Nontoxic Hair-Coloring

Hair Dye Alternatives

Hair coloring is nice for the hair and can enhance the looks of your hair but they also do contain an ingredient called Ammonium thioglycolate that can penetrate your scalp and has been linked to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Now the manufacturers can remove carcinogenic from their products but then add other twenty different harmful chemicals that is needed to improve the quality of their products without potential human carcinogen; but this can still be harmful to our health. It takes four years or more to test a new chemical for safety before the FDA can approve it and during this waiting time, it is said that some manufactures have been found guilty of taking advantage of this time. Unfortunately, the FDA has no jurisdiction over regulation of hair dyes, which could be mutagenic and suspected human carcinogens because of the 1938 law still in effect that exempts these products from government regulation to protect entire hair-dye industry in business.

Hair dyes are not always tested for safety. Hair-dye products may contain coal-tar dyes, ammonia, detergents, hydrogen peroxide, and Lead and many hair-dye chemicals, which can penetrate the scalp and enter the bloodstream.  It is possible that the use of toxic hair dyes by women over fifty years can increase the risk for breast cancer.

For safety, women who are pregnant or of child bearing age or breast feeding should avoid permanent wave perms and toxic hair coloring products. Because permanent wave products contain Ammonium thioglycolate which is one of the most hazardous ingredients; they can pose health risk like cause skin rashes on your hands and scalp, redness, swelling, and hemorrhage under your skin. Because the scalp is very porous, this substance can easily be carried into the bloodstream. In addition, permanent waves smell very strongly of ammonia, which can cause breathing difficulties and coughing.

                                              Alternative Solution

Try pure Henna without metallic bases, henna enhancer or chemical dye; women have used pure henna and other plant-based materials for hair coloring centuries before chemical dyes were invented. Although henna will not change the color of your hair permanently; they can highlight and enrich your hair color in a way chemical dye do not compare.  Find out more about Henna

You can try Herbavita Vegetal color and Herbatint made from herbal formulas that contain no ammonia.

If you want to perm your hair, try plant-based hair relaxer called curlaway or use less toxic ammonia-free Vitawave perms available in natural-food stores, Allergy relief shop, iherb and Amazon.

Also try Logona USA Hair colors, they contain organically grown henna plus finely ground herbs, roots, leaves, seeds, fruits, wood, and bark gathered from the wild. Logona hair colors helps coat each strand of hair with a protective film that both strengthens the hair and creates a unique color for your hair. Logona hair color contain nettle extracts, vegetable oils and herbal extracts from certified organically grown or wild crafted plants. Logona products contain no synthetic preservatives or colors.

 Other organic Hair dye products you can find at Amazon
  

Herbatint

Light Mountain

Surya Henna

Jamila Henna Powder

Godrej Nupur MehendiPowder 9 Herbs Blend

Naturcolor

Rainbow Henna

Morrocco Method Simply pure Henna

                         

Color Me Naturally byAubrey 

Author:
Onyinye A is a freelance writer who specializes in nontoxic self improvement, green & Eco-friendly living, nontoxic lifestyle (preventing cancer, illness and toxicity) and everything related to organic living. Her work has been published by nontoxiclifestyle.org, Ezine.com, and other online and print publications.

Benefits of Henna

Henna is a medium sized medicinal plant with many branches. Henna's coloring properties are due to lawsone a burgundy organic compound that binds well with protein. Lawsone is primarily concentrated in the leaves, especially in the petioles of the leaf. The seeds and bark of this plant are used in both Ayurvedic medicine and in organic cosmetics. Henna has an anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, astringent, hypo-tensive, anti hemorrhagic, sedative and deodorizing property.

Henna is an organic dye used mainly to add color and enhance the beauty of hair, skin, nails, organic textile (silk and wool). Henna is used traditionally by Indians for ritual skin painting called mehndi during birth and marriage celebrations. Today it is used in western culture for tattoos and as an organic hair dye.

• Henna oil has been used in treating leprosy, skin disorders; helps treat baldness, arthritis and rheumatic pains. Henna helps regulate women’s menstrual cycle, reduce bruising, helps relieve insomnia, reliefs muscle pain and headaches.
• Henna tree bark has been beneficial for treating problems like enlarged spleen, liver, jaundice, dysentery.
• Henna also acts as an anti-fungal and a preservative for leather and cloth.
• Henna flowers have been used to create perfume since ancient times.
• Henna repels some insect pests and mildew. 
• One of the major benefits of the henna plant is to help nourish and condition the hair, often found in organic cosmetic products.

Recipe for Hair: Mix powdered henna into vinegar or lemon juice and warm water then apply to the part of body you want dyed e.g. Hand for about 45minute to an hour or longer then rinse and moisturize. For hand application add mud/clay to henna plus vinegar or lemon juice and warm water. For headache, boil henna leaf or bark, soak it in a towel and hold it against the point/are you feel the pain. Also you can apply henna oil.

NOTE: Henna dried powder or fresh ground leaves can be placed on the skin from a few hours to overnight. Henna stains can last a few days to a month depending on the quality of the paste, individual skin type, and how long the paste is allowed to stay on the skin. so to avoid stained hands wear a glove when applying henna to hair. Don't wear your favorite cloth when applying henna because it can stain.

And Because henna washes out gradually over a six-month period you can intensify the color by using ingredients like paprika, beet juice, or Red Zinger tea to rinse to bring out red; for brown, use ginger, nutmeg, or hot dark coffee instead of water. 

To enhance gold henna color, rinse your hair with chamomile, black tea or mix 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in 1 gallon of warm water and simmer 4 tablespoon of chopped rhubarb root in 3 cups of hot water for 15 minutes  or steep ½ cup yellow-blossomed flower or herb (also try calendula, mullein bloom and leaves, yellow broom, saffron, turmeric, or quassia chips in quart boiling water for ½ hour. Mix this rinse with equal amounts of lemon juice, add a little arrowroot, and stir over low heat until it forms a gel. Apply the gel to your hair and sit out in the early morning sun before 10a.m or after 5p.m for an hour. When the rinse is used repeatedly, the color will deepen in intensity each time. Once your hair is the shade you like, use the rinse periodically to keep color from fading.

Note: Never use henna on eyebrows, eyelashes, or facial hair.

My favorite is Godrej Nupur Mehendi Powder 9 Herbs Blend, 150-gram
 

Author:
Onyinye A is a freelance writer who specializes in nontoxic self improvement, green & Eco-friendly living, nontoxic lifestyle (preventing cancer, illness and toxicity) and everything related to organic living. Her work has been published by nontoxiclifestyle.org, Ezine.com, and other online and print publications.