Best Henna Hair Dyes

Henna Hair Dye is a natural alternative to chemical dyes. Henna is more popularly known for being used for temporary tattoos, but can also be used as a dye for hair. Henna Hair dye is great for people with allergies to other hair dyes. Normal hair dyes actually damage hair, whereas henna bonds to the proteins of your hair. It almost acts as a wax. This is good because it has added benefits of acting as a sunscreen, which is great for summer hair care. Sometimes, you may inadvertently dye your scalp with the henna, but the natural oils your scalp produces will dissolve that within a day. One of the only real drawbacks to henna hair dye is that blond is not an option, but virtually every other color is. Basically, you can only go darker with henna dye.

Compound Henna Hair Dyes

Compound henna hair dyes are more than just pure henna dye. This is important to be aware of, because it may contain the chemicals that damage your hair, like PPD (para-phenylenedmine). It may also contain other plant dyes and metallic salts. So, if you are looking for hair dyes that do not damage your hair, henna hair dyes are great, but you have to make sure it is not compound henna dye. Or, if it is, make sure it does not contain bleach, alcohol, or PPD. Pure henna hair dye is red, so be careful if there are any other colors marketed as henna. They may contain chemicals that damage the hair.

Henna Hair Dye Tips

• Let it dry naturally. Do not use a dryer.
• Only mix water with henna dye. Exception: you may mix Shelly oil and fresh lemon juice for pure henna and red dyes.
• If you have used any products for bleaching or coloring your hair before using henna, wait 1-2 weeks before using Henna hair dye. You may do a strand test on your hair to make sure that the dye actually bonds to the protein. If the henna dye is not bonding to the protein, wait another week and test again.
• Only leave the dye in for 1-3 hours. The more natural hair dyes you have used in the past, the less time you will have to leave it in. The lighter the color, the less time you will have to leave it in. If you leave the dye in too long, it will bleed.

If you have used henna hair dye and want to test whether it is pure henna or if it uses metallic salts (which can be damanging to your hair), then you can mix hydrogen peroxide and ammonia, and put some of your hair into the solution. Mix one ounce of peroxide with diluted ammonia (28%). Use 20 drops of the ammonia. If your hair immediately changes color, that means there was lead in the dye. If the hair gets a green tint, that means there is silver nitrate. If there is copper, the hair will boil and disintegrate. This is why you have to be careful, because if you have metallic salt henna hair dye and you use other products, it can ruin your hair. In some cases your hair will just change color. In others, it could get completely destroyed! Truly pure henna hair dye, however, has none of these risks.

What are the Best Henna Hair Dyes

This depends on you, what color your want for your hair, how well you take care of your hair before, during and after henna use, and how much damage your hair can sustain. In a sense, pure henna hair dye is the best because it cannot damage your hair, and in fact only helps to protect it from the sun. On the other hand, compound henna hair dye runs the risk of damaging your hair, but allows for more color options. It isn't the end of the world to damage your hair, this is what most chemical hair dyes do anyway. But it is a balancing act. Too much damage to your hair will cause more serious problems. So to know what the best henna hair dye is for you depends on your particular situation.