Finding natural alternatives to hair dye is important to me.
If you’re anything like me, you value a bit of me time. When I get a chance to step away from family life for a second and do something for me, I take it. I don’t need to be asked twice.
One thing I love to do for myself is to dye my hair. It's a great way to make me feel like I'm still relevant in today's society and just because I have kids doesn't mean I can't look like a badass twenty-something.
Because I’m all about the home remedies, the next time I set out to dye my hair I wanted to find natural alternatives to hair dye. Hair dye is poisonous – there’s no end to the chemicals in most popular brands of hair dye.
I could go on and on about why it's terrible, but here are a couple of examples for you:
Quaernium-15: sounds complicated – and it is. This chemical found in hair dyes will release formaldehyde, a well-known carcinogen.
Alkylphenol ethoxylates: known to disrupt your hormones.
Phenylenediamine: another long, confusing chemical. This one is known to be irritating to the skin, as well as incredibly bad for the environment.
Even these three are enough for me to hunt down natural alternatives to hair dye. I mean, if I can have my cake and eat it too, why wouldn’t I? Let’s get into it.
1. Coffee
If you’re looking to go darker or are trying to hide those pesky grey hairs that keep cropping up with every new tantrum, try coffee.
To use coffee as a natural alternative to hair dye, just brew a cup – espresso works the best – then let it rest. Once it's cooled down, mix it with a leave-in conditioner along with an additional 2 tablespoons of coffee grounds.
Apply your concoction to clean hair and leave it to sit for roughly an hour. If you use apple cider vinegar to rinse it out, the color will stay in for longer.
My favorite hair dying coffee is Equal Exchange organic coffee which you can get here.
2. Tea
Similar to coffee, tea is a great natural alternative to hair dye – and it can make you go darker, too. Because there are so many different types of tea out there, you can actually get creative depending on what you want to do.
Chamomile works great if you’re blonde and want to go blonder, while rooibos can work for redheads.
Make sure the tea is highly concentrated, and leave it in for as long as possible. I use 3-5 tea bags in two cups of water. Sometimes, depending on how much I want to dye my hair, I leave the tea in overnight.
My favorite chamomile brand is Celestial Seasonings.
3. Beet and Carrot Juice
As you may have already guessed, beet and carrot juice are great natural alternatives to hair dye because they can add natural red tints to your hair color.
If you want it to be redder, use beets – for orange, go for the carrot. Hair dying with carrot or beet juice is easy – just add a cup of either juice into your hair and let it sit.
Leave the juice sitting in your hair for at least an hour. Rinse the juice out once you’re satisfied, and seal the deal with an apple cider vinegar spray.
4. Henna
Henna is one of the oldest natural alternatives to hair dye. It's been used for centuries to dye hair. The powdered form comes from the leaves of the henna plant and is the easiest to use when dying your hair.
Natural henna will create a red-orange color. This means that if you see a henna product that produces a different color, it’s been mixed with other ingredients.
I recommend mixing a small amount of chamomile into the mix if you don’t want your hair to come out looking too orange.
To make your henna hair dye, mix one cup of henna powder with two cups of lemon juice. You can even include a tablespoon of vinegar – this can help to release the color.
I’ve found the The Henna Guys to be the best brand for hair dying.
5. Lemon Juice
Looking to lighten your hair or put a few highlights through? Lemon juice is an impressive natural alternative to hair dye because it's a slow releasing lightening hair dye.
You'll need to apply several rinses of lemon juice because it takes a while for the results to appear. This natural hair dye alternative works best in the summertime – if you sit in the sun, you'll accelerate the hair dying process.
With all these brilliant natural alternatives to hair dye, there’s no need for you to go anywhere near a commercial brand of hair dye ever again.
What I love most about these natural options is that they’re easy to apply. With regular hair dye, you need five application tools just to get the job done. With the likes of chamomile and lemon juice, you can create your very own home remedy hair dye in a matter of minutes.
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Which natural alternative to hair dye do you think will work best on your hair? Let me know!