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Natural Hair Coloring
Herb, Fruit & Vegetable Rinses for Color and Highlights
These rinses work over a period of time to subtlety color and add highlights to the hair. First wash and rinse hair, then pour any of these rinses over the hair 15 times catching the excess in a bowl or the bathroom basin as it runs off the hair, then pouring it over the hair again.
For Brunettes
1) Cook an unpeeled potato in boiling water. Cool slightly. Dip a pastry brush or cotton ball in the cooking water, cover and saturate hair, being careful not to get any on skin. Leave on hair for 20 minutes then rinse out.
2) Make an strong infusion of any of the following herbs and teas then use as a rinse:
Rosemary
Sage
Raspberry leaves
Parsley
Ivy Berries
Catnip
Black coffee
Black Tea (for chestnut highlights).
For Blondes
1) Marigold gives golden highlights to light hair and brings out red and gold highlights in light brown and red hair. Saffron, turmeric, calendula, mullein, privet and yellow broom in addition to any yellow blossomed herb or flower also add color and highlights for blondes.
2) Rinse hair with a solution of 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to one gallon of water after shampooing.
3) To restore hair that was once blonde, mix 10 grams of licorice root with 10 grams of oat straw, add a pinch of saffron. Cover with water and boil to make an infusion. Strain and use a s a rinse after shampooing. It should be allowed to soak into the hair and NOT rinsed out.
4) To bring out highlights and lighten blonde hair, steep 1/2 cup of chamomile tea in one quart of boiling water . Strain and cool slightly. Shampoo hair until oil free, then rinse with the tea infusion.
5) Add 4 tablespoons of chopped rhubarb to 3 cups of hot water, simmer for 15 minutes. Strain, cool, then use as a rinse after shampooing.
For Redheads
1) Use strong black coffee as a final rinse
2) Use a strong rosehips tea
3) Make a decoction of red hibiscus tea, use as a rinse
4) Make a rinse from calendula
5) Use an infusion of saffron for a rinse.
For Grey Hair
1) Potatoes: Boil potato peels in water, strain, and cool. Use the strained water as an after-shampoo rinse to darken grey hair
2) Sage covers the grey when used consistently over a period of time. Simmer 1/2 cup dried sage in 2 cups of water for 30 minutes. Steep for 2-3 hours. Strain, use as rinse on clean hair. Leave on until hair has dried, then rinse out.
3) Mix 1 oz. sage, 1 oz.. rosemary and 1 pint of water. Simmer for 30 minutes and strain. Massage into the scalp and grey hair.
4) Mix 1 tablespoon of apple-cider vinegar with one gallon of warm water, use as final rinse.
5) Use an infusion of hollyhock (blue-purple flowers) to remove the yellow cast from grey hair.
6) Use betony as a rinse to cover yellow in grey hair.
For All Hair Colors
Make an infusion of any of the following for color, conditioning, highlights and shine:
Catnip: Make a rinse of catnip and water to promote hair growth and shine.
Nettle
Parsley
Rosemary: good as a hair tonic for thinning hair and dandruff and to stimulate hair growth.
Thyme: makes a great stimulating shampoo.
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Try dissolving a teaspoon of gelatin in a cup of warm water and use this as a setting lotion before styling hair. You can use this as a liquid or chill it and use it as a gel.
