is nigh.

Fading light/Dims the sight/And a star/Gems the sky/Gleaming bright/From afar/Drawing nigh/Falls the night.

Thanks and praise/ For our days/Neath the sun/Neath the stars/Neath the sky/As we go/This we know/God is nigh.

The words were nothing like what I had thought they would be. Glad to share them with you!

I have made three blogs on medication vs herbs. My last blog had to do with taking herbs AND vitamins before a known surgery date. In that blog, I suggested that if you are scheduled for surgery to NOT take ANY herbs or vitamins for two weeks before your surgery date. One month would be even better. I would like to take this just a little bit further.

For the most part, we can do just fine taking a regular supply of herbs and vitamins to keep ourselves generally healthy. I've done it for myself and my family, by doing my own research .

When we have a medical condition, however, that is beyond our knowledge to “fix” ourselves, such as in my recent case, a hernia, then we need the expertise of the medical establishment. When we go to a surgeon and ask that person to remedy this situation, we are putting ourselves in their care. I have not met one doctor, nurse, anesthesiologist, or emergency personal say that they love losing patients. I've never gone to medical school, never even been a CNA but, I do know that all of these people in whatever medical fields they have trained in, want their patients to get well .

WHEN WE DON'T TELL OR WE LIE, about the herbs and vitamins that we are taking prior to surgery, we are tying these peoples' hands behind their backs, without their knowledge. When we ask a surgeon to do an operation for us, it is not our place to tell that surgeon how he/she will perform the operation. The nurses in the operating room know their jobs; the anesthesiologist is the person keeping us alive.

For most of us, when we have surgery we are “out”. However, while we are out  we are putting our lives in their hands. When these folks are done with the operation, they need to be able to bring us back up into wakefulness. Stop and think about this a minute.

There are herbs and vitamins that what I call “fight” the medications that these folks use to help us. Some complications from taking herbs and vitamins are ; lowering or increasing the blood pressure; creating a rapid heartbeat, slowing the heart down; seizures; blood clotting, breathing problems, vomiting; and even death.

Imagine the scene in the operating room, if as soon as the surgery gets underway, your blood pressure plummets alarmingly or you can't breathe! If this wasn't suppose to happen or wasn't foreseen previously, you have added an emergency situation to what was supposed to be a routine operation! You could also die.

The medical professionals NEED to know if you are taking any herbs and vitamins so that they can work around them or even delay surgery. That's why I suggest that if you are taking vitamins and herbs to please do NOT lie about them and please stop taking them two weeks to one month before your surgery. Your life depends on it.

A lot of people like to make bath teas or bath herbs for themselves. Some of the recipes that I've seen however, are way too much for a single bath. It seems that people think the same way with herbs as they do with medicine. If a little works good, a lot should work even better! This is a dangerous attitude to have. Herbs are potent, just as medicine is potent. Whenever I make up a formula it is just the right amount for a certain amount of small bath teas. 

If a large (5 x 7) bath tea is just tossed into a tub full of water, the very first bath is dangerous for you to take! Look at the color of your bath water! Is it a rust, or bright green or can you see bright color at all? If you can, there are TOO MUCH herbs in your bath! And, you should not get in that tub!

A small tea bag or muslin bag (3 x 5) is all you need for one ½ to ¾ full bath tub. And that same tea bag can be used one more time! You will see a very light color in your bath water,such as; light green or light yellow, but, your bath water color shouldn't change dramatically. You also should not spend more than 20 minutes in your herbal bath. Nor, should you be using other soaps, bubble bath products or what have you. When you step out of the tub, take a rough towel and dry yourself. Do not use lotions, otherwise you have just destroyed the good of the herbs.

The only time a large tea bag can be used is if you make it in a concentrate form; using 2 gallons of water, heat the water til boiling; drop ONE large tea bag in and let it steep NO MORE THAN 5 MINUTES. Take the bag out of the water. Let the water cool and pour the water into 2 glass gallon containers. When you want to take a bath, use NOT MORE THAN 1 cup of the concentrate that you just made, in a tub full of water.

That is the correct way to use a large (5 x 7) bath tea.

If you are taking herbs and vitamins, in any form, and you are scheduled for surgery, here is something you might want to consider.

For those of you who are taking vitamin supplements or herbal extracts ( this includes all herbal teas and baths) on a regular basis, if you know that you are going to have surgery, try very hard to not take your vitamins or herbs at least 2 weeks before your surgery date.

It is amazing how long certain vitamins, such as E can stay in the system. The same with herbs, many herbs can still be in your system for weeks, even if you are not taking them all the time and even if you are not taking a lot of any one herb or vitamin.

In any surgery, you are going to have antibiotics and pain medication, and the last thing you need is more trouble. The herbs and vitamins will fight the antibiotics and pain medication.

Use this same timing after surgery, as well. In fact, Don't go back on your schedule of vitamins and herbs after your surgery until two weeks AFTER your very last dose of pain medication and /or your last dose of antibiotics.

I like watching the ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL movies. Much of what the veterinarians in the movies depicted about various ailments of the animals were true. However, I kept noticing that back then the farmers and the veterinarians kept having problems with the cattle and pigs in that area contracting foot and mouth disease.

In the early and right up to the mid part of the 20th century, (1900 to 1950) farmers in Europe were forever having problems with their cattle and pigs getting foot and mouth disease. If they would have fed their animals comfrey leaves before giving them their feed, this would have prevented the disease from ever starting in the first place. This horrible disease literally wiped out every farm around when one farmer had the problem. He would be quarantined and couldn't even leave his property, because this disease was spread on the farmers boots. I don't know if farmers have problems with this disease now, but if they do, they should invest in some comfrey plants. You just pull the leaves, put them in a bucket or something to carry them. Give each animal two or three of the leaves right before their feed. At first, they won't eat it, but, then they see that after they eat it, they get their feed. After a couple times, they are good about taking it. If they were my animals, I would give it to them at least every other day. Every day won't hurt.