allergies

Henna tattoos and allergic reaction

Henna is a natural color used in hair dyes, which gives a reddish tinge to the hair. Women in the Middle Eastern areas use it to decorate hands and feet.

The henna tattoo is not permanent and has a variable duration from two weeks to a month, as the pigment is weakly bound to the stratum corneum of the skin. To overcome this problem, tattooists combine henna with paraphenylenediamine, a powerful sensitizer that makes the color darker and more durable. However, this substance can cause more or less violent contact allergies at certain concentrations.

Itching, redness, swelling, blisters and eczema: these symptoms appear after 24-48 hours in people who are allergic to the compound. Anti-aesthetic scars can also remain on the skin, which perfectly follow the pattern of the design traced with henna. In those who have a very sensitive and delicate skin, however, paraphenylenediamine causes a delayed reaction, even after 15-20 days. This appears as an irritative dermatitis with milder but equally annoying cutaneous manifestations.

If the allergy is chronic

The worst inconvenience that can be encountered is that the allergy becomes chronic . In this case, adverse reactions to paraphylene endiamine may develop in any form, even when used in controlled and reduced form. Suffice it to say that this substance is also present in newspaper ink, in garments made with treated leathers and in some hair dyes.