Natural Hair Dye for grey hair

[sarah]

My mum currently dyes her hair every 3 weeks or so to cover grey roots, but she's recently become very aware of all the ammonia and nasty chemicals that are in them. She's not ready to go 'au natural' yet so I've been enlisted to help! I've tried googling, but it seems like most natural hair dyes just arent strong enough to cover grey hairs- does anyone here have any suggestions or recommendations on a product? Thanks

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[Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule]

Henna.

It naturally gives hair a Red through Auburn to Deep Brown colour but you can mix it with other herbs to give other colours (indigo is quite popular/common - gives hair a black/blue tint).

You can also buy it already made up some with additives (natural or not depending on brand) that can give hair a deep brown or black/blue tint and a few other colours.

It's one of the few things that covers grey hair succesfully. Unlike chemical hair dyes the colour builds up and deepens over time too - if you dye it a few times a year it will get deeper and richer each time.

A

[tanith]

Sarah I had this dilemma earlier in the year and after much debate with my daughters , who both said "DON'T DO IT MUM", I decided that I would let my old blonde head go natural...its hard letting it grow out as its been pretending to be blonde for 30 odd yrs but I am getting there..... I was persuaded by a certain advert with an 'older' model with very long beautiful silver hair and by seeing several 'older' ladies with a beautiful shiny head of silver hair.. it just looks quite sophisticated.. Well thats what I am telling myself

Wish me luck , but I still fear that one day I will look in the mirror horrified to see a little old grey haired lady staring back and run for the dye pot

[dolly day dream]

I have a similar dilemma. My hair is starting to show grey streaks. One of my pupils put very well - your hair is all shiney - and she wasn't referring to the wonderful condition my hair is in

I have tried to avoid all hair products because I try to minimise the amount of chemicals I use and I also remember my dear old mum who had totally wrecked her hair by the time she was my age with perms and dyes. We never knew what colour her real hair was untill she was unable to dye it any more.

I also, because of entreaties from my daughter, still have waist length hair and it would cost a fortune to die it. I wear it up most of the time. I have to admit I am beginning to be tempted by henna but am very worried that I will go from being hazel with grey streaks to bright red. How do you control the strength? Can you change it if you don't like it? How long does it last/take to fade?

[sandieb]

I can thoroughly recommend Daniel Field Natural Colours - Watercolour. This is non-peroxide, non ammonia hair colour. I've been using it for several years now.

The lovely thing about it is that it doesn't smell!

http://www.danielfieldmailorder.co.uk/

I normally phone to order mine and the service is friendly and VERY efficient.

[skyepark]

lush sell the hair dye in blocks, for all types of ahri blond thorugh to black/blue, where does the black/b;lue come from?

[Esmerelda]

Herbatint ( http://www.herbatint.co.uk/ ) hairdye is available in most healthfood shops and doesn't contain ammonia although it does still contain some chemicals. I have had more success with this than the daniel field range which didn't have enough product in one bottle to cover all my quite thick shoulder length hair.

[mirry]

i am looking for hair dyes and shampoos that dont contain parabens
(a chemical). Ive notised in town alot of shampoos claim to be ORGANIC yet are full of parabens !
Simple range is full of parabens too.

It makes me so mad, they treat us like we are stupid.

Polyparaben,methyparaben,buthlyparaben are all preservatives and are dangerous.....I gave them up 5 months ago and my skin problems have all
gone,
and my hair is shiney.

The Daniel Field web site doesnt mention exactly what is in their products ?
I tried to email them but it didnt work ?

[Cat72]

I have been recommended the www.sensitiveskincareco.com site who sell shampoos. The ingredients in them are -
Ingredients:
water, aqua cocomidopropylbetaine, (coconut foaming agent) hydroxyethyl, (cellulose vegetable wax), methyldibromoglutaronitrile & plenoxyyethanol (mineral preservative), organic rosemary essential oil, organic lavender essential oil

You could also make your own shampoo using soapnuts.Boil 6 or 7 soapnuts in a suacepan to infuse and make your own shampoo.
Daniel field products and the highily recommended watercolurs dyes are also available from honestycosmetics here which also give you details about the products.

Water Colour is a breakthrough in hair colouring. This is the world's first non-peroxide colour that colours grey hair like a permanent peroxide based tint. Water colour contains no ammonia. It has no smell, no fumes and no damaging effect at all - however often it is used. It is a most effective re-conditioning treatment.

[Annando]

There was a booklet in saturday's Guardian and one of the sections was on green cosmetics.
Companies who do hairdyes and all sorts of organic cosmetics are:
Avea Organic (avea.co.uk) and Barefoot Botanicals (barefoot-botanicals.com). Also The Organic Pharmacy (theorganicpharmacy.com), Beauty Naturals (beautynaturals.com).

I've got phone numbers too, so just ask if you need more info.

[marybishop]

I've been using the Herbatint range the last three times I dyed my hair rather than having it done at the hairdresser every 4/5 weeks partly because of wanting something less harsh but also cost!! I noticed when I had it done at the hairdresser my scalp would feel like it was burning (not badly but noticeable) until they dye was washed off - don't get this with the Herbatint dye. The only problem I find with Herbatint is it struggles to cover the grey hairs at the temples - no idea why as it's the bit I do first, anyone got any ideas why that should be? The rest of it is fine. I find with both the hairdresser's dye and the Herbatint my hair lightens fairly quickly in the sun so no real difference there. Only other observation is that my scalp does feel quite itchy but again that could just be me. As I have short hair I find I can get two uses from the Herbatint one so even though it costs £7.99 in my local health shop it only works out £4 a go - much cheaper than what I was paying at the hairdresser!!

HTH

[morg_monster]

one word of caution with using red henna on grey hair (at least the Lush stuff) it does go very 'sparkly' - ie the end result can be almost a metallic red, because the grey/silver shines through. I think it looks rather nice (did a tuft of my mum's hair once when I was dying mine!), but it can be a head turner - if you mum doesn't fancy that I'd recommend giving it a test first. Often at Lush they will give you half a square or something to test a cm or so of hair on at home, then you can see if you like the effect.

[Volcano]

Mirry didn't have much luck finding out about the Daniel Field range but I did....

To quote the site:"Although the gentle developing process of Water Colour does not harm the hair, people allergic to phenylenydiamines will still be allergic to Water Colour."

Gosh! calling a hair colour range "water colour" makes it sound all nice, natural and safe doesn't it?

'Phenylenediamines' have had extensive research done on their toxicity: They are known skin irritants, can cause dermatitis, have been shown to damage DNA (so are suspects for causing cancer) and as such there % content is restricted in cosmetics in the UK.

Yes and Herbatint contains it too.

Whilst ammonia in hair dye (wrongly named as it is actually ammonium hydroxide) IS an irritant and is not particularly nice stuff, there are no doubts over its carcinogenicity, i.e. it WON'T cause cancer.

The critical thing is not just what your cosmetic product contains, but how much of it there is. It seems most manufacturers begrudgingly admit what is in their dye, getting them to tell us how much is in them is a different thing altogether.

[BargainAholic]

Lush do Henna Hair Dyes.....


http://www.lush.co.uk/shop/index.php...ex&cPath=20_24

[christymm]

And luch are not natural

[kitekat]

There must be a better way sells natural hair dye,dont know how to do a link

[Judi]

I used to use Henna a few years ago but although i got brilliant results i found it very messy and hard work but i bought it from here and the results were always good. I prefered Lush's henna blocks as they were more moisturising and made my hair softer. Dont forget, although they fade you will tend to have an amount of of regrowth because if your hair is porous, you may run the risk of the hair absorbing the colour and it may not wash out. My hair is dark brown and i used the red henna blocks which made my grey hair glint with gorgeous red streaks.

I heard about these hair colours too, but never used them myself but again, i imagine you will need to keep on top of the regrowth.

edited to say that this is the Daniel Field Watercolour range

[Pandora123]

Came across this... no idea if it works, but it's worth a go.

Covering grey hair naturally

Just found the site - looks like they have some good recipes for homemade shampoo as well.



EDIT: Also found some natural hair dyes here which don't appear to have any nasties. See also their article on covering grey.

[skyrocket]

Wow this would be cool if it worked! Does anyone know?
I am interested in this thread for my mother who upon reaching the menopause started to lose the hair on top of her head. She is also going grey and although is treating the hairloss with the KGF stuff from Skinactives is worried about the grey. Her normal dye makes her scalp sore so when I sore this thread I was interested in finding something that was effective but very gentle too.
I wonder if this Sage and Rosemary thing works! And how it would bring the colour back!
xx

[JoeyEmma]

Lush dyes are a mixture of henna and indigo in varying proportions, depending on the shade you choose. Its quite gritty and because of the cocoa butter in it, doesn't dye as well.

I have recently got into henna, but use body art quality, which is very fine and totally pure, unlike some of the tainted stuff you can buy in the shops, which can have metallic taints to it. I have brown hair, with the very odd grey hair (about 20 in total!). I wanted to cover the odd grey and to add some depth and shine to my hair but avoid a major red colour. I used a mix of henna and indigo together. My hair is a glossy brown with red tones in very bright light (more of a chestnut colour). Henna doesn't lighten your hair at all..

It is a bit of a mess to use but I am glad I have done it as the strength, shine and colour are amazing, and I know its not from harmful dyes or loads of silicones.

Have a look on hennaforhair.com. The lady that runs it has an amazing PDF book to download that explains all about henna, indigo etc.