It seems like everyone everywhere is talking about the many benefits of this all natural plant based substance called Henna. Henna has been used for centuries in places like the Arabian Peninsula, Indian Subcontinent, parts of Southeast Asia, Carthage, parts of North Africa and the Horn of Africa. Recently becoming widely known in the United States as a Indian natural painless temporary tattoo. More famously these days as a chemical-free way to color and treat damaged hair. Countless video tutorials online speak of the benefits of Henna especially on damaged hair. So of course after hearing all these positive reviews and statements of Henna being all natural I really didn’t think there would be any kind of side-effects to look out for, that’s only until I encountered the tragedies for myself. So I felt it only right for me to share my findings with those who may benefit from this knowledge.
All the information I’m about to share with you is from firsthand experience with about a year of research before I decided to use Henna. I could honestly say there was no one that mentioned anything about any side-effects of using Henna before I decided to use it for myself back then. So this is why I completely trusteed to use it whenever I wanted, but the truth is there are some precautions you must take into consideration before using Henna. After all my research and findings of all the great benefits Henna has to help rebuild damaged hair, I decided to give it a try. I had decided to put more natural things in my hair, but this decision was made about a week after putting a chemical relaxer in my hair. In my mind I thought besides Henna being natural and not being able to cause any more harm, I also had that old precaution of waiting at least a week in between before applying another chemical such as a dye to avoid any damage.
Relaxers in combination with Henna – With all this in mind, I went ahead and applied the Henna treatment on my relaxed hair. And what followed when I washed-out the treatment I could only describe as horrific! I don’t think anyone could image the level of shear horror, shock and stress I was feeling all at once. It was like an outer body experience, I knew I was there going through seeing clumps of my hair fall-out as I washed out the Henna, but it was like I wasn’t there at the same time. I was stuck in a few minutes of disbelief. All I could think was how such a natural thing made my hair fall-out like no other harass chemical I’ve ever put on my hair before? How on earth no one ever addressed such a thing in all my research? It wasn’t long until I put the two together; the relaxer in combination with the Henna was why this occurred. The same as if you were to apply a relaxer on top of freshly Henna treated hair. The two are not to be used so close to each other. So right that same day after I washed my hair a few things to make sure I got all the henna out, I decided to do even more research now on how to regrow my hair back healthy and strong. I found this awesome book on amazon call “Eat Your Way to Longer Thicker Hair” that helped me completely reverse all signs of any damage. I grew my hair back longer than I ever did before, and I had to now get use to all the complaints. The whole experience of people wanting their hair like mine was strange but real nice at the same time.
Hair dyes in combination with Henna – Since my hairwas doing so well being stronger and healthier, I decided to give myself a break and go to the salon and get my hair dyed a lighter color. Totally going against the advice of my husband who reminded me of how far my hair had come, and tried to plead with me not to change the color of my hair, he just loved how healthy and beautiful it was already. I just thought he would love it even more once he seen the finished product. Once at the salon I explained to the stylist what color I wanted and about two and half hours later she was finally finished. Now, I’ve dyed my own hair many times so I knew something strange was up with this visit. It wasn’t until the stylist was almost finished she explained that since I used henna on my hair in the past she had to strip my hair first before the lighter color would show on my hair. I mean if she only explained this process before doing it, I would have surely cancelled the whole thing, I knew how damaging striping your hair was and I would have never agreed to such a thing. After my hair was done it was visibly thinner and the color wasn’t all that lighter, so pretty much I went through all this to try and get my hair lighten and I left with visibly damaged not so colored hair. When I saw my husband’s face after that salon visit, his look said more than any words. Once Henna is applied to your hair that hair cannot be correctly lightened ever! You would have to either cut-off he henna treated hair or grow-out the Henna treated hair then cut of the portion and lighten the untreated hair. Or you can just live with dark hair?
Hair dye and chemical relaxer damage recovery – So I was back to the drawing board of getting my hair healthy again, with the assistance of the book mentioned above. Sometimes you have to pay to learn and boy did I pay! My lesson out of all this is not that Henna is bad at all! The problem was the chemicals I was putting in my hair. Just because something may be natural it could still give a chemical like reaction. Remember before man made medicines people used natural remedies to cure all sort of aliment s. So natural drugs such as herbs and plaints should not be taken lightly at all, they are very powerful and effective when used correctly. It’s unfortunate that there weren’t a lot of information out there that could have related to someone like me who was trying to transition from chemical based products to natural based ones. So I really hope this information is able to help a lot people out there like myself but save then a lot of the stress and embracement. Henna works perfectly on hair natural hair, but if you’re like so many that have relaxed hair and/or colored treated hair you can start using Henna but with precautions. Wait at least a month or two before starting the Henna treatment on previously chemically treated hair. Within this waiting time do alternating Protein treatments/Deep treatments and Hot Oil treatments weekly. Cut-off any damaged ends of your hair. Once your hair is healthy enough start using the Henna treatment on a monthly basis, once your hair gets use to the henna you can then use it more frequently. I highly suggest henna for anyone who has damaged hair. The only thing is that if you have dark hair you can’t get a really light color, there are henna dyes that could give you a lighter color but know it won’t be too much lighter than your current color unless you hair gray hairs. The gray hairs will always come-out much lighter than the rest of your hair. The color you would get from the Henna dye that are meant to lighten depend on your current hair color, so the lighter your hair is before the lighter color you will achieve. Also know that the first few times of using Henna to dye your hair you might not see any change at all, your hair has to get used to it. Plus if you’re trying to regain strength and health to you hair, making it lighter would not help. Good luck and happy hair growing!
Disclaimer: The Eat Your Way To Longer Thicker Hair recipe book is filled with healthy food choices that are not just beneficial to your hair, but also to the overall health of your body and it’s functions. Keep in mind everybody is different, and each of our bodies require different things to operate at it’s own individual best at any given time. Our bodies know what we need and where to use these different nutrients most effectively in our individual bodies. So yes, we may want these vitamins and nutrients to go directly to benefit our hair, but it may not work like that if those vitamins and nutrients are needed somewhere else in your body at that time. But don’t give up and have faith. Just keep giving your body all these good things and have faith that your hair will benefit in due time. Always consult a physician if you plan on introducing any new foods into your diet, to avoid any food related allergies. Especially if you are currently on any form of medication. Different fruits, vegetables and vitamins may cause your medication to react negatively and/or become not as effective.
Like in the Good Book- “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”