khanjar

Some friends who use henna products came across this and them knowing my interest passed these articles onto me. Pretty scary reading ;

The Henna Page - PPD Black Henna

The Henna Page - PPD

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I am a dream to some...and a nightmare to others.

Mosaic

I would think that most people who use henna know about the dangers of black henna. It is toxic and believed to be carcinogenic.

Posting the articles was a good idea though, as some people may not be aware of the types of henna and the dangers of the black version.
~Mosaic

khanjar

Very true, I have been around henna for a good ten years and though I had heard of black henna used in body art and seen it on people on a few occasions, I did not know it was so dangerous.

Henna was always good for working out tattoo designs, it was good for a few days, but faded quickly, black henna was heard of but from what I know now, I am very glad it was elusive.

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I am a dream to some...and a nightmare to others.

lizaj

Neither had I known of the danger before I had on done in North Africa and ended up with blisters that needed hospital treatment back in the UK and a scar that lasted 2 and a half years. I had no idea black henna was not as natural as brown..it was advertised as traditional and natural...silly me!
I was at an event last night in Manchester and there were ladies painting customers up in black henna and as this was a Indian lady making money I felt in no position to go around "trouble-making". I would have been thrown out! As it happened the girls sitting near to be were also disapproving .The daughter of had a similar case to mine 5 years ago and the scar is still there on her shoulder.
Why in the name of all that is holy is this stuff not banned in the UK at least!
There is a group on facebook campaigning for legislation but everytime you go anywhere on the Med, there are stalls and folks even children putting themselves at risk. I have appraoched holiday companies with warning but to no avail!

teela

I've never used it but have known of the dangers. I often go shopping up in Canada at the Indian sari shops and usually see the black henna for sale there in the shops, usually near the front of the shop. I don't know if it can be totally outlawed.

Salome

Silly question but why do people use the black henna if it's dangerous and there is a safe alternative?

lizaj

In post I stated that at the time I had mine done, I had no idea it was dangerous. If I had of course I wouldn't have had it done!

As to those who did it...well either they know and don't care ( it promoted as traditional and natural) or they are too are ignorant of it's effects.
I suppose you can fool a silly tourist into beleiving this is the same as the temporary tattoing used in North Africa and they aren't going to be able to report you to any trading standards office at home in Northern Europe or in the USA nor do they fear you will come back and beat them up!

The rest of you can learn from the gullible and stupid tourists like me who went before you.

Salome

Oh, I didn't mean the consumers but rather the people who use it ON consumers. I had no idea about black henna being dangerous and frankly if I'm being honest I would simply trust/assume the person doing the design knew what they were using/doing.

Tarik Sultan

They are either ignorant of the dangers or don't care. A friend of mine recently got a black henna. When I saw it I told her that there is no such thing as black henna. She insisted that there was because she had it done by a Somali woman. I told her that natural henna is red and to get it black they have to add something to it such as hair dye.

Sure enough it started itching within hours, then her whole hand became red and swollen and even the side of her face and ear. She had ppd poisoning. She knew because she had the same reaction a few years ago from a ppd hair dye.

Understand that even if the person doing it is from "over there", these are uneducated women who have no knowledge of chemistry and do not know the dangers of using modern substances that are not natural. We've seen similar problems with eye make up. Unfortunately there are still far too many people who are not aware of the dangers in these products.

khanjar

Ah, eye make up, that would be traditional kohl, the stuff traditionally used to reduce sun glare in ME countries. I think I read it was traditionally made from various heavy metals including lead. All these metals we know as toxic substances, but are naturally occurring so a label stating something is made with natural ingredients or traditional ingredients could mean it contains toxic ingredients, a worry to be aware of.

I believe high end Egyptian kohl does not contain heavy metals, nor does kohl produced by western cosmetics companies, I mean, the big Western cosmetics names wouldn't dare would they ?

On the subject of black henna, well as most have said, henna is a browny, orangy colour when applied to skin, this also dependant on the skin type. For a skin staining substance to have the ability to go black, then the skin staining substance must have a dye added. Now for someone to be selling or applying black henna, it might be that they know the substance is listed as made from natural ingredients, or is traditional, but they are not aware that these 'natural' ingredients are toxic.

There is an assumption here in the west, that if something is natural, then it is deemed to be safe.

It could be that it is just pure ignorance that this stuff is sold or applied. A case of buyer beware.

Oh, interestingly the makers of tattoo inks and pigments are not required to reveal what is in the substances, many of these substances being a trade secret.

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I am a dream to some...and a nightmare to others.