Chemical vs Henna

Many women and men think nothing of dying their hair. It may be to cover up grey, expressing yourself in a funky shade or finding your younger self back. In an ideal world, you can simply select the colour you prefer and there will be absolutely no side effects or anything.

Unfortunately, we live in a toxic world where everything comes with a price and there is not exception in beauty. Hair dye is definitely not an exception. As a matter of fact, I am going to compare the advantages and disadvantages of hair dye and henna right now to show you why henna would be a better choice for long term colour maintenance for your hair.

Hair Dye Advantages

• Wide variety of colours. You can literally go from red to blue to purple within a year and the results can be simply breath taking! Colours makes everyone happy right? Okay… Let’s move on to the next one.

• Tired of seeing your black hair all day as you look into the mirror, combing you hair? You will never know if you look good in blonde or blue unless you step out of your comfort zone and try it out! (You can also photoshop yourself to see if you suit red or orange before you dye your hair hehehehehe)

• You can achieve customised results if you use chemical hair dye. Your personal style can really impress everyone around you and …. wow, that hair though. Henna could NEVER!

Hair Dye Disadvantages

• Do you really want to sacrifice your nice healthy hair for coloured locks which are dry and brittle?

• Coloring your hair requires major adjustments for those who love to style their hair. Because color treatments are big bad wolves to the hair, you have to limit your hair styles to simple brushing or using moisturizing products. Try not to use heat to style the hair. Heat will ruin the ends of your hair. It will also weaken the hair follicles, causing thinning and breaking.

• Millions of people already have upper respiratory allergies from pollen, mold, and chemicals. Studies have shown that those susceptible to lung inflammation will be at increase risk for the development of asthma when using commercial hair dye.Persulfates are chemicals found in bleaching agents and hair dye and most commercial hair products contain a whopping 60% of them! Continued inhalation of persulfates can lead to persistent cough, throat discomfort, wheezing, lung inflammation, and full-blown asthma attacks.
  Ammonia is another common contributor to asthma attacks when using hair dye. In high concentrations, it can easily exacerbate pre-existing breathing conditions.
• Dying your hair can lead to the development of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is cancer of the lymph tissue. This cancer is often found in the lymph nodes,spleen, and bone marrow. As it spreads, it begins to affect immune system function and the body’s ability to fight infection.According to data retrieved from the National Cancer Institute, 30% of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cases are caused by regular use of commercial hair dye. 4-ABP is a hair dye byproduct that has also been proven to have carcinogenic effects. The byproduct is commonly found in blonde, red, and black hair dyes but may not be listed on the label.

Read the full articles here: (A) (B)

As someone who is working in the hair care industry, many have expressed their regrets for regular chemical hair dye. They have bright and beautiful looking hair in exchange for sensitive scalp that gets itchier and itchier the more they go for hair dye sessions. Do you want brightly coloured hair with scalp that itches badly that can even cause your scalp to bleed? Or would you prefer  lovely red hair with scalp that is healthy and clean thanks to henna and proper hair care maintenance?

Now, let’s see what henna is capable of.

Henna Advantages

• Applying henna makes hair glossy, healthy and voluminous. It’s like a two-in-one hair dye and hair pack!
• It repairs the damaged hair strands and restores the acid-alkaline balance of the scalp.
• It is acts like a hair conditioner that protects the hair strands by building a protective layer and locking the nutrients and moisture.

 (Coloured with henna. Results may vary.)

• It is the best and safest way to color your hair that has no ammonia, chemicals, and toxins.
• Henna can be used to treat dandruff and scalp infections effectively.

Read full article here.

Henna Disadvantages

• Colours are not as bright! But it is a price to pay for healthy and beautiful coloured hair after all.
• Limited choice of colours. Henna is a reddish-brown dye that only contains one dye molecule, a red-orange one. Thus the colours you can achieve are quite limited. It can only range from black, brown and red as other herbs such as indigo will be added to the henna mix to produce brown and black. The henna dye powders that offers blonde and more are usually compound hennas.
• It gets really messy during the application process. You might want to get someone to assist you in applying the henna mix. Washing henna off has to be a thorough process as well. So why not get someone experienced in hair dye application to help you with these two processes? (wink wink)

If you are convinced that henna is for you, search for the right kind of henna as compound henna does NOT play nice with commercial hair dye and other chemical residue in hair. 

People who have itching, blisters, or serious allergic reactions to para-phenylenediamine hair dyes often want to change over to henna hair dyes. 

Compound henna reacts wildy with synthetic hair dyes and other chemical hair products!  If you use compound henna soon after you have done your hair with para-phenylenediamine dyes, your hair may be brittle, trashed, and may turn frog butt green or offshore sewage outlet black.  Compound hennas have metallic salts which react disasterously with the ammonia in synthetic  hair dye. Problem is … many pre-mixed henna powders do NOT have these ingredients listed!

If you have used compound henna to colour your hair and you would like to switch to chemical hair dye, the only way would be to wait for your coloured hair to grow out first. Beauty requires patience. So be patient and don’t harm yourself unnecessarily. 

Read the full article here.

The kind of henna you will be looking for would be known as BAQ(Body Art Quality) Henna. BAQ Henna is pure henna with the highest natural dye content and perfect sift is used for body art.

BAQ Henna is,

• Henna that has a very high natural dye content
• Henna that is very finely cleaned, ground and sifted
• Henna that is pure:  ONLY dried, powdered lawsonia inermis leaves
• Body Art Quality henna is often referred to as BAQ henna

The best 10% of henna is reserved for body art.  Henna for body art must have a higher dye content and finer sift, so artists can make fine patterns with deep long-lasting stains.

For more information and the full article click here

Here in Lao Fo Ye, we go provide henna colouring as well. Do not worry, I am just educating you about the benefits of henna today. If you are curious about our henna treatment, you can give us a call at +65 6 3838 333 or view the video below to check out our henna coloruing process. You can see that her colour of her hair is more even as compared to before!

LaoFoYe’s Natural Henna Based coloring consist of a combination of herbs including henna which oxidizes when mixed with water and forms a wrap around the hair stem without changing or damaging the structure of the hair. Colors are usually permanent on those parts that have been treated.

If you are interested in doing henna colouring with Lao Fo Ye, call us now at 6 3838 333 or book an appointment with us! We are located at the Bencoolen (Opposite OG Albert), Bugis.

Alopecia Areata Treatment Testimonial – Mr. Wee

Mr. Wee started his Alopecia Areata (AA) Treatment with Lao Fo Ye since 10 April 2015.

He did receive treatment before when the same condition happened to him when he was younger but he was affected by AA again at 10 years old. However, do you know what exactly is AA and why is it affecting someone as young as Mr. Wee? It is affecting many recently. So, Lao Fo Ye has gathered some information from the web to educate everyone on this autoimmune disease.

What is Alopecia Areata?

Alopecia means hair loss. When a person has a medical condition called alopecia areata, hair falls out in round patches. Hair can fall out on the scalp and elsewhere on the body. Alopecia is not contagious. It is not due to nerves. What happens is that the immune system attacks the hair follicles (structures that contain the roots of the hair), causing hair loss. This disease most often occurs in otherwise healthy people.

What causes it?

In alopecia areata, immune system cells called white blood cells attack the rapidly growing cells in the hair follicles that make the hair. The affected hair follicles become small and drastically slow down hair production. Fortunately, the stem cells that continually supply the follicle with new cells do not seem to be targeted. So the follicle always has the potential to regrow hair.

Source: https://www.aad.org/dermatology-a-to-z/diseases-and-treatments/a—d/alopecia-areata

At Lao Fo Ye, we have many successful AA cases that we will share with you as we go along. Mr. Wee will be the first one we are sharing today. Firstly, our consultants will apply AA Detox on the customer’s scalp. The AA Detox can kill bacteria & cleanse your scalp. It can also scatter the killer T cells (lymphocytes) and allow the hair follicle to continue normal hair growth. However, AA can happen again so regular treatments at Lao Fo Ye can help keep the situation under better control.

On 10 April, Mr. Wee seek help from Lao Fo Ye. In 4 consecutive treatments, you can see that there are hair growing out of his scalp.

In one month’s time, there are visible hair strands growing out of the bald spots. New hair grew beginning from and progressing from the outer circle. The bald spot got smaller until the whole patch is covered with new hair. Thus Recovery!

Mr. Wee said,”Thank you. My friends won’t laugh at me in school anymore.”

Mr Wee now continues to receive treatment at Lao Fo Ye to prevent recurrence and to suppress Alopecia Areata (AA).

Don’t fight AA alone… Lao Fo Ye can support you and help you fight AA together.

If you have hair problems similar to Mr. Wee’s, call us now at 6 3838 333 or book an appointment with us! We are located at the Bencoolen (Opposite OG Albert), Bugis.

For more information about the Alopecia Areata Treatment, head over to our website now!

Express Recovery

Lao Fo Ye Express is the hair treatment of choice for people who want effective treatments with an affordable price tag attached to it.

 Did I hear cheers? I bet you will cheer even louder as our therapists start detoxifying your hair with our Scalp Clarifying Formula.

What is Scalp Clarifying treatment you ask? Well, it is made up of  all natural herbs which is essential to kill bacteria in your scalp which is accumulated by the exposure to external factors such as the environment or the chemicals in your shampoo. Although it is not as effective as our Herbal Clarifying treatment,  it is sufficient enough to get rid of the harmful substances that our scalp is exposed to daily.

“So… What is Hair Strengthening then?” Glad you ask. No, I’m really happy you asked. Do you know how brittle and weak your hair can get due to our environment? Nothing can last forever. The same applies to the strength of your hair. Our Hair Strengthening Formula gives your hair the nutrient it needs for you to look good daily.

And the best thing is, NO APPOINTMENT REQUIRED. So you do not have to commit to the treatment package and come by Lao Fo Ye any time! Go on ahead and have more time for a carefree lifestyle without worrying about your hair as it would be maintained by us, the Lao Fo Ye team, if you try out Lao Fo Ye Express today!

Herbal Hair Growth Treatment Testimonial – Mr. Lee

Mr. Lee started his Herbal Hair Growth and Detox Treatment with Lao Fo Ye since 25 June 2015.

As for the results, see it for yourself!

In just about 4 months, Mr. Lee’s hair looks fuller than before! Remember the previous post, it was Mr. Than who received the Hair Growth Treatment and now we are talking Mr. Lee who received the Herbal Hair Growth Treatment?

Do you know what’s the main difference between these two treatments? …. Let me tell you!

The main difference between our Herbal Hair Growth (HHG) treatment and our Hair Growth (HG) Treatment is that HHG is more catered towards people with oily scalp so that their hair will not be as oily while trying to stimulate hair growth. HG is oil based thus, more catered towards people with dry scalp.

But this doesn’t mean that people with oily scalp cannot receive the HG Treatment. As long as you maintain a healthy scalp with our Detox Treatment or Lao Fo Ye Express (if your budget is tight hahahaha), even people with oily scalp can receive our HG Treatment. HHG will be strongly recommended to people with really oily scalp as HG Treatment will make their oily scalp problems worse.

Mr. Lee said, “WOW! My hair looks fuller now! The consultants were really friendly and I would definitely recommend anyone with hair problems to come here!”

If you have hair problems similar to Mr. Lee’s, call us now at 6 3838 333 or book an appointment with us! We are located at the Bencoolen Shopping Centre (Opposite OG Albert), Bugis.

For more information about the Detox Treatment and the Hair Growth Treatment, head over to our website now!

BIG NEWS! We have launched Lao Fo Ye Express, the express recovery for people with tight budget. We will talk more about Lao Fo Ye Express on our next post so stay tuned!

Hair Growth Testimonial – Mr. Lim

Lim Chee Kong

As a head waiter, my working hours are very irregular. My sleep pattern is also very disturbed, I sleep late at night and I usually have my dinner after work.

My work is also very stressful especially during peak hours, because I have to handle a restaurant full of customers and managing my staff. I suffer from excessive hair drop for more than 6 months.

After receiving treatments at Lao Fo Ye Hair Care Centre, my condition improved impressively. My hair is now very healthy. With my looks improved, I am now more confident of myself.

I am grateful to Lao Fo Ye for saving my hair.

Hair Growth Treatment Testimonial – Mr. Than

Mr. Than started his Herbal Clarifying and Hair Growth Treatment with Lao Fo Ye since 10 April 2010.

The treatments are definitely working on him. Just look at the results!

In ‘Comapre Photo 1’, the amount of hair on August is definitely much more than the amount of hair on Mr. Than’s head in April. Usually, customers have to undergo the Herbal Clarifying treatment first in order to clean and detoxify impurities & harmful substances on the scalp. It also helps customers to open up clogged & dormant pores on the scalp, conditioning it to receive nutrients.

Hair loss can be caused by multiple factors, with the most common one being stress, prolonged intake of strong medication, crash dieting and the use of unsuitable hair products. Genetic hair loss is probably one of the most devastating forms of hair loss as it is noticeable and may lead to total balding. However, the problem can be managed with the right advice on living habits and complemented with correct natural herbal treatments.

The Hair Growth Treatment infuses the necessary nutrients for healthy hair growth (combined with the usage of infra-red light). Closed pores can be opened & new baby hair can be seen within 20 consecutive days of treatment.

Mr. Than commented that,”Within 6 months, I got this result. I didn’t expect baby hair to grow at my age. I will definitely continue my weekly treatments at Laofoye.” We are very happy that he is satisfied with our services and hope to help more people suffering from hair problems!

If you have hair problems similar to Mr. Than, call us now at 6 3838 333 or book an appointment with us! We are located at the Bencoolen Shopping Centre (Opposite OG Albert), Bugis.

For more information about the Herbal Clarifying Treatment and the Hair Growth Treatment, head over to our website now!