Customer Reviews

Henna Dark Brown Cream - 2.31 oz - Cream

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

I've been using this product for 2 years on my African-American medium curly hair. My hairdresser was uncomfortable applying henna on top of all the chemical dye (and bleach) she had been using on my hair for over a year to cover gray. I switched to henna on my own, trying various types (forget the powder-it's too messy and iffy for color). None of the hennas caused adverse effect to my hair. Surya Henna was the only henna that covered all my gray immediately. My hair was fabulously shiny! Once a month treatment keeps my gray at bay (approximately the same amount of time to touch up chemical dyes for my hair). Rinse color out of hair well to reduce staining on your pillow. But it is easily washed out of anything that gets stained. If you use a clarifier before shampooing your hair (like lemon juice and water) the henna connects with the hair better, and there is significantly less runoff of color. This is temporary color, so each time you wash your hair henna will rinse out as well. If for nothing else but shine, a once a month treatment will do wonders for hair!

First, be warned that this is NOT a nice, super-safe, all natural herbal henna hair color! The advertising and packaging are very misleading. The main ingredients in this preparation are Ethoxydiglicol (helps the dye penetrate the hair shaft), which is NOT recognized as safe in Europe and even worse is the Methylpyrrolidone which is an industrial solvent! There are other less than innocuous ingredients including monoethanalomine and mineral oil. This is all listed in micro-size print on the bottom flap of the box and requires a magnifying glass to read. On the side of the box they list all the warm, fuzzy, safe, "natural" ingredients in large type with little pictures.

Since the "natural, herbal" ingredients comprise far less of this product than the "questionable unnatural" ingredients, I think this is just plain unethical, especially given their web site advertisements making it sound as if their product is so much safer than hair dyes with ammonia, PPD and peroxide, which is just not true. PPD looks to be bad news but is it worse than coating your scalp with an industrial solvent and leaving it on for 45 minutes??!! Ammonia and peroxide dry out your hair, but so do Ehtyoxydiglicol (which acts similar to hydrogen peroxide) and mineral oil.

That being said, it did color my gray quickly and easily with the first application and the resulting color is very nice. I mixed Mahogany with Burgundy as Mahagany is orangish -brown and Burgundy is pinkish brown and together they gave me a fairly natural look. However, my hair was VERY dry and felt awful after I put the dye on it. I used an intensive conditioner after the next 3 shampoos which helped quite a bit.

Overall, I am not sure I would use this product again. I like the color and the ease with which it goes on and I like the fact that it covers gray so well, but I don't like the false advertising of this company and I don't like the way the product made my hair feel. I had been using typical consumer hair coloring products (L'Oreal and Clairol) for years and I don't think I will go back to them either. I want something safer, but effective and I think I will keep looking.

This product says it's made from all natural ingredients, but once you really read the fine print, it has the following:

May contain the following:
HC Blue 2
HC Yellow 5
HC Red 3
HC Yellow 2
HC Yellow 4
HC Red 1
Disperse Violet 1
HC Violet 14 D
Disperse Black

So basically you are putting a bunch of synthetic dyes on your head. If you search on any of these synthetic dyes, they are pretty scary.

The product does a nice job of coloring your hair....but it certainly isn't a natural product. I tried calling the company, but they are down in Brazil and my portugese is pretty lousy!

I've been using Surya Henna Cream for about four years. My dark brown hair is now more than 30 percent silver-grey, totally grey at the top hairline and temples, salt-and-pepper everywhere else.

The best thing about this product is how easy it is. I never cease to be amazed at how little effort or mess is involved. I wash my hair, towel dry it, apply to my roots all around and then work it through wearing plastic gloves. Put the plastic cap on, wrap it in a towel and then wait for an hour or two to rinse it out. Some reviewers have complained about how thin it is; you get used to that. Occasionally, I notice a bit of thick material in a bottle. Adding a little water and shaking it up takes care of it, and doesn't affect the performance.

I also follow-up the initial rinse with a shampooing and conditioning. I find this product leaves my hair a little dry at first, and that counteracts it. I also want to wash off as much of the "loose" color as possible to protect my pillowcase and clothes. (Though it does wash off easily in the washing machine.)

The color is rich and deep. However, it does fade with each wash. Over the years, I've eliminated shampoos with laurel or laureth sulfate, and now I use Wen cleansing conditioner. But anything that cleans your hair is going to remove a bit of color. So when it's time to color again, for me (and I wash my hair as infrequently as possible), my formerly dark brown hair has lightened to a medium auburn. (To counteract this, I now mix in Surya's black, about 1 to 3, to hold the dark color a bit longer.)


Unlike chemical dyes, henna does not penetrate the hair shaft very deeply. Rather it coats it. The "cellophane" products that hairdressers use are generally henna-based, and that gives you an idea of how this color works. It is like a cellophane coating on whatever color is underneath it. If that color is white or grey, the impression inside may be the true dyed color, but if you go out into sunlight, it has an usual brilliance of color. (I have a convertible and sometimes when I'm driving with the top down, the formerly silver parts of my hair just look on fire in the sun.)

Anyone who uses henna regularly raves about the condition of their hair. And I'm no exception. There is none of the damage you get from chemical dyes. I cover my gray and still have soft, shiny, natural hair.

Finally, one other consideration in using henna is that, although it fades, it does not disappear. When it fades, it fades to red, and once you start using it, unless you're prepared to go through a multi-phased, hair-damaging process of stripping it out, you're pretty much committed to keep using it. It's generally a bad idea to try to use a chemical color on top of it, because there's a reaction that creates green tones.

I have shoulder-length, but relatively thin hair, and one treatment uses about 2/3 of a bottle. I buy them in quantity -- six dark browns and two blacks. And overall I'm a happy camper. The one drawback, the fading, is easy enough to fix if I have an important event.

I hope this helps anyone trying to make a decision about using this product.

I am a breast cancer survivor and am looking for a safe hair color to cover my gray hair. Unfortunately this is not the one. It contains a few natural ingredients and synthetic ones. I checked this brand out on the Eviromental Working Groups Skin Deep cosmetic date base. You type in the name of the product and it is rated for safety and all the ingredients are listed and broken down into what health hazards they can cause. This product did not do very well. As a cancer survivor I will not be using, or reccomending this product. I encourage everyone to get on line and check out the Skin Deep cosmetic data base before purchasing or using any product!

This is one of those synthetic dyes with a little henna in it, masquerading as henna, that give true henna a bad name. So many reviewers were surprised at how well it covered gray. That is because it is a regular synthetic color.
If you want to use real henna on your hair, it should have one ingredient listed: henna. Yes, real henna is not terribly convenient to use and it does take several treatments to cover gray, but it is natural, unlike this.
I used Surya color one time when my health-food store was out of real henna. I did not realize the Surya was not real henna and neither did the employee who had ordered it. My results with it were terrible. It looked flat and dull and sort of greenish. Not at all like the beautiful, rich, sparkling color I get with real henna. Luckily it did not last too long.
I hate false advertising.

I've been using henna for almost 20 years: started out with red, then changed to light red, and as I've gotten grayer, wanted to go more blonde to blend in better. One company makes a "blonde" henna that's just neutral henna with chamomile, and coverage wasn't that good. The Surya gives really good coverage that isn't at all brassy, and is premixed and hence very easy to use. It's more expensive than the powders I'd been using, but worth it.

For safety, convenience, ease-of-use, and for how well it works, I recommend this product. I have used several chemical hair color preparations and have been turned off by the odors and by the way they had left my hair dry and brittle, and often had "unnatural" color effects which took a while to wash out. I switched to powder henna, but found, although natural-looking and smelling, it could be messy to prepare and apply, and also can take a long time before reaching the desired color effect. This product is very simple to use, with less mess and fuss, smells lovely, and leaves the hair in good condition. A super alternative!

This is a wonderful product, it gives me rich, natural looking color and beautifully soft hair. The trade off for the complete lack of damage and very soft color is...It doesn't last long. I usually use it once a week, but I only leave it in for ten minutes during a one-week touch up. If I skip a week, I leave it in for 20 minutes. I also put a bit on a fine brush and use it on my eyebrows. My initial use, I left the color in for about 25 minutes. The gloves and cap they give you are really flimsy, so go to the beauty supply store and get some better gloves and caps. I've been using this for 4 months now, and it has never given me bad color or hurt my hair at all. I bought it on the reccomendation of my mom, who has much finer, greyer hair than I do. She loves it as well, but like me she has to use it weekly for the color to stay looking fresh.

The biggest advantages with the Surya creme henna are - 1) the product does no damage to the hair at all, and in fact leaves it in better codition that you started with. 2) the color is gorgeous, soft and natural looking. 3) there are no roots, as the color fades (and all color does, even permenant chemical dyes) you have no visible line where the color went on initially. Your biggest disadvantage is - weekly or semi-weekly touch ups. DO NOT leave the color on for 25 minutes on a weekly touch-up, only for about 10 minutes. You can do 20-25 min after 2-3 weeks since your previous touch-up.

Anyway, to sum up, this stuff is great!, but it is not a permanent color. If you don't expect it to act like a permanent color, you'll be very, very happy.

This hair color is *great* - but there are a few things you should know before using it:

- This is listed as a non-permanent color, but even after it has been washed and allowed to fade, your hair will still be very red (especially if you have light7grey hair.) I have blond hair and after coloring with this product, even months later without re-application, my hair is still red (though not as vibrant.)

- It makes a very natural-looking red! Unlike most permanent hair colors, the base colors of this are orange and gold, not red or purple. Also worth noting is that it will give your hair a very shiny, healthy glow that looks radiant in the sun. The cream also smells very herbal-y and yummy.

- Being henna, it will stain your skin! However, the stains are very faint and exfoliate off in about a day. I have excellent results using with hazel to clean off the stains around my hairline after I have washed the color out, it seems to make them fade even quicker. It doesn't turn your scalp bright orange...and the stains are more of just a shade or two darker than your skin tone.

- Anyone who has colored their hair red knows that it is the hardest color to keep, it's notorious for fading and washing out! I recommend using a hair cream with sunscreen to keep the color from fading in the sun, and a color-saving shampoo. I use Frizz-Ease Secret Weapon Flawless Finishing Crème 4 oz. and Rusk Sensories Brilliance Grapefruit & Honey Color Protect Shampoo, 13.5-Ounce Bottles (Pack of 3) (both smell great!) and they keep my color better than anything else I've ever used.

Hope this helps!