Covering your gray is big business and for some of us, a major priority. There are a variety of reasons a woman might decide to cover her gray hair, for one having grays is a sign of getting old or being old.
I know, I know this is not across the board, after all gray is a trendy color this spring and summer but you must admit, just a few grays popping out is NOT the same thing and let’s not even get into how they are wiry and have a mind of their own, it just ain’t pretty.
I’ve never been one to cover my grays but in all honesty I don’t have a ton of them. I do color my hair and choose to use commercial brands like Shea Moisture* Hair Coloring System because they don’t have ammonia, parabens and sulfates but I know many naturals out here might prefer a natural alternative to regular hair color. With that said the best way to color your grays naturally would be to use Henna and Indigo*.
What is henna?
Henna is a tropical plant that grows in hot and dry climates of the Eastern hemisphere and is ground down into a powder and used by women for thousands of years to decorate the body. Henna is also quite popular as a natural way to dye hair for women and a great way to condition your strands as well.
Henna leaves are dried, ground and sifted into a powder and true henna will stain the body and hair reddish brown. True henna will give a reddish, orange, light brownish color which indicative of the purest form of the powder. If you try henna and you see a different color then it’s not 100% henna and the product has something added to it.
Is it safe?
It’s perfectly safe if you are using 100% henna but many manufacturers are using low quality henna promising colors outside of the typical reddish orange.
Many of the additives used in these low quality products can cause an allergic reaction to it’s users making those products virtually unsafe. The best thing to do is read the ingredients and make sure you are getting body art qualiy henna*. If you want to purchase henna, and you want high quality henna you can get them from Mehandi.com and LUSH Cosmetics
Why do naturals use henna?
It’s pretty effective at covering grays and many Naturals use it for that reason or for conditioning their hair. Henna* has also been used for changing their hair’s texture as some tout it loosens the curl pattern.
Loosening your curls is not set in stone, it really depends on the individual on how henna will affect your texture so use caution if altering your hair’s texture is an issue with you.
So 8 hours to color a small portion of her hair ???
Yes, that is a lot of time into the process but it would be that long even if you did your whole head too.
Yea, but it would have taken that long to do the whole head as well.
Not worth it! License cosmetologist 15yrs license Instructor 4 thx!
Rasheda Stewart have you ever tried this?
Henna ruined my hair.Never again ill grow old gracefully and rocking my grey’s.
Henna-vegetable base colors will coat and ruin your hair. Try it if you want too but a licensed professional has warned you!!
I also mixed mine with additional ingredients I.e olive oil, castor oil, and fresh grapefruit juice instead of lemon
How did it come out?
Can you use just indigo, no henna? What color does your hair turn out if you do?
chemical free way to dye your baby hairs Erica Childress
I’ve been using henna and indigo for the last 6 months. It is very mess and time-consuming, but it works.
It appears to work very well.
My hair stylist tried this on my hair. We let stay on for 2 hours and the hair did not color.
Oh wow. Maybe you needed more time.
Ok so vegetable base color have metallic salts and minerals that when used repeatedly builded up on the hair and make it resistant, hard, cause breakage. These colors are also cheap and not recommended for professionals we were taught this in beauty school for the ones that went listened read and got licensed. They don’t last long as well and as i mentioned not in my opinion and experience recommendation for henna colors. The shine that you see is a simple coating and damaging affect that is entering your cortex the more that you use it.
Always gotta get the read stuff.
I don’t find henna any messier than regular dye. I would go back into the bathroom after a 10 minute root touch up to find little splatters of black all over the sink! I found that I was a more careful with the henna (probably because everyone was saying how messy) and no spatter for me.
As far as time consuming, I am finding that as a natural, I’m spending more time on my hair anyway–giving it the love it needs. However, I cut the time down by going to bed with the henna on and applying the indigo in the morning. Either way I don’t complain. The reason that I went natural in the 1st place was after a day in the beauty shop that was just too long. After I left, a few hundred dollars (plus tip) poorer, wrinkled from sweating, then drying off, etc., PLUS starving, I swore I would never go back. The next day I had my husband take me to his barber and got it all shaved off.
A day dealing with henna is NOTHING compared to that day.
I’ve used henna and indigo twice on my hair. I deep condition after I’m done, and it turns out soft and manageable. Haven’t figured out how to make the indigo not bleed after using it. I find when I oil or moisturize my hair, there is dye on my hands. How do you lock the color in? Yes, my hair is dry and I don’t leave it wet.
I love using Henna and Indigo!! It makes my hair stronger, covers my grays and loosen my curl pattern a bit.
I wanna try henna
Me too…cam you use it if you don’t have grey hairs
Henna best choice all natural
I used henna to try to cover grey hair, it didn’t work. Any suggestions why I was successful?
I did the same thing try it didn’t work for m either!!
We could give this a try Stolen Moments ChildCare
If you cover your hair with henna it’s hard to change your color again your kinda stuck with it till it grows out I’m a stylist at a school and henna is always horrible to try and get out even trying to bleach
I should try this