Want To Colour Your Hair Sans The Chemicals? Natural Hair Dyes Is The Answer...

For those with blonde hair , natural hair dyes can be created using ingredients such as lemon juice, chamomile, calendula, marigold, saffron, sunflower and even rhubarb root (colours your hair a golden, honeyed tone), depending on the shade of blonde that you're looking for (lemon juice works brilliantly for the lighter shades while chamomile and calendula are known to work well for those having hair that is a darker shade of blonde). The method of making a natural hair dye from all of these ingredients is quite similar, except for lemon juice which only needs to be bottled in order to be used.

As for herbs such as chamomile, saffron and calendula, they need to be boiled in water for a while before allowing the mixture to cool and straining the brewed extract from it. After you've washed your hair, pour the brew over your hair again and again for at least 8-10 times and wait for about 15-20 minutes before washing your hair again (your natural hair dye will have done its job by then).

Ingredients such as tea and coffee and herbs such as rosemary, nettle, or sage can help you darken your greying hair strands, colouring them either brown or black (a jet black shade, however, is quite difficult to achieve). While the herbs can be used to create a natural hair dye using the method described above, dying your hair using coffee is done a bit differently.

First of all, you'll need some dark roasted beans of coffee, ground into powder. Using the coffee powder, make a strong cup of coffee (the strength of the coffee solution being in direct proportion to the darkness of the natural hair dye ). Mix the coffee solution with a leave-in hair conditioner in the ratio of 2:1 and leave it on your hair for about an hour, before rinsing it off. For a much darker, blackish shade, powdered walnut shells are known to work excellently as a natural hair dye (be careful with the walnuts though, since their stains are quite difficult to get rid of).

Depending on how red you want your hair to look (from a scale of reddish orange to a deep crimson red), the juice of both carrots (for a reddish-orange shade) and beetroots (for a deep red shade) can be used to create a natural hair dye.

Just mix the juice with a certain carrier oil (like that of coconut or olive) and let the mixture sit on your hair for about an hour, before rinsing it off (preferably with a solution of apple cider vinegar ). Tomato juice, when applied to your hair for about half an hour, can also give your hair a nice reddish shade. Even herbs, fruits and flowers such as rosehips, hibiscus, and calendula can help you create a natural hair dye that colours your hair a shade of red . Henna is another ingredient (and also perhaps the most popular one in this list) that is used as a natural hair dye. Depending on your original hair colour, henna can help your hair achieve either a reddish-orange tone or a much darker one (for the brunettes). Letting the mixture of henna powder , lemon juice and a spoonful of vinegar for about six hours really brings out the colour of the dye. After applying it to the hair, keep it on for a couple of hours before rinsing it off. This one certainly is a tried and tested recipe! Ways to make your natural hair dye last longer:

• Reduce the use of heat styling tools like straighteners, curling iron and hairdryer.
• Apply a heat protection spray before using heat styling tools
• Avoid washing hair every day, when you do take a shower with lukewarm or cold water
• Stay away from swimming pools and other places that have chlorinated water.