BAD reaction to hair dye need advice please on colouring / henna options etc

[templeofvenus]

Hi there i know this is the best place to ask for advice as all you hair gurus know a lot about this kind of thing.

I am having a real bad reaction to hair dye ppd red scalp swollen eye you get the picture

question - can I use henna on my hair from now on to do my roots when they start to come in? can you advise?? my hair is naturally a darkish blonde but dyed a dark reddish brown. I am not ready to go grey!! panic!

[Kaelee]

First off, have you seen a doctor about your reaction? If not, go, NOW!!!

PPD causes cross sensitivity and all sorts of other fun things.

Secondly, once your scalp heals, YES you can use henna, but patch test first and make 100% SURE you have real, pure henna. Some things sold as "henna" are not and may contain PPD or other nasty things.

[Firefox7275]

Hi there i know this is the best place to ask for advice as all you hair gurus know a lot about this kind of thing.

I am having a real bad reaction to hair dye ppd red scalp swollen eye you get the picture

question - can I use henna on my hair from now on to do my roots when they start to come in? can you advise?? my hair is naturally a darkish blonde but dyed a dark reddish brown. I am not ready to go grey!! panic!

If the culprit is definitely PPD (ie. you have been diagnosed) there are many PPD free products in the UK. Be sure to do a patch test as per the box instructions before every use.

[FoxyGhost]

I don't want to scare you but reactions to hair dye can be life threatening if they are repeated. People can use dye for years and suddenly develop a reaction or it can occur with first use. Bring it up to you doctor and check any dye, natural or otherwise, on your wrist or any other sensitive skin area prior to putting it on your head. I use hair dye and henna myself but I watch for symptoms of allergies or worse, like Steven Johnson's Syndrome or TENS (only type those into a google image search if you have a strong stomach)

[templeofvenus]

First off, have you seen a doctor about your reaction? If not, go, NOW!!!

PPD causes cross sensitivity and all sorts of other fun things.

Secondly, once your scalp heals, YES you can use henna, but patch test first and make 100% SURE you have real, pure henna. Some things sold as "henna" are not and may contain PPD or other nasty things.

thanks for replying so quick all of you I have been to casualty department have anti inflammatories, antihistamines and steroid cream to use - fun yeh! lol i am now terrified to use anything chemical again this is nasty!!! right eye now swelling and back to doctors tomorrow

can anyone advise where to get the proper henna for doing hair dark brown in the uk??? I need help here on what to do I have never use anything except chemical dye!

[Firefox7275]

thanks for replying so quick all of you I have been to casualty department have anti inflammatories, antihistamines and steroid cream to use - fun yeh! lol i am now terrified to use anything chemical again this is nasty!!! right eye now swelling and back to doctors tomorrow

can anyone advise where to get the proper henna for doing hair dark brown in the uk??? I need help here on what to do I have never use anything except chemical dye!

Yey for the NHS tho, it's times like these that reminds me how lucky we are to have it.

Henna is not dark brown, it's orange-red and will often come out bright orange on any white hairs. If you do dark brown you will either be using a chemical product containing henna as Kaelee mentioned or henna plus other herbal dyes. No herb or natural extract is safe, they are composed of chemicals and allergic reactions are not uncommon, there are many poisons, allergens, irritants and toxins found in nature. I believe pure body art quality henna is less high risk than some other herbal dyes.

Are you looking after your skin barrier now - no sulphate or other anionic shampoos, no alkaline soaps? Supe gentle shampoos at the right pH for skin and hair (4.5 to 5.5) will five your skin barrier the best chance of repair before you return to any sort of dying. Have you considered a high pigment semi permanent dye? These are basically colour molecules in a conditioner base: no PPD, peroxide, ammonia or other alkaline agents.

[MaryMarx]

I don't want to scare you but reactions to hair dye can be life threatening if they are repeated. People can use dye for years and suddenly develop a reaction or it can occur with first use. Bring it up to you doctor and check any dye, natural or otherwise, on your wrist or any other sensitive skin area prior to putting it on your head. I use hair dye and henna myself but I watch for symptoms of allergies or worse, like Steven Johnson's Syndrome or TENS (only type those into a google image search if you have a strong stomach)
Steven Johnson's syndrome... oh my... very disturbing pictures but good to know!

[browneyedsusan]

I have lots of allergies, but henna isn't one of them. You need to quit that hair dye. You can get BAQ henna from hennasooq.com or menhandi.com. Henna is red-orange, and will be transluscent over your existing haircolor. Dark colored hair won't show much difference, but your grays will be quite red. (Member Nae has dark hennaed hair with a few gray strands. She's sporting some magnificent hairstyles in this thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=22367).) Feel free to PM me if you want to henna, but be warned that it is permanent. Once it's in, you'll have to grow it out and cut it off to get rid of it. It won't fade, and you can't bleach it lighter. You can dye over it darker, but it will still flare red in the sun.

[FoxyGhost]

Steven Johnson's syndrome... oh my... very disturbing pictures but good to know!

That was the topic I was assigned in my Pathology class. The real cause is mostly unknown but it usually follows previous reactions to drugs or artificial chemicals or drugs applied topically, like hair dye.

[stinkyfeet]

I just want to say that I hope you feel better soon and find a safe solution to for your hair.

[MaryMarx]

That was the topic I was assigned in my Pathology class. The real cause is mostly unknown but it usually follows previous reactions to drugs or artificial chemicals or drugs applied topically, like hair dye.
Very interesting, I had to read about it. I'm glad I quit chemical hair dyes (two years in september), since it always gave me a hot, itchy scalp when it was on... I'm allergic to a lot of fruits and stuff too. Are allergic people more prone to these kind of severe reactions, or is it just bad luck?

[PetuniaBlossom]

I too wish you will feel better soon and get over this horrible allergic reaction.
Given the severity of your reaction, I hope you'll consider not doing anything to change the colour of your hair for the time being. Give your body a chance to fully recover and build up your immune system.
You might not want to see your grey hairs in the looking glass, but surely that would be better than what you're seeing right now?

[Katrine]

I'm so sorry to hear you have had this terrible reaction. If you do decide to henna after doing lots of research and of course, allergy and strand tests, you need to wait at least 8 weeks from the time you last dyed your hair. You may want to wait even a bit longer because of the bad reaction you've gotten.

After you start henna, you cannot go back to coloring your hair with chemical dye. But I don't know why you'd want to, anyway. Chemical color is full of toxins and its really hard on the hair. I think once you are able to transition to henna you will really like the color and how it helps to improve the condition of your hair. Also, if you do decide to henna make sure you avoid black teas. I've read that drinking black tea for henna users can cause anemia.

Please try to take gentle care of yourself and do see a Dr. as soon as you can.

[ravenreed]

As someone else said, I would hold off a while before doing anything new. I switched to Elumen dyes a while ago because I was worried about developing a PPD allergy. I have had great results, and highly recommend them. I tried henna, but the color didn't flatter me at all. I hope you are feeling better soon, and be extra careful from here on out.

[FoxyGhost]

Very interesting, I had to read about it. I'm glad I quit chemical hair dyes (two years in september), since it always gave me a hot, itchy scalp when it was on... I'm allergic to a lot of fruits and stuff too. Are allergic people more prone to these kind of severe reactions, or is it just bad luck?

I would imagine so, because it is some kind of extreme autoimmune disorder. The risk factors I found from my paper are:

"There are many risk factors for Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis because this rare disorder is an atypical hypersensitive reaction to common drugs, vaccinations, disease, and viral and bacterial infection. (Gardezi et al., 2013) Common drugs with notable involvement are anticonvulsants, antibiotics, NSAIDs, Allopurinol, and antipsychotics. (Kim et al., 2013) Diseases notably associated with TEN are lupus erythematosus and infections from herpes virus and pneumonia bacteria. Graft versus host disease may also trigger TEN. (Gardezi et al., 2013) This may have something to do with a genetic variant in the HLA region found in many TEN patients in a genome-wide association study by Genin et al. in (2011). The genetic variant was found to increase propensity of a drug based reaction causing TEN. Human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) affect immune responses and play a role in transplant rejection. (Porth, 2011, p. 336) In an Indian study, Sanmarkan, Sori, Thappa & Jaisankar (2011) found a male to female ratio for TEN to be 1:2.57. It is believed that the higher ratio of females to males is due to the higher incidence of females consuming drugs. Ages twenty to sixty-four have a lower risk of developing this condition and this may also have to do with increased drug consumption among the young and the old. (Gardezi et al., 2013) The TEN reaction is idiosyncratic and rare. The risk factors are greatly varied; there have even been noted cases were conventional hair dye was the culprit. (Kim et al., 2013) Monitoring and discontinuation of any product, drug or otherwise, that gives an adverse reaction, should help to lower the risk of developing TEN. (Porth, 2011, p. 1184)"

With your itchiness I would imagine that the dyes you were using had some sort of fruit oils in them. I know many companies are including grapeseed oil and the like to make it seem more 'natural'.

[akilina]

I'm not trying to be rude at all but this is why it is Important to test the product behind your ear, wrist, or inner elbow before applying.

I can't help with what henna to use, but before you henna, mix it up and test it on your wrist for several hours! Btw, as a plus I always loved mixing henna and then freezing it/using it later. I got the BEST saturation ever that way. That way you can give your test plenty of time to set on your wrist or wherever and your henna won't go bad.

[BellaFrice]

what color did you use and did you do something different? anything different or a different dye with something that your scalp doesn't like might have been the deal. beautian here fyi(for you info)

[ravenreed]

PPD allergies can happen EVEN IF YOU PATCH TEST RIGHT BEFORE HAND! That is why I stopped using PPD dyes. You can't really do anything to prevent them, other than avoid dyes with that ingredient.


I'm not trying to be rude at all but this is why it is Important to test the product behind your ear, wrist, or inner elbow before applying.

I can't help with what henna to use, but before you henna, mix it up and test it on your wrist for several hours! Btw, as a plus I always loved mixing henna and then freezing it/using it later. I got the BEST saturation ever that way. That way you can give your test plenty of time to set on your wrist or wherever and your henna won't go bad.

[akilina]

PPD allergies can happen EVEN IF YOU PATCH TEST RIGHT BEFORE HAND! That is why I stopped using PPD dyes. You can't really do anything to prevent them, other than avoid dyes with that



Obviously if its going to happen its going to happen and there's no changing that. Errr I'm not sure what you are trying to say....but I was not implying that testing will make it magically not happen at all. It's better than going thru the misery though if you're not sure ...patch testing is putting the product on and leaving it there for 24-48 hours not washing it off as I'm sure you know.

Is it possible for the allergy to effect the scalp badly and not said patch test on arm or behind ear?
I do not have this allergy and have never encountered it with clients.

[ravenreed]

What I am saying is that with PPD allergies, patch tests are irrelevant. You can patch test fine and then suddenly react when you apply it to your scalp, unlike most other types of allergies.


Obviously if its going to happen its going to happen and there's no changing that. Errr I'm not sure what you are trying to say....but I was not implying that testing will make it magically not happen at all. It's better than going thru the misery though if you're not sure ...patch testing is putting the product on and leaving it there for 24-48 hours not washing it off as I'm sure you know.

Is it possible for the allergy to effect the scalp badly and not said patch test on arm or behind ear?
I do not have this allergy and have never encountered it with clients.

[akilina]

What I am saying is that with PPD allergies, patch tests are irrelevant. You can patch test fine and then suddenly react when you apply it to your scalp, unlike most other types of allergies.

Thank you for clarifying. Definitely good to know!

[Teazel]

I apologise for my ignorance, but what's PPD?

[Firefox7275]

Obviously if its going to happen its going to happen and there's no changing that. Errr I'm not sure what you are trying to say....but I was not implying that testing will make it magically not happen at all. It's better than going thru the misery though if you're not sure ...patch testing is putting the product on and leaving it there for 24-48 hours not washing it off as I'm sure you know.

Is it possible for the allergy to effect the scalp badly and not said patch test on arm or behind ear?
I do not have this allergy and have never encountered it with clients.

In no way do I mean to be rude to you personally because it's great you are asking, but they don't teach this at hairdressing college and it's not covered in your professional journals??? Good lord, it really does make me wonder who writes the syllabus.

Patch testing can show up milder allergies but severe allergic reactions can occur suddenly at any time even with prior patch testing, there are different components of the immune system involved. That isn't to say it's not worth patch testing just that there are no guarantees, you may still be rushing a client to hospital with anaphylactic shock. Some people do get a 'warning' with PPD or other severe allergic reactions, they report a mild reaction on a previous occasion so that should be a major 'red flag' to you.

HTH.

[Panth]

In no way do I mean to be rude to you personally because it's great you are asking, but they don't teach this at hairdressing college and it's not covered in your professional journals??? Good lord, it really does make me wonder who writes the syllabus.

Patch testing can show up milder allergies but severe allergic reactions can occur suddenly at any time even with prior patch testing, there are different components of the immune system involved. That isn't to say it's not worth patch testing just that there are no guarantees, you may still be rushing a client to hospital with anaphylactic shock. Some people do get a 'warning' with PPD or other severe allergic reactions, they report a mild reaction on a previous occasion so that should be a major 'red flag' to you.

HTH.

Also (to generalise immensely), an allergic reaction only happens the second (or more) time that someone comes into contact with a substance. The first exposure creates a "memory" of the substance in the immune system and then on the second exposure the "memory" is accessed and a response triggered. So, if a patch test was the first time someone ever came into contact with the substance, you'd only get an allergic reaction when you applied it to their head.

(However, you should patch test every time, even with substances that people have used before, because the "memory-making first contact" can actually occur at any time, even in substances that you have used previously without problems. Researchers are still unclear as to why this happens, but it may be due to allergy cross-reactivity, which is known to happen in some cases. E.g. oral allergy syndrome (oral itching in response to certain raw fruits/nuts) can be caused by cross-reactivity from an initial allergic response to certain pollens. So, someone can go their entire adult life not allergic to any food, move cities/countries to somewhere with that pollen, react to the pollen and get an allergy (hayfever) and then that allergic response will cross-react and be set off by food which they were previously fine with.)

[PetuniaBlossom]

This thread should be required reading for anyone wanting to alter their hair colour!!!
Thank you, FoxyGhost, Firefox, and Panth.
People's immune systems in general seem to be more compromised these days, what will all the pollutants and toxins we encounter in our food, water, air, and the general environment, including cleaning products and toiletries. The rise in auto-immune diseases is well-documented. I'd caution anyone wanting to colour their hair to do a lot of homework first, and don't just blindly trust your friends or your hair-care 'professional' - just be cautious with what you put on or in your body. Please.

[MaryMarx]

I would imagine so, because it is some kind of extreme autoimmune disorder. The risk factors I found from my paper are:

"There are many risk factors for Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis because this rare disorder is an atypical hypersensitive reaction to common drugs, vaccinations, disease, and viral and bacterial infection. (Gardezi et al., 2013) Common drugs with notable involvement are anticonvulsants, antibiotics, NSAIDs, Allopurinol, and antipsychotics. (Kim et al., 2013) Diseases notably associated with TEN are lupus erythematosus and infections from herpes virus and pneumonia bacteria. Graft versus host disease may also trigger TEN. (Gardezi et al., 2013) This may have something to do with a genetic variant in the HLA region found in many TEN patients in a genome-wide association study by Genin et al. in (2011). The genetic variant was found to increase propensity of a drug based reaction causing TEN. Human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) affect immune responses and play a role in transplant rejection. (Porth, 2011, p. 336) In an Indian study, Sanmarkan, Sori, Thappa & Jaisankar (2011) found a male to female ratio for TEN to be 1:2.57. It is believed that the higher ratio of females to males is due to the higher incidence of females consuming drugs. Ages twenty to sixty-four have a lower risk of developing this condition and this may also have to do with increased drug consumption among the young and the old. (Gardezi et al., 2013) The TEN reaction is idiosyncratic and rare. The risk factors are greatly varied; there have even been noted cases were conventional hair dye was the culprit. (Kim et al., 2013) Monitoring and discontinuation of any product, drug or otherwise, that gives an adverse reaction, should help to lower the risk of developing TEN. (Porth, 2011, p. 1184)"

With your itchiness I would imagine that the dyes you were using had some sort of fruit oils in them. I know many companies are including grapeseed oil and the like to make it seem more 'natural'.

Thank you! I never thought about fruit oils, but that could definitely have been the case.

[Firefox7275]

This thread should be required reading for anyone wanting to alter their hair colour!!!
Thank you, FoxyGhost, Firefox, and Panth.
People's immune systems in general seem to be more compromised these days, what will all the pollutants and toxins we encounter in our food, water, air, and the general environment, including cleaning products and toiletries. The rise in auto-immune diseases is well-documented. I'd caution anyone wanting to colour their hair to do a lot of homework first, and don't just blindly trust your friends or your hair-care 'professional' - just be cautious with what you put on or in your body. Please.

Poor lifestyle choices play a huge role in certain types of allergies and irritation reactions, for example it's possible for some with hayfever to become completely asymptomatic with a nutrient dense anti inflammatory diet. Westerners can talk about this as if we are passive victims or we can take some personal responsibility for the rise in many health conditions. On average US and UK citizens eat a third a serving of oily fish a week and two servings of fruit and vegetables a day, yet we evolved eating fish and other seafood daily, piles of plant material - oily fish and produce are anti inflammatory foods. The type of chronic systemic inflammation we are riddles with is basically an inappropriate immune response.

Diet and lifestyle modification cannot treat severe anaphylactic shock reactions BTW.

[irishlady]

I can't add much more than what others have said, as in going to your doctor and waiting until your scalp has recovered until trying henna.

I dyed my hair black with a supposedly "natural" dye...oh how naive I am. My scalp was very sensitive and itchy afterwards.

These days I achieve a dark colour using henna and indigo, and my hair is much healthier for it. I'm never going back to commercial dyes.

Remember to do a patch test first, since some people can react to henna, and make sure it's real henna. Real henna powder looks like a green-brown mush when mixed with water until the dye is released. It'll also look green when it goes on your hair, but don't worry about this, it won't turn your hair green!

[Lunadriael]

I used to use http://henna-boy.co.uk/ for my henna btw, rather than those others suggested (which I think are US based?). It's not the cheapest, but you know it's good quality and they've always given me well-packaged produce delivered on time. They have all kinds of herbs to mix up yourself (not just henna), or some pre-mixed stuff, which I've never tried and might give you variable results. I am in no way affiliated with them, but I though it might be good to give you another option.

I hope your allergic reaction goes away soon, it sounds nasty!

[templeofvenus]

I used to use http://henna-boy.co.uk/ for my henna btw, rather than those others suggested (which I think are US based?). It's not the cheapest, but you know it's good quality and they've always given me well-packaged produce delivered on time. They have all kinds of herbs to mix up yourself (not just henna), or some pre-mixed stuff, which I've never tried and might give you variable results. I am in no way affiliated with them, but I though it might be good to give you another option.

I hope your allergic reaction goes away soon, it sounds nasty!


thanks I have been looking at henna boy funnily enough at the henna/indigo mix to get brown shades i think thats what I will be trying out when all of this horrid reaction is well gone - no more chemicals for me

[Panth]

This thread should be required reading for anyone wanting to alter their hair colour!!!
Thank you, FoxyGhost, Firefox, and Panth.
People's immune systems in general seem to be more compromised these days, what will all the pollutants and toxins we encounter in our food, water, air, and the general environment, including cleaning products and toiletries. The rise in auto-immune diseases is well-documented. I'd caution anyone wanting to colour their hair to do a lot of homework first, and don't just blindly trust your friends or your hair-care 'professional' - just be cautious with what you put on or in your body. Please.

Although the rise in auto-immune diseases is well-documented, there's rather much less evidence that it has anything to do with those vague "pollutants and toxins". There's a rather interesting scientific idea - the hygiene hypothesis. Basically, the type of immune reaction that is seen in allergy is based on the branch of the immune system that would normally respond to certain bacteria but also to parasites. The hypothesis is that the cleanliness-obsessed Western lifestyle means that most Westerners do not experience either the quantity or variety of diseases in childhood compared to people historically or in non-industrialised countries. Thus, lacking the cues it has evolved to anticipate, the immune system does not develop appropriately and starts mistaking harmless things (food, pollen, parts of the body) as attacking bacteria/viruses/parasites.

Unlike the "pollutants and toxins" idea, the hygiene hypothesis explains why when countries become increasingly Westernised their rates of auto-immune diseases also increase (considering that, what with poor industrial waste disposal, poor work safety and little/no building regulations, many people in developing nations are exposed to at least as many "pollutants and toxins" as the average Westerner).

[jeanniet]

Although the rise in auto-immune diseases is well-documented, there's rather much less evidence that it has anything to do with those vague "pollutants and toxins". There's a rather interesting scientific idea - the hygiene hypothesis. Basically, the type of immune reaction that is seen in allergy is based on the branch of the immune system that would normally respond to certain bacteria but also to parasites. The hypothesis is that the cleanliness-obsessed Western lifestyle means that most Westerners do not experience either the quantity or variety of diseases in childhood compared to people historically or in non-industrialised countries. Thus, lacking the cues it has evolved to anticipate, the immune system does not develop appropriately and starts mistaking harmless things (food, pollen, parts of the body) as attacking bacteria/viruses/parasites.

Unlike the "pollutants and toxins" idea, the hygiene hypothesis explains why when countries become increasingly Westernised their rates of auto-immune diseases also increase (considering that, what with poor industrial waste disposal, poor work safety and little/no building regulations, many people in developing nations are exposed to at least as many "pollutants and toxins" as the average Westerner).

Although it's entirely annecdotal, my observations over the years have led me to believe that this is at least partially true. Very often families I run across who are especially focused on cleanliness are the ones who seem to get sick the most. Kids need to get dirty. My kids were frequently pretty filthy, which is maybe why they're so healthy as adults, lol.

[PetuniaBlossom]

I doubt that this is an 'either/or' situation.
Pollution exists. Toxins in the water supply, pesticides, animals raised on antibiotics and growth-inducing hormones, etc. are real and do tend to mess with one's overall health, compromising the immune system.
It's also likely that kids who are raised without 'normal' exposure to the dirt and microbes of the planet we live on, are likely not to have well-prepared immune systems when they do encounter these materials.
There are likely other causes, as well. But it doesn't do to blame over-protective, germ-obsessed parents for the very real effects that our trashing of the food, water, and air supply have produced. A child who's been fed nothing but fast, junk food and soda pop all its life is compromised regardless of whether the home is overly antiseptic or not.
Whatever might have caused the OP's allergic response to the chemicals in her hair dye isn't really the issue here. How to protect herself from further dangerous reactions to hair colorants is vital.

[ravenreed]

I spent my infancy/toddler years in filth. Seriously. My birth mom and dad were squatters in an abandoned tenement. There were feral cats that snuck in and pooped in my sleeping area... Apparently when I was learning to walk, I would get splinters in my feet from the rotten floors, and then my feet would get infected. It did me no good at all. I am still allergic to everything. *sigh* I suspect that it is less the filth and more the lack of parasites. Most of us live flea free, unless one of our companion animals gets infested. I have personally never had lice, nor worms, nor any of the other critters that our immune systems have evolved to cope with.


Although the rise in auto-immune diseases is well-documented, there's rather much less evidence that it has anything to do with those vague "pollutants and toxins". There's a rather interesting scientific idea - the hygiene hypothesis. Basically, the type of immune reaction that is seen in allergy is based on the branch of the immune system that would normally respond to certain bacteria but also to parasites. The hypothesis is that the cleanliness-obsessed Western lifestyle means that most Westerners do not experience either the quantity or variety of diseases in childhood compared to people historically or in non-industrialised countries. Thus, lacking the cues it has evolved to anticipate, the immune system does not develop appropriately and starts mistaking harmless things (food, pollen, parts of the body) as attacking bacteria/viruses/parasites.

Unlike the "pollutants and toxins" idea, the hygiene hypothesis explains why when countries become increasingly Westernised their rates of auto-immune diseases also increase (considering that, what with poor industrial waste disposal, poor work safety and little/no building regulations, many people in developing nations are exposed to at least as many "pollutants and toxins" as the average Westerner).

[templeofvenus]

I can't add much more than what others have said, as in going to your doctor and waiting until your scalp has recovered until trying henna.

I dyed my hair black with a supposedly "natural" dye...oh how naive I am. My scalp was very sensitive and itchy afterwards.

These days I achieve a dark colour using henna and indigo, and my hair is much healthier for it. I'm never going back to commercial dyes.


Remember to do a patch test first, since some people can react to henna, and make sure it's real henna. Real henna powder looks like a green-brown mush when mixed with water until the dye is released. It'll also look green when it goes on your hair, but don't worry about this, it won't turn your hair green!

Hello and thanks for the reply irishlady - your hair colour is about what i would want to achieve with the henna and indigo. I am thinking of oredering from www.hennaboy.co.uk they do a henna/indigo mix to achieve dark brown colour their henna seems to be decent quality from some research I have been doing.

I fully intend to wait a month before trying the henna to give my scalp and body time to recover and will of course patch test first