His statement about changing grey hair with henna—
“I said: Reports have come that indicate dyeing is disliked.”
I reply: I have found no predecessor who voiced this claim, nor do I know any proof for it. Perhaps he means that something of the sort is related from the Companions; yet what al-Shawkānī transmitted from them in Nayl al-Aṭār 1/103 is merely a difference over what is preferable, not a judgement of dislike. Even supposing such a report exists from any of them, it carries no weight for two reasons:
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The Companions did not concur on the issue. Some of them dyed their hair, such as the two Shaykhs, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them), as documented in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and elsewhere. Others refrained—and mere abstention only shows that leaving the act is permissible, not that dyeing is reprehensible.
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The claim contradicts what is soundly established from the Prophet ﷺ in both word and deed.
As for his words, the author has cited two hadiths. As for his deeds, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and other works relate from Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with her) that she produced some of the Prophet’s hair and it was dyed. Similar reports exist; al-Tirmidhī devoted to them a chapter in al-Shamāʾil al-Muḥammadiyyah entitled “What has come regarding the Messenger of Allah’s dyeing.” Consult them, if you wish, in my Mukhtaṣar al-Shamāʾil, pp. 37–41.
Should he instead mean that such evidence comes from the Prophet ﷺ himself—as the wording seems to suggest—we say: if he intends only that some report exists, whether sound or weak, that is acceptable. But if he claims that an authentic report supports his view, this is rejected, for at most two hadiths are cited on the matter: one is weak, the other baseless.
The first is the hadith of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥarmalah, in which Ibn Masʿūd used to say, “The Prophet of Allah ﷺ disliked ten things: yellow colouring—meaning khalūq (a saffron-based perfume)—and dyeing grey hair…”