Can you add baking soda to henna paste?

**Priska** · May 15th, 2024, 01:05 PM

I think some people used to wash their hair with baking soda maybe ten or more years ago, so I guess it is safe, but anyone knows if you can keep it in your hair longer? A few hours or overnight? I mean, I really think my henna dye result is deeper red when I mix it with something alcaline like green tea or rooibos tea, but probably baking soda beats these teas in alcaline level...

**Für immer** · May 15th, 2024, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by Priska

I think some people used to wash their hair with baking soda maybe ten or more years ago, so I guess it is safe, but anyone knows if you can keep it in your hair longer? A few hours or overnight? I mean, I really think my henna dye result is deeper red when I mix it with something alcaline like green tea or rooibos tea, but probably baking soda beats these teas in alcaline level...

Have heard baking soda does more harm than good, and may lead to breakage.

also, a small text copied from google:
Baking soda, being alkaline, can strip the moisture from the hair and make it very dry and frizzy.
Although it removes all the oil, grime, sweat, and dead cells from the hair shaft and the scalp making it squeaky clean, it leaves the hair and scalp dehydrated.

You are of course free to do whatever experiment you want, but I would never recommend baking soda.

**Priska** · May 15th, 2024, 02:09 PM

Thank you Fur Immer (sorry I can't find that ypsilon letter..) I think I'll skip this...

**Für immer** · May 15th, 2024, 02:13 PM

Ah, no worries.

Sounds like a wise choice to me.

**Ylva** · May 15th, 2024, 02:16 PM

Yep. It's definitely not safe, doesn't do any good to hair, and shouldn't be added to anything related to hair!

**Kat** · May 15th, 2024, 08:59 PM

Hm. I always heard henna needs an acid for dye release (lemon juice, vinegar, citric acid, etc.), so I'm not sure what something alkaline would do...

**TatsuOni** · May 16th, 2024, 06:49 AM

Baking soda is a hair killer for many reasons. One is that our scalp and hair does naturally have a lower pH. Messing with it will do nothing good.

As for acids in henna. It is not needed for dye release or for hair at all (with few exceptions). It's used for skin and nails, because it helps the dye molecules to penetrate the skin and nails. I don't use acid in my hair blend, but in my nail blend.

**evernia** · May 16th, 2024, 04:56 PM

the pH scales of teas that you can find on the internet are pretty misleading, some say green tea and rooibos have pH of 9-10, which would make them taste like lye and border on burning your tongue if that were true - they actually hover at around 6-7, depending on your water, so there's a high chance they're actually slightly acidic. (here's a table) you can check with a pH strip from a pharmacy/fish/pool store.

if they help you get a deeper color, it may be something different in them than the pH level, perhaps the tannins (so in theory pu-erh tea or black tea might be worth trying) or the acids that they contain, or even the slight water-softening properties they have.

if you want something alkaline, you could experiment with bentonite clay, it's popular in the curly hair community and the pH should be around 8 - but you'd have to do a strand test first.