What is indigo*?
Indigo powder is from the ground leaves of the indigo plant which contains a deep blue dye used for centuries for textiles. It’s a part of the pea family and the leaves are harvested, dried, and ground into a powder for use in textiles, arts, and as a natural hair colorant.
Is it safe?
Just like henna it’s all natural and just like henna it can have additives added to it that may make it less safe to use.
Why do naturals use indigo?
Most times it’s in conjunction with Henna to create a darker color eliminating the red color that Henna can give you. It was successfully used years ago as a way to dye hair but when synthetic products for dyeing became available the interest in using it died.
Both Henna* and Indigo can be messy and it takes quite a few hours to change the grays but the results seem positive, true and most are happy after using them. We have two videos below from Kimmaytube as she shows us how she uses Henna along with Indigo to successfully hide her grays.
Henna on Natural Hair
Kim Love (Kimmaytube) shows her process of applying henna to her patch of grays in the front of her hair only. She does not use Henna as a conditioning agent and hasn’t seen any texture changes. We love how she breaks it down quite easily and quickly on what she does, how she does it and her way of keeping it as mess-free as possible. This is a time-consuming process so you might need to dedicate some time to it.
Henna On Natural Hair Part 2
Here’s part two with the indigo application. I really like this video because you get a recap of the entire process as well some options on how to get the indigo darker and what others may be mixing with Indigo* to achieve different colors. Again, it’s a time-consuming process.
Kim Love gives a great two part series explaining the process, great pics on how it looks before and after and why she uses it. She had amazing results on covering her grays and as always we must continue to arm ourselves with the proper knowledge of what we plan on using on our tresses to keep them healthy, happy, and gray hair free.
Have you tried Henna* and Indigo and if so what were your results?
Ariane Smiley says
So 8 hours to color a small portion of her hair ???
Sabrina Perkins says
Yes, that is a lot of time into the process but it would be that long even if you did your whole head too.
Sabrina Richmond Perkins says
Yea, but it would have taken that long to do the whole head as well.
Ariane Smiley says
Not worth it! License cosmetologist 15yrs license Instructor 4 thx!
Lateaya Woodard says
Rasheda Stewart have you ever tried this?
Natasha Hector Richardson says
Henna ruined my hair.Never again ill grow old gracefully and rocking my grey’s.
James L. Mitchell says
Henna-vegetable base colors will coat and ruin your hair. Try it if you want too but a licensed professional has warned you!!
U'Dreinna Goshen says
I also mixed mine with additional ingredients I.e olive oil, castor oil, and fresh grapefruit juice instead of lemon
Sabrina Richmond Perkins says
How did it come out?
Jameka Jones says
Can you use just indigo, no henna? What color does your hair turn out if you do?
Jasmine Meyers-cooper says
chemical free way to dye your baby hairs Erica Childress
Marla Shepard says
I’ve been using henna and indigo for the last 6 months. It is very mess and time-consuming, but it works.
Sabrina Richmond Perkins says
It appears to work very well.
Lyndsay Donnelly says
My hair stylist tried this on my hair. We let stay on for 2 hours and the hair did not color.
Sabrina Richmond Perkins says
Oh wow. Maybe you needed more time.
James L. Mitchell says
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.
Sabrina Richmond Perkins says
Always gotta get the read stuff.
Jesslyn H says
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.
Corina Floyd says
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.
Connie Hale says
I love using Henna and Indigo!! It makes my hair stronger, covers my grays and loosen my curl pattern a bit.
Kelly White says
I wanna try henna
Eve Gamanya says
Me too…cam you use it if you don’t have grey hairs
Derek Clement says
Henna best choice all natural
Christine Sherman says
I used henna to try to cover grey hair, it didn’t work. Any suggestions why I was successful?
Tee-Tee Hines says
I did the same thing try it didn’t work for m either!!
Candice Coleman says
We could give this a try Stolen Moments ChildCare
Alicia Renne Caldwell says
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
LaTonia Thagard says
I should try this