Carrie’s curious: First, I must say your site is amazing. I’ve been looking for years for an evidence- and research-based beauty site. Brilliant. I’d like to know more about henna. You mention it very briefly in the
article about “organic” hair dyes but you don’t go much further than that. Can one of “The Brains” do a feature on henna, and any other plant-derived dyes (if there are any) out there?
The Right Brain’s response:
Ask, Carrie, and you shall receive. We found a great resource for henna information, and it’s heavily annotated with references. We’ll paraphrase some of the key information here to answer your question, but we recommend checking out the site for more details.
What is henna
Henna is a shrub (Lawsonia Inermis ) whose leaves contain a tannin dye molecule known as Lawsone. Lawsone is released when the leaves are pulverized, acidified and made into a paste. This paste can be applied to hair or skin to give it a deep, reddish brown stain.
What colors does henna come in?
Despite what you might have heard there is no such thing as black or blonde henna. True henna ONLY comes in reddish brown. Any black or blonde hair dyes that claim to be henna are mixing henna with other materials that could be either other plant dyes or synthetic chemicals.
Can I use henna instead of permanent hair colors?
Using real henna creates a dark stain will provide long lasting color. However, as noted above, you’re limited to a single color pallet. Also, it won’t bleach color out of your hair.
Is henna bad for my hair?
No, real henna is not damaging, since it only stains the keratin protein in your hair. But some of the compounded hair dyes use oxidative and metallic compounds which can be damaging to your hair.
Are there other natural hair dyes that give different colors?
There are other natural dyes that can stain hair but remember these won’t lift color. (Again, they won’t bleach your hair lighter.) Here are the colors of ten natural plant hair dyes listed by hair color. Click the reference links at the bottom for a full description of each.
1. Red/Brown
- Henna: Lawsonia Inermis
- Walnut: Juglans regia
- Catechu: Acacia catechu
2. Blondes/Yellows
- Cassia obovata: also called “neutral henna”
- Catechu: Ourouparia gambir
- Saffron: Crocus sativus L.
- Chamomile: Anthemis nobilis
- Rhubarb Root: Rheum rhapoticum
3. Blacks
- Vashma: partially fermented indigo
- Karchak: castor bean
4. Blues
- Indigo: Indigofera tinctoria
- Woad: Isatis tinctoria
The Beauty Brains bottom line
It’s cool how many natural hair dyes there are, even though they don’t work as well as the oxidative colors.
References:
http://www.uga.edu/fruit/walnut.htm
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/
http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/http://www.botanical.com/
http://www.allfiberarts.com/
http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/
http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/
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As always, I appreciate a comprehensive list of references so interested readers can look further into an issue if it interests them. I think articles like these are a great addition to an already wonderful website.
Teddy
Thanks for answering my question! Lots of interesting info here to digest, which is why I love the site.
As someone who recently had to dye my dark brown roots at home back to light blond to save money, all I can say is OUCH. I hope Henna works for a lot of people (aka those who do not need lift).
Teddy
Thanks for this great post! I love the pic on this one, too! Beautiful henna design.
There’s one other reference that I would recommend be listed here: http://www.hennapage.com. The lady that hosts that site is getting her PhD in henna. There’s a lot of great info and how-to’s if you wanna know how to do henna on hair or skin, or you just wanna know how henna dyes the hair & skin.
If you wanna be a redhead, natural henna is the way to go. It doesn’t fade like synthetic hair color, it covers greys wonderfully, and it conditions and strengthens your hair. I’ve been using natural henna on my hair for over a year, and my hair is soooo much happier for it.
Beauty Brains is right, though. Stay away from the boxed henna hair color in the healthfood store. Most of those contain what’s called compound henna, which have metallic salts that will ruin your hair.
Thanks again for the post!
Hennaforhair.com is the same page as hennapage
see also: mehandi.com, which is the actual shop. I can’t praise Catherine enough for her research, product quality and forum.
How timely! I hennaed my hair last night. I’d used henna for body art for years. After a very long time of ‘normal’ hair colour, I switched to henna in an effort to escape the regular breakouts that occurred every time I coloured.
Anecdotal, but I can tell a tremendous difference in my hair each time I henna–and I don’t break out any more either. The colour is fabulous for me since I was born a redhead but lost the amines.
The only downside to henna is the hay smell in your hair and, for me, pillow cases that look like scenes from a horror film!
PS, I’ve met Catherine, owner of the sites listed in post and comments. She’s an awesome resource of henna related information and does a great job of keeping things factual; no diversions into woowoo!
Henna is nice if you don’t like going to salons, but if one day you decide to go get your hair colored at a salon, you might not like what you hear. Henna stains the cuticle, making it very hard to get out/color over. I’d think really hard before using henna.
I’ve switched from chemical to henna dye six months ago. Lots of support and good information on this can be found at:
http://www.hennatribe.com/
Thank you! At cosmetology school, we were told that henna damages hair and that dye (specifically the one branded by the school) was conditioning and nurturing….I kept remembering how, 20+ years before while in high school, I used to used to henna my hair regularly and how it made my lusturous, thick curls even more beautiful. I refuse to believe anything a stylist tells me unless she can back it up with science!
How can you tell if a brand of henna has anything damaging in it, like for example metallic salts? Does it have to say that in the ingredient list?
I tried Body Shop’s version of henna dyes years ago. My hair is black and it had no effect on my hair whatsoever. It also made it stink! Maybe this works better if you’re a brunette or redhead, so be warned if your hair is already dark.
To Lejla – The safest bet is to buy 100% pure body art quality (i.e. finely powdered) henna without any added ingredients from a supplier who imports it directly from the Middle East. It’s also really important to make sure that the henna you buy is fresh and from a batch produced not more than a year or two ago, because an old batch can be too weak and turn hair a Bozo the Clown/Pippi Longstocking color or worse (speaking from personal experience, unfortunately). A couple good, safe places to buy henna and related supplies are Castle Art & Imports (www.castleart.com) and Mehandi.com. Good luck and happy hennaing!
Please distinguish carefully pure henna, a sort of mud which is indeed a lovely thing to put on your hair or skin, and what’s sold most of the time now. If the henna is very dark, or sold for tatoo use, it’s likely it’s been adulterated with additives. These can cause severe allergic reactions, sometimes even after a single exposure (and allergies to hair dyes, ironically). Natural henna doesn’t have that much of a dyeing effect, not very long-lasting, not compared to this modern version anyway, so it’s getting quite hard to find the mud only. I didn’t do an extensive search, because this came out several years ago, but here’s an exemple link: http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/176/4/445
Thanks for posting this, Beauty Brains. I dye my hair with henna, and love it, and it’s wonderful to see information about it on a site like this.
Marie-Christine, I agree that it’s careful to distinguish between pure henna and compound henna, as compound henna can cause some serious problems. I think, though, that you have some misinformation about pure henna. It might not last that long on skin, but when used to dye hair, henna is PERMANENT. You are likely to completely destroy your hair before you remove the henna. I wanted to point this out, because on a hair forum I belong to, one of the most common misconceptions people have about henna is that they’ll be able to remove it like any other hair dye, and just imagine their horror when they discover they can’t!
I had my hair colored with a double henna process and she also used bright orangy foil highlights to blend since my ahir was a dark brown. I am allergic to PPD’s in chemical color and thought this might be better than going gray – I’m about 30 to 40% grey mostly roots like path and hairline/ears section. I hate it and did not pay for it – she wanted #150.00 for this “Halloween look”. How can I get back to a dark or medium cholcoate brown shade?
Thanks for any help. I’m almost 63 and it’s defintely not flattering. HELP!!!
Will you be e-mailing me? Thanks – sorry for the typos.
Linda,
Don’t know if you’re still looking for help with this. I found regular henna too red for my taste. My hair has always been a bland medium brown. I used to dye it dark chocolate brown, but gave up after a couple bad experiences.
I use the Lush line of henna products. They have a range of colors achieved by mixing different proportions of henna and indigo. In this product, the pure powdered plants are suspended in cocoa butter, which you crumble and then mix with boiling water to a mud-like consistency.
The result is not as intense as if you did henna the real way (powdered plant activated over night), but I like the color combination and so I’m going to stick with it. For chocolate brown, I mixed equal parts of the Caca Noir and the Caca Brun colors. It’s probably, in the end, some 30% indigo, 70% henna. It covered the more reddish result I’d gotten before, and gave a nice lustrous look to the burgeoning silver streak I have.
It’s also supposed to have a conditioning effect, or cuticle smoothing, or something. It feels a bit limp after use, but I think that may be the cocoa butter leaving a residue. A clarifying shampoo takes care of that. Maybe the beauty brains girls can speak to the conditioning effect of henna in some future article.
One nice thing about the henna/indigo preparations is that you can layer them on over time to achieve the color you want, so the effect is not a drastic change (with everyone asking about your new color–irritating).
I am going to henna my hair for the first time, but before i do that i am going to do a skin test to make sure i have no allergies to the plant and take a sample from my hair brush to check how henna will take.
I bought my stuff from Mehandi.com. they also sell natural shampoo bar soap for henna hair. if you want to test first they have henna for a dollar no shipping. you pay through paypal or call them to place an order.
I even talk to the staff and they are extremely helpful and full of knowledge.
the best place to buy is at Mehandi.com, they have the finest BAQ (body art quality) henna. they have henna from several regions and describe what color it takes after staining.
henna my hair will be a birthday gift to myself.
“It’s cool how many natural hair dyes there are, even though they don’t work as well as the oxidative colors.”
–The Brains
Really now. What makes you say that? Herbal dyes may have a more limited color range, but they certainly work, as anyone who has tried to get rid of henna knows.
I know quite a few ladies that use various plant-derived dyes with great satisfaction.
We agree that they work, they just don’t have as flexible a color range which in our opinion makes them more limited.
I’ve recently started henna and indigo-ing my hair and am very pleased with the results! I would love an explanation from the beauty brains about how henna smoothes the cuticle, and the claim that it makes hair stronger. How is different from regular hair color?
Anecdotally, I’ve noticed less tangles, glossiness, and nice silky feeling after using henna, as opposed to my hair becoming brittle and falling out after using synthetic hair color. Works well for me!
References, good!
I have never seen they in the post, and see there make the post more respectable. In a cientific point of view, of course.
Nice work!
But, (sorry for the double coment) some people says that henna is really good for hair and shine, and that it leave the hair in 3 months. You could say something about it too.
Anyway, it’s better than anything! And I guess that in the references we can find it.
My hair turn prematurally white by the time I was 30 years old. I have been coloring it blonde with a product called naturtint, but would like to find out if I can use another natural plant etc… instead. How do I use the suggestions from the above list for blonde hair? Do I make a tea out if the plants? then rinse? Do I make a paste somehow and leave it on??
Thanks for the help!
Carolyn, the hennaforhair.com site should have some info about cassia etc which can be used on its own or in conjunction with henna.
http://www.mehandi.com/shop/blondebundle/index.html
I’d recommend posting your questions on the forum http://forums.hennapage.com/forum/2 or even searching some of the posts there
Do you have any other information on Rhubarb? There’s a link posted, but it’s not exactly what I’m looking for. I’m looking for how to make hair dye from the plant. Could you help me?
@Angela: Sorry, we’ve never seen an actual recipe for this.
I don’t want a recipe. Your Henna article is what I’m looking for. In the article, you described how the color is made from the plant. That’s what I’m looking for. How the color is made from the plant Rhubarb.
This is the only link we looked at when researching Rhubarb. Hopefully it helps you: http://www.rhubarbinfo.com
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