LUSH dyeing to tell you about Henna @LushLtd

Everything you’ve been dyeing to know about henna!

LUSH fresh, hand-made cosmetics offers a highly original concept – henna hair colourants formulated with cocoa butter that come in solid block form.   Well-known for innovative ideas for beauty products – Lush solid henna blocks are free of any synthetic ingredients and contain simply the best Persian hennas and indigos.  The range is available in four colour variants: Marron, Noir, Rouge and Brun priced 90aed for 325g.  

We make our hair colours with no synthetic ingredients, not one.  We want everyone to know that it is perfectly possible to have beautifully coloured hair without covering your hair with chemicals, which then make their way into your body and into the environment, completely unnecessarily.

Lush offers the service of applying the Henna in our local stores across the UAE for a fee of 150aed and it includes one Henna block, application of the Henna and a knotwrap. The duration the Henna is left on hair depends on the hair length and clients are welcome to stay at the shop and the Lushies would wash it off or can leave and wash their hair at home. Please book your appointment prior to visiting at Any Lush Store- for Lush shops contact info, please go to www.lush.ae.

Which Henna is for me?

Because the Henna’s work like a varnish, the natural colour of your hair will still shine through the henna coating, meaning that the results will vary for different people. Generally, people with naturally blonde or grey hair will see a much more striking difference in their colour after a henna treatment than people whose hair is darker.

Rouge is the full-on red henna, turning blondes and greys into fiery redheads. Those with naturally dark brown hair will see a more subtle result; a warm natural red tone with a glossy sheen which will catch in the sun.

Marron will give blondes shiny hair the colour of autumn conkers. Brunettes will get a pleasing reddish tinge, though less pronounced than those using Rouge.

Brun will make blonde hair several shades darker, giving a rich coffee-coloured glaze. For brunettes, this is the Caca to use if you want the conditioning benefits of henna without drastically changing your natural colour.

Noir is mixed with indigo to give a black gloss with a very slight reddish tinge. All hair will go several shades darker after using Noir.

MORE ON HENNA

What is henna? 

Henna is a plant native to the Middle East, which has been used since ancient times to dye the skin and hair. The leaves are dried and ground into a powder and it is this powder that forms the basis of our Hennas.  We mix the finest Persian henna powder with conditioning cocoa butter to form it into a block, this also helps the henna to cling to your hair and so intensify the colour. We add some clove bud oil for perfume, as well as other natural ingredients to bring out the different shades in our four henna varieties.

Where we buy it …

The Iranian henna we use is cultivated in the Kerman Province of Iran and hand harvested twice a year by the local producers and their families. The Kerman Province is the biggest producing region of henna in Iran and is said to yield the best quality, giving its famous vibrant red colour that Lush loves.  Generally the henna is grown on privately owned farms that are scattered over the region with only a relatively small output (meaning that we cannot have our full annual supply from just one henna supplier, otherwise this would need to be a large monoculture of crop which is against Lush’s sustainability values). There are two crops in the summer: June-July and September-October.  The harvesting requires a certain level of expertise and skill, which is passed on through the generations by the families that grow henna.

After harvesting, the leaves are dried and then transported to Yazd where the milling and packaging happens. The mills in Yazd use very traditional methods of grinding the leaves into powder (no animals are used to power the grinding stone these days though!).  Before the dried leaves are ground into powder, they are sifted to remove twigs and stems (if there are too many present then the quality of powder and colour is reduced).  Our supplier checks and buys only the best quality henna from the mill in Yazd before it is delivered to Lush.

How is henna different from a chemical dye? 

The outer covering of a hair consists of cuticles - these look a bit like the scales on a fish when viewed under a microscope – which normally lie flat and protect the central shaft of the hair containing the cells which give hair its colour.  Chemical dyes work by forcing the cuticles open and pouring colour underneath them, permanently dyeing the hair. However, once the cuticles have been lifted in this way they will never quite go back the same or lie as flat, making your hair feel rough and out of condition. As you keep re-colouring over time, cuticles will start to break and your hair will feel thinner and lose its shine. Instead of forcing the cuticles open with chemicals, henna coats them in a protective layer of glossy natural colour. Think of it as a varnish covering each hair and thickening it, giving it shine and making it more manageable. It’ll add weight to flyaway hair, calm and soften frizzy hair and smooth hair that tends to be affected by static or tangles. Henna really is the ultimate conditioning treatment!

Meet the Inventor

Mark Constantine OBE – LUSH MD, Inventor & Co-Founder.  Mark is also a qualified Trichologist (hair/scalp health), who started his career working in an Elizabeth Arden salon in London’s West End.

 “The question of the dangers of using hair dyes that come into contact with the scalp has been lurking within the hair care industry for many years.   In fact, I wrote a book on herbal hair care and using natural colourants as far back as 1978 at a time when there was another major scandal relating to dyes.  Sadly, not much has been done since then to educate and advise the consumer.   The truth is that the chemicals used in hair colourants are highly toxic.  They are known mutants and go right through the body.”

 “I suspect that, a little like smoking, people will still go on using hair dyes, particularly since natural hair dyes do have their limitations, so I doubt you can ban them, but there are alternatives on the market.“

Mark co-founded LUSH in 1995 with six co-founders including wife Mo. Mark is the driving force behind the business and also works as part of the product development team creating ground-breaking haircare, skincare & body creams and spa treatments. It is Mark’s beliefs and morals that LUSH is based on, that have become the backbone of the company. LUSH’s stringent ‘animal testing policy’ is just one example of how his strong beliefs have transformed the cosmetics industry.  

To pick up these and many more ethical, cruelty free cosmetics visit Lush shops nationwide in DCC, MCC, The Dubai Mall, Mercato in Dubai and IN AL Wahda Mall in Abu Dhabi, soon to open in Dalma Mall. For shop details or for Lush online go to www.lush.ae