Did you wish you were born with a full, rich head of red hair?
Yeah, me too. So much, in fact, that I dyed my hair red for almost five years before I smartened up about the chemicals I was rubbing into my scalp and washing down the drain with each dye job. Commercial hair dyes contain ammonia, peroxide, petrochemicals, and other suspected toxins. While dying your hair has not been proven definitively to harm your health, quite a few of the chemicals in commercial hair color have been linked to cancer. Environmental Working Group maintains a database that ranks each product by possible health risk, and the numbers don’t look good.
What’s a redhead at heart but not by nature to do? You might want to try using henna.
Henna is a plant from the Middle East whose leaves contain an orange-red pigment called lawsone. When dried and crushed into a powder, you can use it to dye your hair a brilliant coppery red. However, unlike commercial dye that actually changes the strand of hair, henna is a translucent stain that combines with your hair, so the lighter your natural color, the brighter the red will end up.
The best source for henna I’ve found is Mehandi, maintained by PhD student Catherine Cartwright-Jones. Since Jones has studied henna for 17 years and is actually writing her dissertation on the subject, you can learn how to henna your hair, learn about the scientific makeup of henna, read the history of henna use, and buy pure, good quality henna on her pages.
While you investigate switching over to henna, here are a few things to consider:
1. Don’t use one of the premixed henna kits on the Internet.
These contain some of the same toxins in regular hair dye, and since the henna itself is of poor quality, the color will come out very red.
2. Buy “body art quality” henna.
This is the henna used for temporary body art in India and other countries, and it is the best quality henna you can buy. It is safe for hair and will produce a brilliant red color. In fact, the FDA approves henna for hair but not on skin.
3. Never buy anything labeled “black henna.”
It contains PPD, the same coal tar extract in black hair dye. Many, many people are sensitive to PPD, and it is a known carcinogen.
4. Always test first.
Henna may turn your hair brighter than you’d like, and if you’re unsure of your henna source you definitely want to test the product on a strand of hair first.
5. Henna on hair darkens over time.
The first time you use henna, you’ll probably be surprised at how red your hair becomes. Your hair will darken over time as the henna oxidizes.
If all this sounds good, head over to Mehandi.com. Once you learn how to mix and apply the henna properly, you can leave those commercial dyes behind for good without giving up the red.
