The dangers of “Black henna”

To begin with my story I have to explain a couple of things first.

What is Henna? It’s a plant that has fragrant reddish flowers, prepared from the dried leaves of this plant and used for temporary tattoos and hair colouring.

Black Henna: mix of Henna and Indigo leafs giving the surface of the mixture a blue colour.

Artificial Black Henna: mix of PPD and Henna, if the mix is left you’d notice the black dye drains from the mixture.

Unfortunately on February 25^th I decided to go a beauty salon and put “Black Henna” on my hand because the normal Henna is light orange and takes a long time for it to dry and become dark. I have asked the stylist if the Black Henna had black hair dye in it and she replied NO! and it dries within 15-20 minutes.

After half an hour I washed my hand and it looked like a tattoo, but the next day it started stinging a bit so I used a cooling cream called ”savlon”. The day after my hand was red and had small blisters, I iced it then I went to the hospital were the doctor prescribed me “riavate” and antihistamine pills, I only used the ointment for two days because I had allergic reaction to it causing my hand to swell in a way I wasn’t able to bend my hand to do anything.

When I started having numbness in my pinky I stopped using “riavate” and used “alfacort” instead, but at that time the blisters became swollen and filled with water and it took time to heal. On March the 1^st the swelling came down and I regained the function of my hand, but now I’m suffering from a burn scar! So I’m using “meebo” and “fucicort” because as the dermatologist said I’m suffering from a burn and allergy. 

 Today as I was writing this blog I did some research to know the ingredients of Black Henna and its dangers, in the artificial Black Henna PPD is used and means: Paraphenylenediamine, a chemical substance used as a permanent hair dye. Allergic reactions are mostly dermatitis to the upper eyelids or the rims of the ears. In more severe cases, there may be marked reddening and swelling of the scalp and the face. The eyelids may completely close!

Please stop using the Artificial Black Henna and I know it came the trend now in Kuwait were girls put it as a glove, think about your skin and the long term damages that leaves afterwards as well as the harm of chemicals used that may cause cancer in the future.