Dodgy henna?

[mashy]

Hi everyone!

So I recently discovered a health food shop that sells henna. It was stored in the midst of other spice in a big plastic tub which the shop keeper uses a scoop to take out however much you need. It was written red henna on the tub. It was also only £1.60 per 100g.

I thought I'd found a bargain so bought 200g to give it a go. Any way last night I mixed some up as I usually do with my Organic Rajasthani (which usually costs me around £7 per 100g): I mix it with lukewarm water (I don't add any acids as I have quite a sensitive scalp) leave for a couple of hours then freeze overnight. Usually after the two hours I get a pretty strong orange stain on my hand when I test for dye release, but with this it was quite faint - still noticeable but more of a pastel orange then the bright rich orange I'd usually get. It was getting late so I thought I'd put in the freezer anyway and see what it's like in the morning.

It's the morning now, I've defrosted it and its still very faint. I've also noticed that it looks a lot greener than my usual henna. I read online that some places in India add green dyed sand to the henna to make it look fresher, but after sticking some in some water the green flecks are floating - which to me indicates that it isn't sand. I also managed to seperate a fleck and break it with my nail. The bowl of water now smells a bit like chicken stock.

It is quite gritty, but at that price I wasnt expecting miracles, I just wanted something to keep me going until payday.

My question is: does anyone know what else could have potentially added? Or maybe do you think it was badly stored?

Another thing that I'd like to add is the lady in the shop didnt know anything about henna, and looked slightly shocked when I told her that's what I use to get my hair this colour, then proceded to smell it and say " yeah, I wouldn't want to add that to my food".

[Isilme]

It might be dyed, but I don't think it would be damaging to your hair. Just a pain to rinse out! I have used henna of less than stellar quality and as you say, it would be something to use until next time you can get your hands on higher quality henna.

[Funkyfish]

I see a lot of cheap henna in stores containing sodiumpicramate. Around here it is hard to find some without it. I never used it so I don't know what it looks like. The faint stain can be caused by bad storage conditions or because it isn't fresh enough. Is can also be henna with natuarally low dye content. You will never know for sure when the package or shopkeeper doesn't give any info. In the worst case you will get a bleeding colour or henna that gives you trouble when using other chemicals on your hair. Personally I don't mind using henna with lower quality, but I do want to know for sure what is in it.

[Shatam1]

I bought henna like this before and the fact that its in a tub and the guy scoops it from there means that it s exposed to the air and it might have lost some of its potency...I doubt that it has sodium picramate as u say it gave u a pale color...sodium picramate gives more red to the henna and that s why it's used,it is not harmful to your hair or skin in anyway so that part shouldn't worry u...I think ur henna will give u some conditioning but maybe it won't give u a strong color..u can try it anyway and see,all depends on how dark u want it to be... I like henna like that because my hair won't get very dark too quick...Good luck and keep us posted

[SleepyTangles]

I think its just lower quality henna. BTW, sodium picramate is very easy to detect: it releases immediatly a strong red dye (the paste turn brownish red, sometimes), it smells strongly of iron and the powder is often dark brown, not green. PPD is much more difficult to detect.


What brand it is?

Edit: if you froze it before the dye was released, probably its part of the reason behind the weak stain.

[Northerner]

Sorry to hijack the thread. I now realise that the Three Rivers henna which I used two weeks ago (posted a review here) likely has sodium picramate in it. The box said No Chemicals, but I am not convinced. It released strong red dye almost immediately and had a slightly chemical smell when mixed with water. Not sure it was iron, it seemed similar to tulsi. The powder was regular pale green and smelled herbal when dry. It required far less water than other hennas that I had used. Could that be another indication of sodium picramate?

I now think that my hair loss which I experience since June can be related to sodium picramate. Prior to Three Rivers, I was using Jamila 2011 henna from an Indian grocery store since late May, which had the same, albeit stronger smell, when mixed with water. It only released dye in 3-4 hours though. I used Henna Sooq products before then, and did not have any hair loss.

Did anybody else here have issues with sodium picramate? I saw conflicting views online: some say it is harmless because of low concetrations well below 1%, others say it was used in explosives and could be a carcinogen.

I think its just lower quality henna. BTW, sodium picramate is very easy to detect: it releases immediatly a strong red dye (the paste turn brownish red, sometimes), it smells strongly of iron and the powder is often dark brown, not green. PPD is much more difficult to detect.


What brand it is?

Edit: if you froze it before the dye was released, probably its part of the reason behind the weak stain.

[SleepyTangles]

Sorry for the late reply, this is a video in which a girl mixes and uses two different hennas: the one in the big green bowl is pure henna, the powder in the small round cup is the henna with picramate! Check out at 5:00!
I hope this will be useful .

Sodium picramate is a metallic salt and metallic salts can be carcinogenic, yes, although the 1% is considered safe. Is very danderous for fetuses, as it can affect the placenta. They react very badly with regular hairdresser dyes/perms, and in every case it's not very safe to use them often.

Jamila should be pure henna as far as I know, even if its browner than regular hennas. Maybe it was a fake?

[Northerner]

Thank you, SleepyTangles! Three Rivers henna looked like henna with picramate in the video when mixed. I sued it twice and am not going to use it again, don't know % picramate concentration, and the distributor denied that there is sodium picramate in the product when I emailed them. The Jamila from the grocery store seemed authentic (box no different than Henna Sooq's which is in my stash), yet it did have metallic smell. I do not have it anymore and will use Jamila henna from HS next. Still losing hair though, even though I've been off vit A for 1 month...