Re: questions about beet and blackwlanut powder.
Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on March 17, 1998 at 15:16:55:
In Reply to: questions about beet and blackwlanut powder. posted by Kris on March 16, 1998 at 05:11:46:
The inside of the husks of black walnut yield a dye, and it will
briefly stain the hands, but is not useful to henna. It's also
irritating to the skin of many people.
The molecules of dye lock onto molecules of the stuff being
dyed....and molecules of a dye will lock onto some stuff and not
others. That's why Rit dye will dye cotton, but not nylon and not
your hands. Some molecules lock together, some don't.
Henna dye locks onto molecules in the stratum corneum of your skin,
onto your hair, onto leather, and wool. It binds to that sort of
protein molecule. Beet juice and the thousand other things people
have tried to use to change henna color may temporarilly get into the
flaky dry bits of your skin, but they're not reacting and binding with
your skin, so those colors don't last.