Tired of Long Henna Dyeing Time? A Henna Dye That Finishes in 30 Minutes
Powder henna usually takes 1.5 to 2 hours, and 5 to 6 with indigo. Water Henna is a henna dye you mix in 60 seconds and rinse after 30 minutes. Here is why the wait is so tedious, and how to cut it down.
The biggest obstacle in henna dyeing is not the colour — it is the time. Powder henna usually takes an hour and a half to two hours, and five or six if you add indigo. Water Henna, by contrast, is mixed from oil and essence and rinses out after thirty minutes. This is a note about that tedious wait, and about why it turned out not to be my complaint alone.
Why Does Everyone Find Henna Dyeing Time So Tedious?
Before the Water Henna blog was pushed down in search the way it is now — that is, before I began writing that "conventional chemical hair dyes contain substances reported to be hazardous" — its daily traffic was quite high. I wrote for the small pleasure of watching visitors climb each day.
Then I began photographing the ingredient lists of supermarket dyes, spelling out which ones were dangerous and why, and the posts vanished from search almost overnight. (I will admit it still stings a little.) Yet before they slipped, the topics that had reliably held the top spots were these: how to dye with henna, henna dyeing takes too long, and perms after henna. Clearly, the tedium of powder-henna dyeing time was never mine alone.
Two Hours Is Genuinely Hard to Sit Through
Powder henna makes your arm ache from the mixing, but the real ordeal is the waiting once it is on. A deep colour wants two hours; add indigo and five or six slip away. You know it is good for you, and still there comes a point past boredom, closer to anger. Anyone who has done it will understand.
A slightly embarrassing confession: in the days before Water Henna, worn down by that wait, I would give in and reach for an ordinary dye with chemical colorants — then watch my hair split and shed, and regret it all over again. Henna, henna, henna, chemical dye, henna once more… I repeated the same mistake every four to six months, which tells you my memory is embarrassingly short.
Why Does Water Henna Finish in 30 Minutes?
Happily, once Water Henna arrived, I no longer had reason to sit for an ordinary dye at the salon. Parting with grey takes only thirty minutes.
The salons' reaction was the interesting part. Even the thirty- to forty-minute "natural" dyes they recommend often carry a small amount of chemical colorant such as PPD, right up to the regulated limit. Water Henna takes a similar length of time yet is safe on the stylist's own hands, so several applied it for me at the same price, without hesitation. It was designed as an at-home dye, true — but my hair is mine to use as I please.
What It Comes Down To
The conclusion is simple: dye safely, with 100% pure natural henna, and — if the powder routine wears you out — in a way that finishes in thirty minutes. What took an hour and a half to two hours with powder henna becomes thirty minutes with Water Henna. Because of that, I no longer take the risk of a chemical dye.
This is not an advertisement or any clever piece of marketing. It is simply one long-time user saying the product is genuinely good. If you found this while weary of henna's long dyeing time, I gently suggest giving a different method a try. If you would like the specifics, read on with the 60-second mix, 30-minute Water Henna method.