Henna: hair dye that really is 100% natural
Misconceptions about henna as a hair dye are common – that it only dyes your hair red; that it won’t dye your hair well or cover grey; that it contains metallic salts or other harmful ingredients. We want to set the record straight with a bit more information to help henna be understood.
100% pure organic henna powder has absolutely no artificial ingredients. This means no PPD, no metallic salts, and no other added chemicals at all – it is purely the ground, dried leaves of the henna bush. Some products marketed as henna have actually had chemicals added to them – so be careful, check the ingredients of any henna before you buy it. We have been really shocked by how many products claiming to be henna actually have seriously damaging chemicals in them. To be completely safe, we will only sell Certified Organic hennas, so you can be sure it contains nothing unnatural.
Pure henna powder with a high lawsone content (2-3% is
very good) is a very powerful dye. Some natural dyes, or just cheaper, weaker henna, might not be as good as chemical dyes at colouring your hair, or might wash out sooner – this gives natural hair colourants a bad name. In fact, if you use high-lawsone henna (ideally Body Art Quality Henna, which is stronger and a finer-quality powder), you can get really powerful tones that really last a long time. This even applies to grey hair, which is known for being hard to cover. In the twelve years we’ve spent becoming natural hair dye experts, pure henna is by far the most effective solution to grey hair that we’ve found.
When you think of henna, you think red – but henna can actually be used with other leaf-based dyes to create a broad palette of colour. Combining henna with indigo in different proportions gives every shade from chestnut red, to warm brown tones, to jet black, even achieving a natural-looking and grey-covering effect on Asian hair. At the other end of the spectrum, henna can be mixed with cassia (sometimes called ‘neutral henna’, though it is from a different plant). This gives anything from a golden tint, to strawberry blonde shades.
Now to a quick myth about hair dying in general – that it has to be bad for your hair. The chemicals in commercially available dyes strip your hair’s natural defences and nutrients, leaving it dry and damaged. Henna, and the sister products mentioned here, actually have the opposite effect, improving the health and condition of your hair and scalp. It’s worth noting that henna loosens hair curls, which some people like; if you don’t like it, though, you can use amla powder (again, it’s completely natural) to tighten the curls up again, and give your hair greater body and strength.
In short, 100% Pure Organic Henna Powder dyes your hair safely, leaving it in better condition with no risk to your health or the health of your hair, and you can use it to get a great range of effective, intense shades.
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