As I move forward with my natural hair journey, I decided that I would try and incorporate henna treatments in my regimen. I've been reading about henna, watching other people do henna, and did it once myself but never really stuck with it. After looking at Curly Nikki's wonderful henna resource and forum on her site (www.CurlyNikki.com), I decided I'm going to put henna to the test and do regular treatments (for as long as I feel it's giving me great results!).
In my quest to find Jamila henna ( a popular henna brand that many naturals use), I found a place this past weekend in Atlanta called Patel Brothers which was basically a large, Indian grocery store. It was amazing!! They served hot food, fresh juices (including fresh sugar cane juice !), a wonderful selection of fresh veggies and of course a wide variety of food and beauty products all imported straight from India. When I started to look around in the beauty section, I was glad to see that they had a wide selection of henna brands to choose from. I picked up two boxes of Jamila henna, Nupur henna and Dulhan henna to do some comparisons for myself. I had heard of Jamila and Nupur prior to my visit, but one of the workers there ( a young Indian woman) also recommended the Dulhan brand to me, stating she uses it on her own hair.
My Experimental Henna Stash
(Nupur)
(Jamila)
(Dulhan)
Another great and surprising find for me at the grocery store was finding Nubian Heritage soaps...heavily discounted!! I fell in love with the Nubian Heritage soaps after finding them at Whole Foods Market. I was attracted to their wide variety of formulations, including Lemongrass & Tea Tree, Coconut & Papaya, Honey & Black Seed...(don't these sound great!!). In any case, I usually pay $4.99 at Whole Foods for these...but there at Patel Brothers they were selling for only $1.99!! Needless to say, I immediately purchased like 8 soaps lol : )
SOME of the Nubian Heritage Soaps I purchased
What I loved about the area surrounding Patel Brothers, was that there were also Indian restaurants, beauty shops and Sari stores surrounding the main store. I'm one who LOVES learning about and immersing myself in other cultures, so this was a great find for me! As some of you know, I routinely get my eyebrows threaded and a found a nice shop next door to the grocery store that did it for only $4. I've been getting my eyebrows threaded for years and have NEVER encountered a price that low!
All in all, I was really pleased with my find today but of course couldn't keep this to myself! I also learned that there are actually Patel Brothers locations across the United States, so check to see if there is one near you!
