Surya BrasilHenna Cream for Gray Coverage, Semi Permanent Natural Henna Deep Conditioning Hair Color Treatment, Black, 2.37 oz / 70 ml

Fell in LOVE with this product.Already mixed and EASY to apply.After 50 years, I may have just found the Perfect Hair Color product.The only downside that I could possibly find is that you have to let it stay on your head for a couple of hours. BUT, for the Wonderful Results, easy to use, and Safe product, this is not even a slight annoyance.

I don't like to use powdered henna due to the dust and mess, but I developed a severe allergy to both box and professional hair dye after overdying my hair in high school. I usually develop red, itchy, painful allergic reactions on my scalp, neck, and ears for up to 2 weeks. I was using Arctic Fox's "Transylvania" as my primary dye and Keracolor Clenditioner in "Onyx" for touch ups because they're the only dyes I found that covered whites/ greys. Arctic Fox bleeds like crazy, so I wanted to try something else for my primary dye. As mentioned, I don't like the production and mess of powdered henna. This is premixed and ready to use. My ONLY issue is how drippy this is. Make sure you have at least one extra towel on hand during application and while you leave it on.Bottom line, this has great coverage, works on white and grey hair, gives a natural tone, and conditions, leaving my hair it's natural dark brown/ almost black hair shiny and restores its natural auburn tone in the sun.

VITILIGO:I've had vitiligo for many years. This is an auto-immune "disease" that affects skin cells that produce melanin. Melanin is what is produced by cells to give color to your skin. (It can be very troubling for those with darker skin tones, not so bad for those who are light-skinned to begin with.) I am caucasion, so it has not been a serious issue and often goes unnoticed in winter/spring. If I stay out of strong sun in the summer the discoloration is minimized. But I learned to simply ignore it. It does not bother me, but I try to keep out of strong sun for long periods of time. It can affect large or small patches anywhere on your body, and it is best to stay out of strong sun. Lack of pigment allows sun's UV rays to cause skin cancer, sunburn, etc. So, it can result in serious health issues if you don't pay attention.But, if you have vitiligo, you are greatly restricted in choice of hair coloring products. I didn't know this until I had been thinking about coloring the grey/silver hairs in my beard. My beard was originally black (my hair is dark brown), and I saw that my beard hair had turned silver/grey/black over the years, while my hair remained dark brown. So, about 15 years ago I looked at beard colorants for men. In small type on the boxes, the products always cautioned against using if you have vitiligo. That was weird -- but, ALL of the products have this caution. I looked it up, and it seems that the chemicals used in most hair colorants can increase the vitiligo if you already have the condition. So, I did not bother coloring my beard.POLIOSIS:Anyway, recently, I developed poliosis. I had never heard of this before, and I only learned about it after googling my symptoms. Poliosis is very similar to vitiligo -- except that it affects your hair follicles. The cells that produce melanin become disabled or die, and your original hair color disappears in the affected areas. Typically, this is just a patch of hair, or several patches, and results in a streak of white (or maybe grey) growing in your hair. This certainly is not a great problem -- especially in today's world where many people purposely put streaks of color in their hair. Many even might find the poliosis streak (or streaks) to be cool , interesting, or stylish. It really can't be distinguished from purposeful color streaks.But, poliosis can spread beyond a patch or two. In my case, the poliosis arrived quite suddenly. The entire rear portion of my head is affected. So, I have dark brown hair (with some greys) looking head-on. But, from the side or rear, I have white (yes, white) hair that appeared over the course of about two months. VERY FAST! The other thing about this failure of the melainin-producing cells is that the white hair becomes course/wiry -- not at all like the original fairly straight hair. Nobody knows what causes vitiligo or poliosis. Both are auto-immune "diseases". An overactive immune system, apparently. Those who have vitiligo are more likely to also have poliosis. Another factor that appears to be related to poliosis is low thyroid hormone -- something that i was recently diagnosed with. So, all of this makes sense: vitiligo, poliosis, low thyroid hormone are all related to my apparent auto-immune issues.OK, now that I've introduced you to these melanin issues: I once again searched for a hair colorant to deal with my poliosis (taking into account that I also have vitiligo). I wouldn't really care if it involved a few patches of white (yielding white streaks in my hair). But, in my case, it involved the back half of my head -- and I wanted to subdue the "freakshow" quality of my poliosis. I narrowed it down to just a few hair-coloring products, having investigated Amazon and all the internet. Upon further investigation, all of the products (except for henna) proved to be unacceptable for those who have poliosis. Many adverise that they are safe, etc, -- but, upon reading the actual chemical contents, I came to realize that you MUST do your own investigation that goes beyond the hype.I did not even know what henna is (and I still don't quite know). But, I found a few products that are henna and which you must mix with some other chemical/product before use. And, you can mix in varying ratios, etc. This seemed way too complicated for me. I was not interested in mixing anything. Surya Brazil Henna Creme was the last "survivor" on my list of colorant products. It does not involve any mixing. Just apply to wet hair, let it sit awhile, and rinse with water. That fits into my level of time that I want to devote.Does it work? Yes. I am able to "disappear" the white hair from the back of my head. I don't care if there is still some "grey" showing. I have a little bit of grey in the rest of my "normal" hair. So, having a bit of grey in the back of my head looks perfectly normal. This product successfully eliminates the "freakshow" quality of my poliosis. If all of my hair turned white, I probably wouldn't use this product (or any product).How long does it last? I wash my hair daily. The Surya Henna Creme, I have found, has to be re-applied after about 2 weeks. At the end of two weeks, the colored section has faded largely to a grey -- but, still, not white. It is not a permanent dye, and I wish it would last longer. But, it's pretty good.

In 2017 I decided to take a break from the chemicals I’d been putting on my head every few weeks for 20+ years. Scary but freeing! Though I didn’t hate my silver I was longing for some color again. I tried traditional henna in the 90s and liked the results but didn’t love the process, still I thought I’d be willing to try it again to avoid chemicals. Then I found this. So easy! Washed my hair with a clarifying shampoo, applied the cream to damp hair, covered, rinsed an hour later and freaked out a little at how well my hair, gray and all, soaked up the color. Originally I planned to choose a lighter shade but thought my hair might not take the color. It turned out just as the color chart suggested. While darker than I anticipated, it’s a beautiful color and my hair feels amazing. Before and after pictures, as well as appearance in different lighting for reference

I used to use henna regularly but got tired of the mess of applying it and how long the process took from beginning to end. I have tried Madison Reed and liked its ease but didn't like how it rinsed out and stained everything for about 4 days after applying it. I thought I would give this a try because it seemed like a good in between of both of these processes.I really liked how easy it was to apply. No mixing or waiting, just open the bottle and apply. I also liked the dark brown it produced that was close to black but definitely wasn't blue-black.I used a shampoo designed to remove all build up, toweled dry and applied when my hair was damp but not too wet. I let it sit on my hair for just over 4 hours. I rinsed and only used conditioner, no shampoo. I had to blow dry it so I could go to bed without wet hair. I braided it and didn't wash or wet it for at least 24 hours. I washed with the recommended shampoo and conditioner. I could see a lot of color rinse out. It colored my towel and even with dry hair some came off on my pillowcase. I didn't wash my hair every day, but every time I did color rinsed out and colored my towel. This happened for just over a week.My grays are now showing just over a week after application. For the time spent this was not worth it. The color lasted for just about a week. It was constantly rinsing out and coloring towels. (It did wash out of the towel and pillowcase.)