Henna is a high, aromatic shrub with narrow olive leaf coloured leaves, growing on sunny hills in the Middle East, northern Africa, and the Indian continent.
The bush gets small yellowish flowers and after that blackishblue berries. Both the bark and the leaves are pulverized, consisting of substances like cumarines, naftacinones, flavonoids, tannins and steroles.
In the East the women colour their hands with henna in neat patterns, especially when they are getting married.
You will find henna on the market able to colour the hair red, brownish or black in different nuances depending on the mixture.
Henna does not only colour, but it also strenghtens the hair, because the henna does not penetrate the hair, but covers it with a protective film.
Hennacolour is generally more cheap to use than ordinary synthetic hairdyes, but can also be a little more unpractical. It is also supposed to stay longer in the hair than ordinary haircolouring to give an optimal colouring.
One should also - like with ordinary haircolouring - watch out not to get skin, clothes, and surroundings discoloured.
In the summer of 2001 EU has suspected the substance lawsone, sometimes found in henna, to be cancerous. Not all types of henna contain this substance. Some types of henna on the market may contain 1% of lawsone, and this amount is not considered to be a problem by the authorities. Other cosmetic products on the market, containing lawsone have, however, not been withdrawn either.
If one needs to be on the safe side, one may ask for a type of henna that does not contain lawsone - or only very little.
