Does Sugar Lessen Henna Stains?

I saw some conversations on the Henna Hub indicating that people found that adding sugar to their paste was making their stains lighter. Mark Samwella from Jamaica even did some carefully documented testing and showed side by side stains where the sugar mixes were visibly less than those without. I was stunned! I know with certainty that if I don’t add sugar here in the US Midwest that the henna will crumble and fall off before much dye can be absorbed. So what’s going on here? So I decided to do some of my own testing on how sugar impacts henna stain.

Procedure:

I put one tablespoon of Organic Rajasthani Henna powder in each of 8 small cups. To that I added enough lemon juice to moisten and 1 ml cajeput essential oil.

I covered 4 of the cups with plastic wrap to let them dye release.

To the other four I added the following: no sugar, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon sugar, 2 teaspoon sugar. Then I thinned to a working consistency with lemon juice, and covered with plastic wrap.

After 12 hours at room temperature I added sugar to the 4 cups in the following way. The first one I added as much sugar as it would take to thin the paste to working consistency. To the rest 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon sugar, 2 teaspoons sugar.

I applied all 8 mixes in generous dabs on my left calf, and again on my right calf, taping them after they dried.

Results:

The non sugared batch fell off within 40 minutes, as I expected. I was very surprised to find that after the color developed that patch still caught up to the others even with such little exposure! The tapped tests look pretty much the same except for the batches that are way over sugared, which are significantly lighter. I was surprised to see that my standard method of adding sugar to consistency was a little bit lighter, but in my dry, climate controlled kitchen, it did take nearly 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, which is a LOT and nearly as much as the purposely over sugared 2 teaspoon batches. I saw virtually no difference between adding sugar at the initial mix vs. after dye release. I didn’t manage to get photo of the fade, but after days of wear and scrubbing the 2 teaspoon dots faded first, followed by the no sugar dots, then the rest. So even though the sugarless sample got as dark with less exposure it it did not last as long.

henna batches ready for testing

This image showing the no sugar batch falling off right away.

Day two: Diagram of my non-taped leg stains

Day two: (The taped leg is the inverse of the non-taped leg so the over-sugared batches are on the left here.) The taped leg shows very little difference in stain. The over sugared batches or slightly lighter.

Day four: To my eye the darkest batches here are the 1/2 and 1 tablespoon, added after dye release batches.

Conclusion:

Yes I was surprised! But I will also keep using sugar. It does seem that TOO MUCH sugar impacts henna stain in a negative way. It makes sense though really. At that point your actually diluting the the amount of dye in the paste. I will probably reduce my maximum sugar addition from 6 tablespoons of sugar per 100 grams of paste to 4 before thinning with water, but on the whole I won’t change my method, or leave the sugar out all together.

I was very surprised that the short exposure time of the non-sugar batch impacted the color so little! However it did greatly reduce longevity. This gives me confidence that most people will experience good stain even when they don’t have good after care. Duration of paste exposure is bound to be my next test!

While Marc in Jamaica may have a very different environment from mine, his best practices are bound to be different. Its clear that his testing showed his method works for him. My testing showed my method works for me. I do believe that OVER sugaring to the degree of being non-workable anyway is probably the culprit where sugar causes an obviously poor stain. In my test they were clearly the only obvious outliers. My typical philosophy on henna methods is that within the margins of safe practice, every artists should do what works for them. And I stand by that.