Water Henna's Full Ingredients — Just 11, Fewer Than Ice Cream
Water Henna's full ingredient list — henna and indigo combined — is just 11 items. No chemical colorants like PPD, and fewer additives than a convenience-store ice cream. Here is the complete list.
"Are there really no chemical colorants?" many people ask — cautious, I suspect, because of the leukoderma scare around the henna incident. The short answer: Water Henna has zero chemical colorants and 100% natural pigment. And its full ingredient list, henna and indigo combined, is just eleven items — fewer additives than a convenience-store ice cream.
Water Henna's 11 Ingredients
To take grey hair to black you dye twice, with Water Henna henna and then indigo, and the entire list of what touches your hair is these eleven: henna leaf powder, Indigofera powder, wild soybean oil, polysorbate 85, purified water, glycerin, ethylhexylglycerin, 1,2-hexanediol, polyquaternium-10, disodium laureth sulfosuccinate, and sodium benzoate. There is no chemical colorant such as PPD or m-phenylenediamine among them.
When people hear it dyes in thirty minutes, they wonder if that is even possible and ask, warily, whether a chemical colorant is hiding inside — a caution I share, being someone who taps even a stone bridge before crossing. So I leave the full list here in writing too.
Not All "Chemicals" Are the Same
The names look intimidating, but most are simply materials that keep the hair and scalp moist. Preservatives are included to meet cosmetic-distribution standards, but only at grades used in organic cosmetics. In truth, the creams and essences we apply every day are made of these same sorts of ingredients.
So when I say "yes, there are chemical materials," I can feel the pause on the other end of the line — but when I explain plainly that Water Henna uses only raw materials our lab knows, from sources like the EU SCCS, to be free of genotoxicity and sensitization concerns, most people understand at once.
"But Powder Henna Has Only One Ingredient"
Sometimes I am asked whether powder henna, with its single ingredient, is not simply better. I understand the instinct. But Water Henna is that same henna powder, sterilised and filtered once more and given a touch of technology so it dyes faster. A few more ingredients, yes — but each in service of making it safer and easier, as you would find by trying it.
In short, Water Henna is a natural henna dye with zero chemical colorants and, henna and indigo together, only eleven ingredients. Why each is needed is spelled out on the product page, and if you would like the heavy-metal figures, see heavy metals in henna dye.