Scared of henna!

[MonaLisa]

So the thing is...I'm not too happy with my hair color...
And I decided i won't chemically dye it again..
And i've seen wonderful results people here get with henna.

My hair is very fine, has old damage in more than half of it's length, and is prone to splits and breakage, it's also quite dry.
My scalp is rather sensitive and anything unusual makes me shed.

Also my mom scared me ...saying henna is wonderful, she used it when she was younger, but it made her hair fall out..
And I have a friend who went nearly bald after using henna..could that have been a coincidence?

Hope you understand my fears..

So I'd like to know ...what exactly is henna gloss? is it possible to make hair just a bit darker with it? I'd like very dark, almost black hair..
Where do you get it? LUSH? and how to apply it/for how long...
and more importantly, what are possible side effects?
is it possible that it will damage or dry my ends?
and most importantly - can it cause hair to fall out?

:confused::(

[Mesmerise]

I have never heard of henna making people's hair fall out! Maybe what they were using wasn't 100% henna, but one of the "henna dyes" which had metallic salts and other stuff... For most people, henna is very gentle to the scalp.

To make your hair a darker colour you need to use henna and indigo, as henna alone will just give you red hair. I am no expert on the use of indigo as I'm 100% henna only :D.

A henna gloss is when you mix a small amount of henna in with conditioner and apply that to your hair. It generally makes for a lighter colour overall, but can build up if you regularly do glosses. I did one on my daughter a couple of months ago and it gave a reddish tinge to her light brown hair, which is pretty much faded now.

[Katze]

I am not a henna head, but a henna artist, so I can allay your fears somewhat. :)

Henna is completely harmless, in its pure form. There are many products sold as 'henna' (from what I understand the Lush brand, though I have not tested it) which contain other plants or dyes -they are 'grandfathered' in so to speak. Some of these are fine, some are potentially irritating.

Pure henna has been used for over ten thousand years to dye hair, skin, cloth, leather, wood, and animals. It is antibacterial and antifungal, so it should be nice for your scalp. I know many people from the Arab countries and North Africa who have used henna to cure athlete's foot and other skin fungus conditions.

If your hair is damaged, henna coats the shafts and can make it feel fuller and thicker, though no product will 'repair' the damage. If you are extremely sensitive, I would suggest doing a patch test, but you should be fine with pure henna.

You can find a list of suppliers here: www.hennatribe.org and if you are in Europe I can recommend www.renaissancehenna.com as a good supplier of high quality, pure henna.

Nightshade is a member here who is very knowledgeable about henna and other natural dyes, and there are many, many more. Sadly red looks awful with my complexion, otherwise I would use henna for my hair and not just my skin.

hope this helps!

[bunzfan]

Hi Monalisa i am a recent convert to henna so just wanted to reply. Henna will not make your hair full out its very natural thats what the Romans used to colour their hair so its been going a long time.

I use something like this http://www.pakcosmetics.com/brand/Royal/Henna/Henna-Red.html because i want my hair red but if you want yours really dark you would need to use indigo, its permanent though so really think before going ahead. Oh and it made my hair much thicker.

[pixiestar]

I do henna glosses, and from my experience it has made my hair thicker and shinnier:)
I too have a sensitive scalp and skin, initially I mixed my henna with chamomile tea but this seemed to irritate my scalp. Now I just use boiled filtered water, and have not had a problem:D

[Nightshade]

There's an article in my siggy that should answer most your basic henna questions :)

That said, I would fear henna, but not because it'll make your hair fall out, but because the red is so, so permanent. Unless you are 250% sure you want red, and want it forever, I'd give cassia a whirl instead.

[Othala]

I would advise you to collect some of your shed hair - maybe a couple of weeks worth or combed out or brushed out hair - and dye that with the henna or henna gloss. Hold the dyed hair against your face to see if it suits you. Also, evaluate the texture and colour of the hair and see if it is what you truly desire.

Personally, I would henna gloss rather than do a full-on henna application.

To do the henna gloss, mix up some henna (say a tablespoon) with warm water in a glass or ceramic (i.e. non-porous) bowl, cover it and leave in a warm place overnight. The next morning, check that the henna has released dye (see if you get the intense henna red when you dip a paper towel into it). If the dye has released, then mix in the amount of conditioner it would take to cover your entire hair. Mix it really well, then apply to your hair. Cover with a disposable shower cap, saran wrap to keep the conditioner moist. A heat cap or even a towel wrapped around the plastic is a good idea. Leave on head for an hour or longer, then rise thoroughly.

You should have light tint and gloriously deep-conditioned hair.

[torrilin]

Patch test. Natural does not mean safe. Arsenic is natural. Mold is natural, and while some molds give us penicillin and cheese, others are poisonous. And even a "safe" cheese mold can give some of us horrible allergic reactions. Hell, even drinking too much water can kill you.

The other issue is that people use a wide range of henna mixes. A henna and water paste is probably fine. But the more complicated the mix, the more stuff that can go wrong. And since hennaheads often would soak their hair in the henna mud for 2 hours or more... a mildly damaging ingredient can have a lot of time to react with their hair to cause problems.

Henna also won't cure your damage. Nothing fixes damaged hair. Nothing. It may improve the feel because henna coats the hair shaft but the damage will still be there.

[virgo75]

I agree with others on doing a patch test on skin as well as on shed hair.

If you're afraid of henna, then don't do it.

It's 100% permanent and the only way to get it out of your hair is to cut it off.

I think it is possible for someone to lose hair using henna if their scalp is sensitive to something in the henna. It doesn't have to mean that the henna was contaminated or not pure. Henna is a plant, and there are plenty of people with plant allergies. It's possible your mother had some sort of allergic reaction to it.

I've done henna for a few years and I'm planning on going back to box dye because I'm tired of it. Even though I don't have any allergies that I know of, I have experienced burning, itching, and/or tingling on my scalp with BAQ henna that was mixed with nothing but water and have had an increased amount of shedding a couple of times. I've also had 1 or 2 experiences where I felt like I couldn't breathe after putting it on my head. Again, BAQ henna mixed with nothing but water. None of these experiences were consistant, just a couple of times. But it's enough to let me know that there can be problems with it for some people.

Please take your time to go over the information about henna and do as many tests as possible before making a decision on it. Just because henna is natural doesn't mean it can't cause problems for your scalp, hair, or health.

[Anje]

Bad henna that's been adulterated with other things (like PPD) might make your hair fall out. If you don't have a source you can reasonably trust is real pure henna, definitely be cautious. But if you get it from a known brand or a good supplier, your only risk is from allergic reactions and the like.

I shed a bit more than normal when I henna, but I also shed more when I shampoo rather than washing with only conditioner. Henna is drying for me and my skin, so I do notice a small amount of irritation when using it. (For that reason, I recommend blending your henna with water rather than an acid like lemon juice, and consider adding conditioner or oil to the blend for additional moisturizing.)

If you're interested but nervous, order some and do a strand test and a patch test. (Really, that's best practice with any hair dye!) See if your skin reacts to an extended exposure to it, other than turning orange/brown/black. If you like the color or the strand test and don't react to the henna inside your elbow, have at it! Just remember that henna does not remove easily.

[Alvrodul]

Hi! :waving: To me, it sounds like your mother and your friend probably either got some henna that was mixed with metallic salts, or was just a bit of henna in a mix of chemicals with long, unpronouncable names. Both of those options would be very, very bad for skin and hair! BAQ henna is quite another critter. It is rare that anybody has allergic reactions to it, but that does not mean it won't happen! And a henna-coloring session tends to dry out the hair and scalp temporarily - this effect would be even stronger if the henna is mixed with citrus juice, which is a very common ingredient in henna mixes. Personally, I only use water, and sometimes add just a bit of oil to the mix before putting it on my head.

If you are concerned about possible allergic reactions, I will join my voice to those who recommend extensive testing - both patch testing on your skin, and color testing on your hair.

You could also consider Nightshade's advice to try cassia - this has many of the conditioning effects of henna without the color - the dye molecule in cassia is a yellow color, and it won't stick around permanently, like henna would. And that is the problem with henna - it is permanent, until death or the scissors :scissors: do you part. :p So there is really no "try" with henna.

Personally, I looove henna, though!

You make a henna gloss by taking some color-released henna mud, mix with conditioner, and put that on your hair. Leave it on for a suitable time (better do a strand test on that too to determine the strength of the mixture, and how long it should be on your head), rinse out, and dry as usual. If you are leery of getting a too dark/red color, there is no problem with doing repeated glosses until you get the color you want - you can put more color in without any trouble, but getting it out is not going to happen, though. And if you do repeated applications, I would recommend waiting a week or so before you put in the next gloss - the henna color takes a few days to oxidize.

For the dryness of your hair, i would recommend SMT (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=128)s. It works wonders on my hair, and I have some damage, and a tendency towards dryness on my length. I would also suggest that you try experimenting with oiling your hair. Just smooth a couple of drops of oil over your hands, then smooth the oil-coated hands over and through then length of your hair. Popular choices are coconut oil, jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, EVOO. My favorite these days is argan oil, but that is quite expensive, and you want the pure oil.

I also like to give my hair an oil treatment before washing - I like coconut oil for this!

Good luck with your hair! :flower:

[Panth]

Disclaimer: I know pretty much zilch about henna. However, one thing I notice is you have said this:


So the thing is...I'm not too happy with my hair color...
And I decided i won't chemically dye it again..

Is your current hair chemically dyed? That might affect how well henna would work and may even give a bad result. I'd go over to the natural haircare products section and tell the experts which dyes you've used, if that's the case, and they should be able to say if it's ok to dye over them with henna.

[christine1989]

I can understand your fear- I was SO scared too the first time I tried it but I was more unhappy with my faded ends than I was scared of henna :). It does make you shed more than usual when you wash it out but that can be attributed to the effort and large amounts of shampoo it takes to get out. Overall, my hair did shed getting it out but it was not bad at all. The last time I used paprika with my henna mixture and shed hardly at all. Also keep in mind that your mom and friend might have been using henna with additives and metallic compounds- pure henna shouldn't cause hair to fall out.

[MonaLisa]

thank you guys! so much great replies! you're amazing once again :)

yes lower half of my hair has some old chemical dye and even bleach in it.

and i did mean more like henna gloss, not full henna...at least for start.
So one thing remained a bit unclear. can henna gloss be done with indigo and make hair a bit darker?
just few shades darker is what i want.
And reading some links...hmm the conditioning effects of henna start to be appealing.

But to answer Nightshade, I'm not ready to go red or even full black just something close to my color dark dark brown/black..
could some gloss do that?

and thank you, I'd definitely do a little test first :)

[christine1989]

I'm not sure a gloss would produce darkening results very quickly. You could definatly use henna+indigo but if that is your hair in your siggy pic then I think it would take quite a hefty amount of indigo to darken it with just a gloss.

[MonaLisa]

It is my hair in signature. sigh :)

wallnut oil and nettle tea rinse darken it a bit, but was hoping gloss could do it more permanent.
also the reddish glow would be intriguing.
I'd definitely start with gloss till i'm completely sure about henna.
but im guessing same rules apply..

[Anje]

You had your hair stripped 3 times in a month?

In that case, I'll bet you need protein if you're not doing regular protein treatments now. I've heard good things about the Aphogee 2-step treatment, though I suspect it's not cheap. Follow it up with a moisture treatment like an SMT, as protein treatments tend to be a bit drying, but it'll help moisture stick in your hair.

[MonaLisa]

No no..it happened over few years..had it highlighted and bleached several times for like 2 years and then went black and dyed it for 2-3 years. it's been 8 months since i've stopped the ***p...and black faded out and blended in ..can't even see 2 tones or anything..but can clearly feel difference ..my natural hair feels so much better...and the very ends are horror..
thing is i'm not so in love with my natural color...but i definitely wont dye it again...so considering options and gloss seemed most harmless..