Natural Hair Dyes without Chemicals

If your hair color is looking a little tarnished, color your hair with natural hair coloring dyes, including chamomile, sage, henna shrub and black walnut hulls.

By Robin Shepard
Published on March 1, 1982
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by Adobestock/NIKCOA

Commercial hair color products can damage your hair. To be safe, use natural hair dyes without chemicals. Color your hair with natural hair coloring dyes, including chamomile, sage, henna shrub and black walnut hulls.

Lots of people occasionally have the urge to change or enhance their hair color, but are unwilling to use the harsh and, in some cases, potentially harmful hair dying chemicals found in most commercial dyes and color rinses.

If you’re concerned about the hazards that hair color ingredients present, you’ll be glad to learn that you can achieve results similar to those possible with beauty shop products, quickly, inexpensively and safely. Just as men and women have done for thousands of years, you can change your basic hair color, put new highlights in your locks or naturally darken gray strands using natural hair colors.

How Natural Dyes Work

Although there are a few especially potent exceptions (such as henna and walnut hulls, both of which I’ll discuss later), most herbal dyes act progressively, that is, they should be used repetitively over a period of time until the desired shade is achieved. Furthermore, I don’t know of any herb that’ll actually serve as a bleach, but there are plant-based colorants that will highlight, darken, lighten or cover the gray in your hair.

Despite their versatility, however, herbal infusions cannot match the strength of commercial preparations, and, unless you decide to dye your curls black, an organic rinse won’t cover your hair’s present shade. The best idea is to simply enrich the natural color of your hair, so avoid trying to make drastic changes (such as turning blond tresses to a very deep shade or dyeing gray hair darker than it was originally). You should also keep in mind that herbal dyes aren’t permanent and will fade unless renewed occasionally.

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