Recently I had a friend ask me about natural hair colouring (and in particular covering grey hair naturally). I have to admit that I haven't dyed my hair since I was in my early 20's, so I haven't tried any of the 'natural' hair dyes available in shops to be able to recommend any. I have thought about it off and on, but I have a lot of natural colour tones/highlights in my hair and I am a bit worried about losing those if I start dying my hair. I do have various books containing recipes to make rinses/masks which enhance your hair colour naturally, but they do not provide a full permanent coverage. The only exception to this is henna, but I have read that henna is not suitable for grey hair, so that was of no help to my friend.
Anyway, true to form I do not pass on anything that I haven't tested, so I decided to try making a natural hair lightening rinse. My hair is strawberry blonde and has gone a bit to the ginger side so I wanted to try and remove some of the red toning. I have tried using chamomile in the past to bring out blonde highlights but it can give quite a gold (yellow) toning (do not use it on bleached blonde hair!!!). In light of this, I thought that I would try lemon juice, a natural bleaching agent. Lemon juice can be quite drying and my hair is already dry so I mixed it with apple cider vinegar to reduce the drying effect and add shine. This is my resulting recipe:
Natural Blonde Bleach Rinse
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (not sure if bought lemon juice would work)
1 tablespoon organic apple cider vinegar
make up to about 300ml with cool water
Slowly pour the rinse over wet hair and massage it in (I do it at the end of the shower). Leave it on and dry as normal. Any scent quickly wears off. This is a mild rinse which can be used every day or two. Sunlight enhances the bleaching effect.
Addendum: I found the above rinse effective, but since first writing this article have found an even easier, faster method of lightening my hair. It works so well that I often get asked if I have had foils put in and even my new hairdressor thought the colour looked great and wanted to know what I had used. It is simply lemon essential oil. Initially I mixed 5-6 drops with a leave-in conditioner and put it all through my hair for an all-over lightening treatment. It worked very effectively with just one application. Now, every so often I just put some lemon essential oil on my finger-tips and pick out small sections of hair to highlight. I just run the oil down the length of the strand. Blow-drying and exposure to sunlight enhance the lightening effect. This is so simple and quick and I love the refreshing lemon smell.
Here are some other rinses you might like to try:
Rinse for Dark Hair
Rinses made from these ingredients are supposed to disguise grey hair, but I haven’t talked to anyone who has tested it yet. It will not permanently cover, you would need to repeat it regularly.
4 tablespoons dried sage
2 tablespoons dried rosemary
1 black tea bag (or 1 teaspoon loose black tea leaves)
400ml boiling water
1 tablespoon organic apple cider vinegar (gives shine and depth)
Put the sage and rosemary leaves and tea bag into a heatproof glass or ceramic container and pour over the boiling water. Let it stand for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid off, add the vinegar and pour it slowly through damp hair as a final rinse. You could let the mix stand overnight if you wanted to apply it at the end of your morning shower. Instead of the dried sage and rosemary you could just add 3 drops of Rosemary essential oil. If you just want to deepen your colour but not make your hair too dark then leave out the black tea.
Lavender Shine Rinse
Gives your hair silkiness and shine.
2 tablespoons dried lavender
400ml boiling water
1 tablespoon organic apple cider vinegar (gives shine and depth)
Put the lavender into a heatproof glass or ceramic container and pour over the boiling water. Let it stand for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid off, add the vinegar and pour it slowly through damp hair as a final rinse.
Chamomile Highlighting Rinse
Adds highlights and gloss to fair hair
2 tablespoons dried chamomile or 4 teabags
400ml boiling water
1 tablespoon organic apple cider vinegar
Put the chamomile into a heatproof glass or ceramic container and pour over the boiling water. Let it stand for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid off, add the vinegar and pour it slowly through damp hair as a final rinse. You can replace the dried chamomile with 2 drops chamomile and 1 drop lemon essential oil.
If you try any of these recipes I would love to know the results. You can email me at contact@vanillasoul.co.nz, or leave a comment here or on the Vanilla Soul Facebook page.
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