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little_cherry
May 17th, 2010, 02:56 PM
Hi all! :)

I've been wondering about this for a while. How does the pH of your hair affect the colour outcome of henna? I know the scalp has a pH of 5-5.5, so if one was to clarify with something like a weak baking soda solution prior to hennaing vs just applying henna to hair that has been washed without alkaline products the day before, would the colour outcomes be different?

Acid vs alkaline: outcomes.

Thanks in advance! <3

redneckprincess
May 17th, 2010, 08:52 PM
That would fun to see someone do some test samples on this...

little_cherry
May 18th, 2010, 04:07 PM
That would fun to see someone do some test samples on this...
Agreed! I even had hair samples saved up for this, but someone threw them away! >_<

little_cherry
June 2nd, 2010, 02:43 AM
So....I decided to conduct this experiment myself...(had fun doing so!)

I used 3 'hairballs' which were washed with with a shampoo bar, clarified with a baking soda rinse and:
(a)left it alone
(b)did an ACV rinse
(c)Conditioned with Suave.

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/7109/strandtestphhenna.jpg

From what I can see...the first and second hairball are definitely more vibrant. Clarifying sure gives a better stain. As for the pH, it really seems as if there is a slight difference between the hair washed with baking soda and the hair washed with baking soda followed by an ACV rinse..the AVC rinse one does seem a touch more vibrant than the one that was only washed with the baking soda.

My theory...the henna will neutralise the pH of your scalp, so to me there is little difference between the clar and clar/avc hairball. However, clarifying does matter. Both the first and second samples are much more vibrant than the last sample that was conditioned with Suave.

loralie
June 2nd, 2010, 03:20 AM
Didn't the vitamin C you used in your last henna affect acidity in some way too? Interesting stuff for sure. little_cherry the guinea pig to the rescue! :D

Now go to sleep! It's even later where you are!

little_cherry
June 2nd, 2010, 03:32 AM
^ good point :D

Since some use citric acid as a rinse with great results, I decided to crush some vit c pills and dissolve them into the water. I got a better and faster dye release with this, so it seems. :) Hair is not dry at all- I added no oils to the mix and only used water to wash out the henna...all followed by an acv rinse.

This is the first time I used vit c in my henna mix...other times it was ACV/lemon juice or lime juice.

I clarified as well. I strongly believe that the clarifying helped the dying process.

...I added vitamin c pills to 2 cups warm water (didn't end up using all the water) in 100g Yemeni henna...dye released in warm spot for 2 hours...paste was a dark greenish brown and dyed my blue gloves an ewwy brown colour in 10 minutes.

Yes..it's...5:30am.. :P

Katze
June 2nd, 2010, 06:13 AM
so it seems like a more basic pH is good for henna on hair at least...

As a henna artist I have been curious about these kind of questions for some time, because there is NO good, objective research (but a lot of useful hearsay) on how henna works. DH is a chemist, and supervises youth doing research in science, and he is going to set the task of 'how does henna work' as a research project for a competition this fall, and I will post the results on my website, www.hennakunst.de.

Thanks for doing this! Fascinating!

ktani
June 2nd, 2010, 07:23 AM
Hi all! :)

I've been wondering about this for a while. How does the pH of your hair affect the colour outcome of henna? I know the scalp has a pH of 5-5.5, so if one was to clarify with something like a weak baking soda solution prior to hennaing vs just applying henna to hair that has been washed without alkaline products the day before, would the colour outcomes be different?

Acid vs alkaline: outcomes.

Thanks in advance! <3

There is scienticific information on henna and pH here, http://www.hennapage.com/henna/encyclopedia/lawsonia/
and in other articles on the same website.

There is extensive scientific research on henna and lawsone. This is a small sample. See References. http://www.answers.com/topic/henna

Henna essential oils
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4091/is_200507/ai_n14901654/

"A Phytophamacological Review", 2010
http://www.ijpsdr.com/pdf/vol2-issue2/2.pdf

Katze
June 2nd, 2010, 07:41 AM
There is scienticific information on henna and pH here, http://www.hennapage.com/henna/encyclopedia/lawsonia/
and in other articles on the same website.

There is extensive scientific research on henna and lawsone. This is a small sample, http://www.answers.com/topic/henna

ktani, I used to contribute a lot to that site before it was bought by its current owner, and none of her research is really done in a lab. As far as I know she uses a toy microscope, and there have been controversies around which suppliers she chooses to pick on or not (and about chloroplasts being called green sand). A bunch of us did some research testing acidity for henna for body art and found that acidity did NOT help the stain, contrary to what is claimed at that and other sites.

The 'answers' link you posted is not scientific research on how henna works, but an overview of henna and its uses - not a bad one, either! However, we do not really know exactly how henna works on a chemical level, and I hope to be able to change that soon. :)

ktani
June 2nd, 2010, 08:08 AM
ktani, I used to contribute a lot to that site before it was bought by its current owner, and none of her research is really done in a lab. As far as I know she uses a toy microscope, and there have been controversies around which suppliers she chooses to pick on or not (and about chloroplasts being called green sand). A bunch of us did some research testing acidity for henna for body art and found that acidity did NOT help the stain, contrary to what is claimed at that and other sites.

The 'answers' link you posted is not scientific research on how henna works, but an overview of henna and its uses - not a bad one, either! However, we do not really know exactly how henna works on a chemical level, and I hope to be able to change that soon. :)

The link on the first site is not by the owner, although she is listed in the credit. I agree that people here disagree with using acids with henna but the "answers" link I posted was more for the references than the article content.

There is scientific research available about how lawsonia inermis works chemically on protein.

I do not have full access to this, from 1997
"The lawsone, a brown color powder, was isolated from the leaves of L. inermis and was used as a staining agent for the resolved proteins in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). It exhibited an excellent affinity to bind with a majority of the known proteins such as albumin, blood serum protein, keratin and casein. ... albumin staining capacity of the dye over a broad pH range reveals that ... is best at pH 10, lawsone binds with proteins over a wide range of pH ..."
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/bk-1997-0662.ch013

or this from 2009
"lawsone breaches cells, penetrates and stains"
http://www.springerlink.com/content/r8536618w0008m12/

Henna and its compounds are being closely studied for various applications.
2008
"Lawsone ... compound thought to be responsible for the staining properties of henna. It is a naphthoquinone, a group of compounds already known to react with amino acids. Lewis’ team found that amino acids in invisible fingerprints turn a brown–purple colour when exposed to lawsone and are strongly luminescent under a forensic light source."
http://www.rsc.org/images/CT_issue_8_tcm18-128500.pdf

little_cherry
June 2nd, 2010, 06:44 PM
Ktani, thank you for the very informative links. I enjoyed reading through the information. :)

I only wanted to see if the pH of the skin or hair would affect the overall henna stain, not the pH of the henna mix itself. I just added the vit c pills because I like what they did for my hair in the condish+citric acid treatment I found here on lhc.

I guess there were more parts to the experiment, too.
-Clarifying vs not clarifying.
-acidic vs alkaline hair.

I have been hennaing for 2 years (using yemeni for nearly a year), and this is the first time I was able to achieve a vibrant result.

Katze, you're very welcome. :) I cannot wait to see the results of your husbands' experiment! :)

ktani
June 3rd, 2010, 05:42 AM
Ktani, thank you for the very informative links. I enjoyed reading through the information. :)

I only wanted to see if the pH of the skin or hair would affect the overall henna stain, not the pH of the henna mix itself. I just added the vit c pills because I like what they did for my hair in the condish+citric acid treatment I found here on lhc.

I guess there were more parts to the experiment, too.
-Clarifying vs not clarifying.
-acidic vs alkaline hair.

My pleasure!

Here is an article with full access from the Australian Journal of Medical Herbalism, date 2007, with references listed on Page 14.
"Dye uptake increases with increased pH ...."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6801/is_3_19/ai_n28486286/?tag=content;col1

The same article all on one page, http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Antimicrobial+properties+of+Lawsonia+inermis+(henn a)&#37;3A+a+review-a0173925919

Henna is known to dye hair over a range of pH. The information below may be specific to wool and nylon.

"When applied to wool and nylon 6.6, both Henna extract and Lawsone behaved as acid levelling, non-metallised acid dyes in so far as dye uptake increased with decreasing pH."
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TFY-43PRTJS-4B&_user=10&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F1993&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1357768604&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=2968b2aa52f00aed7fe66a27b88ee8d7

This sounds interesting but there is just the abstract, without payment or access to the full text.
"Chemical fingerprinting of Lawsonia inermis L. using HPLC, HPTLC and densitometry, Gallo, F. R. Multari, G. Giambenedetti, M. Federici, E. 2008-01-01
Introduction - Lawsonia inermis L. is a natural red colouring agent, commonly named "Henna", which is used to dye skin and hair. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of L. inermis that is commercially available as a raw plant material or preparation in order to guarantee good quality products. Objective - To develop a simple protocol for the qualification of different samples labelled as L. inermis ..."
http://direct.bl.uk/bld/PlaceOrder.do?UIN=239694700&ETOC=RN&from=searchengine

You may also find this interesting, although it is not on point with this thread but a good read nontheless. http://www.cosmeticsbusiness.com/technical/article_page/Natural_dyes_-_is_the_end_in_sight/49774

little_cherry
June 3rd, 2010, 12:34 PM
Wow, thanks Ktani! Very interesting reads indeed! :)

ktani
June 3rd, 2010, 12:41 PM
Wow, thanks Ktani! Very interesting reads indeed! :)

You are most welcome!

Liz_H
November 7th, 2020, 10:53 PM
Katze, your art is wonderful! I never thought I might want henna body art, but I may change my mind. I know your website doesn't address the issue of acidity, but I hope others are inspired to see your work.


so it seems like a more basic pH is good for henna on hair at least...

As a henna artist I have been curious about these kind of questions for some time, because there is NO good, objective research (but a lot of useful hearsay) on how henna works. DH is a chemist, and supervises youth doing research in science, and he is going to set the task of 'how does henna work' as a research project for a competition this fall, and I will post the results on my website, www.hennakunst.de (http://www.hennakunst.de).

Thanks for doing this! Fascinating!