Pakeezah

Customer feedback Renaissance Henna :

“Iv been using Renaissance Henna for over eight years now after i suffered a bad reaction to my hair dye . I was so upset at the time thinking i would now have to go grey when i discovered Renaissance . I now have beautiful coloured hair which is just the right colour and using henna also gives a natural condition unlike my old hair colour . They also have a great customer service , nothing is to much trouble , their advice has been so important in getting the right results !! can’t recommend them enough .

Thank you for bringing my hair back to life x”

“Hi. Renaissance Henna!
Loved your Henna and Indigo Hair Dyes!
Was good quality,
Smooth and fine grained,
Applied well on hair, I have black hair and it was vibrant (need to apply
soon)
Good price,
Overall very pleased, more, more, please!
Keep up the good work!
Regards
M”.

That’s what henna does – it’s vibrant and it brings your hair back to life !

We named our orange label henna “pakeezah” , a name which has its origins in the Arabic language. It is a word which has a combined, dual, meaning of ” pure” and “clean to the heart”, the core. All our henna is “pakeezah” ! As is our indigo.  And together henna and indigo make hair brown and black without added chemicals. Other companies are using the name “pakeezah” for henna, so always look for the name “Renaissance Henna” on your hair colour packet to be sure you’re buying a trusted brand.

Here’s an insight into the epic Indian film “Pakeezah”  :    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakeezah.

The beautiful dancer dressed in henna red in the video is entertaining the aggressive “patron” Nawab Zafar Ali Khan, who is intent on having his wicked way with her. The heroin is Sahibjaan, a woman whose mother was rejected by her father’s family as of lowly status, and who was thus robbed of her noble birthright in childhood, to be raised a dancer in a brothel. She eventually stumbles upon love, by chance. Whilst journeying on a train, she finds herself adored by a man who literally worships her beautiful feet! [“I saw your feet” he says in a mysterious note left on her feet whilst she was asleep, “they are very beautiful. Please don’t step on the ground, as they will get dirty “]. After much hardship and tragedy she finds her fate is to be with the anonymous stranger whose love she clings to and dreams of, and when he comes to rescue her from her life of misery, poverty and struggle,  her status is redeemed as a woman of noble birth. Very Shakespearean, and a happy ending ! I’ve often wondered if John Newton and William Wilberforce would have watched Pakeezah and considered the ending such an amazing grace for the slave girl rescued and redeemed by the love  she clings to and sings about in this song  “whilst walking, I chanced to meet someone…”. The film ends with the haunting image of a woman onlooker, trapped as was Sahibjaan, as she watches the wedding convoy leave behind the misery; an escape engineered by a man who passionately refused to be a slave to  ignorance and prejudice.

The actress, Meena Kumari who played Sahibjaan, was ill, and she died some weeks after filming. The Director was her ex husband, Kamal Amrohi.

In many ways, are we all not all either slaves to a chemically laden world monopolised by an industry that sells us boxes and potions of easy to use products to make ourselves beautiful in a flash, or slaves to allergies that bring heartache and misery ?

Henna isn’t a fast hair colour chart hair colour that happens in a flash. But it is free from  every chemical name you can think of including ammonia, PPD, and “black henna” (actually, there’s no such thing). And it is very beautiful, hauntingly beautiful like the story of Sahibjaan. The bottom line is henna is pure to a fault. It’s reputation, sadly, has been dishonoured and tainted by years of corruption and misinformation ( there are no metallic salts in pure henna ). But it’s a noble path to natural beauty and hauntingly beautiful hair colour, and if you come to henna with a will to explore it’s origin of purity, you’ll find amazing hair colour that is absolutely unique to you. It’s a way out of slavery to chemical hair dyes that may in fact be harmful to health and life.

Visit our customer feedback pages and Natural Hair Dye Library pages to find out What is henna ? and more [click on the Library resources to the left of this page to access more].

Happy Henna Days !

Sabrina, x

Renaissance Henna Pakeezah Henna