Urgent Question For Nikki

Hi Nikki:

I am a Mehandi devotee now. I've been on the phone with them several times now getting stuff straight in my head about henna and all its variations. I will reach out to the Mehandi people with this but as I was going through your Fall Routine post to share with my roommate the natural methods you use to wash. I looked up the ingredients in the Mehandi shampoo bar and saw Sodium Hydroxide [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] for saponification. I understand this to be the active ingredient in perms--lye? I can't imagine you being unaware of this. So I'm sure there is some good chemistry reason behind this that I'm totally igornant of. For I get the impression from reading Mehandi's details "chemistry" breakdowns and seeing how you have chemists as guest to break things down, that some things are not as harmful as we may think or in modified forms? So can you help me? Forgive me if this has already been discussed. I'm fairly new to the board and the forum is big and don't have time to read every post. I've already been on here over an hour browsing and commenting. Thanks!

don't be afraid with sodium hydroxide in soap. sodium hydroxide, by itself, IS caustic. in fact, we need sodium hydroxide to react with vegetable oils and fats from animals to produce what we know as soap. so, sodium hydroxide is not harmful in this application. on the hand, relaxers and texturizers are harmful because its direct application of sodium hydroxide. hope this helps.

Just to add to what dajewel said, sodium hydroxide is also used (in very low concentrations) in other hair products like leave-in's in order to help balance the pH of the product. It's nothing to worry about when used that way.

Thanks ladies! . What they said... It's in several of my fav conditioners too.

maysay wrote:Just to add to what dajewel said, sodium hydroxide is also used (in very low concentrations) in other hair products like leave-in's in order to help balance the pH of the product. It's nothing to worry about when used that way.

this is very true. sodium hydroxide is able to do this in VERY LOW concentrations because its a very strong (caustic base). a by product is glycerine, and many mixtresses either don't have the means to remove the glycerine(its not a short process) or don't want to remove it. so, you will commonly see glycerine in the ingredients list. 'saponified' (insert name of oil or fat) is another way to say sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide was mixed with the oil or fat to make the soap.

Many labs have to use sodium hydroxide in our preparations for whatever reason. The use is not always a bad thing when its intentions are nothing but good. It is available to us in pellots or thick, concentrated liquid. Regardless of the form, we have to take certain precautions. At present, my preps involve the use of the pellot form, and as such i have to be very quick when measuring the amount i need when using this form because it readily reacts when in contact with air (like in a couple of minutes). This is a good example of appropriately harnessing the good of a chemical that is naturally dangerous. As you can see, science can be a fine line of safe and not safe/good and not good.

I love this site! Nikki you have really got something here gurl--absolutely wonderful. I mean where else can I go to get an experienced chemist to answer me directly and so quickly? And if there is somewhere else I could go--I don't wanna [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] . I trust this site with my hair! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] I knew there was a good answer [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] . I wrote over at the style's thread in response to our sister about how squeamish we in the "natural community" can get over being 100% chemical free (rightfully so) but in trying so hard to be ALL natural (I don't think possible in this kind of society), we throw the baby out with the bathwater. Science is beneficial when used responsibly. Thank you dajewel, maysay, and Nikki for responding so quickly. And dajewel, I absolutely love this profile pic of you, btw. Your hair and SKIN look simply beautiful.

Tootles!

Nikki, Advise Please. I going to dye my hair Sun 1/3/ 2010 and I'm going to be using LOREAL's Permanent hair color. Though I love the Mehandi Henna I'm just to lazy to continue doing so. My question to you is do you think it's OKAY to color my hair now it has been 3 month since I use Henna, but the box states "DO not use over compound henna or progressive color. Does this mean do not use this dye LOREAL while using henna at the same time or does it mean if you henna once you can never use permanent hair dye again. I may have to wait and call the 800 number Mon. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr