Dyeing over grey naturally?

[Nellon]

Hi all you lovely, wise fellow long hair lovers!
I now turn to the collected wisdom of LHC for advice for a friend (of whom I am the unpaid, official hair stylist) :D

My friend has cool toned medium/dark brown (lovely curly) hair which is turning grey and would like to dye over it but not use any unhealthy chemical hairdye.

We tried henna which looked good on hair, but it clashes somewhat with (cool toned) skin. Yup.

Is there any other more natural alternative or at least not overly harsh chemical dye? Any advice/wisdom/experience?
Ideally it would look natural and close to the original hair colour (before going grey).

Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you! :love:

[bunneh.]

I'm no expert, but I guess you could mix henna and indigo to get a darker, browner colour...

[Nellon]

Thank you for replying. I've been saying that too, but then my friend goes "I don't want black hair!"

But perhaps it is the way to go... Would you know the right ratio henna/indigo to try with?

Hoping for more replies and shared LHC wisdom :)

[Sarahlabyrinth]

I guess that might be hard to calculate without seeing the hair in question.

[Nellon]

I think that's a good point! I don't have any pictures though.

But medium brown, as cool as possible, would be the description I think fit the closest.

Basically, how do I avoid it being too dark/black? I heard that if you want it black you do henna first, then indigo.
So if you take fex 70% henna and 30% indigo and leave it on for half an hour to an hour it wouldn't go black perhaps?
I never really did this before, only henna! :)

[Arctic]

Strand testing!!! That's the only way to know how it will look.

Also remember both henna and indigo are more or less permanent, and if indigo is being used, there should be no bleach touching the indigoed hair untill it grows out/is cut out, because bleach makes indigoed hair turn green. Most (I think???) box dyes and possibly salon colours wouldn't be suitable to try after indigo.

[Nellon]

Right. Strand testing. The boring but nessecary part ;) Very true indeed.

And thanks for the reminder about indigo and bleach/chemical colour. I was aware of it, but always good to be reminded!

*Off to order indigo* This should be fun... :stirpot:

[lapushka]

I would go with a "regular" semi-permanent dye. Yes, chemical. It is just *too* hard to get henna/indigo just right, especially if you want cool tones. Henna/indigo is warm, and will always be warm. So basically you want something that you can't have.

If however you already used indigo, you can't do chemical (anything with a developer) as it will turn the hair *green*.

[Nellon]

Yes, I know lapushka. It's the common human predicament isn't it? We always want what we can't have :) So which colour would you recommend that's less harsh on hair and body? Thanks!

[lapushka]

Yes, I know lapushka. It's the common human predicament isn't it? We always want what we can't have :) So which colour would you recommend that's less harsh on hair and body? Thanks!

Well, I used to have a brand called "Indola" and I used their semi-permanents, it's readily available in the EU, at least where I live. It was great, covered up the gray and evened out my hair (I was growing out dye). I used a dark ash blonde - awesome!

[hennalonghair]

I agree that if you don't like reddish tones I'd stay away from henna / indigo because indigo can fade very quickly leaving you with the reddish warm tones. Indigo is very fickle and doesn't play well with many other products.
I'm very grey and have done the henna / indigo / hibiscus root and if I were to do it all over again I'd go with manic panic or directions. They aren't naturally looking colours but they fade out easily or even a natural colour semi.

[missrandie]

I wonder if there are veggie dyes like manic panic, but in natural hair colors? :hmm: There may be.

[Nellon]

Well, I used to have a brand called "Indola" and I used their semi-permanents, it's readily available in the EU, at least where I live. It was great, covered up the gray and evened out my hair (I was growing out dye). I used a dark ash blonde - awesome!

Thanks! I wrote it down and will look into it!

[Nellon]

I agree that if you don't like reddish tones I'd stay away from henna / indigo because indigo can fade very quickly leaving you with the reddish warm tones. Indigo is very fickle and doesn't play well with many other products.
I'm very grey and have done the henna / indigo / hibiscus root and if I were to do it all over again I'd go with manic panic or directions. They aren't naturally looking colours but they fade out easily or even a natural colour semi.

Hrmm... Yup, that's another choice. But when I tried the Directions hairdye it faded very very quickly on untreated hair.

Why would you do it differently this time, if I may ask? Didn't you like the outcome of indigo/henna?

[Nellon]

I wonder if there are veggie dyes like manic panic, but in natural hair colors? :hmm: There may be.

Yes, maybe? I've never seen them though, only pink, green, purple, etc :)

Maybe some kind of non permanent veggie dye would be an option? But I don't know how well they would last on untreated hair...

[Nellon]

So so far three options... Henndigo (with thorough strand testing), semi permanent or a veggie dye.....

Keep them coming folks! :)

I do appreciate all the input so much.

[missrandie]

Yes, maybe? I've never seen them though, only pink, green, purple, etc :)

Maybe some kind of non permanent veggie dye would be an option? But I don't know how well they would last on untreated hair...

From what I have seen of veggie dyes, they can be very very tenacious, even on untreated hair. Also, if you think about it, the fade process will help blend in lines from root touch ups :)

Let me do a little interweb surfing to see what I can find in the way of dyes. And resist their allure.

[Arctic]

I was positive Manic Panic had some natural looking colours (like browns) few years ago, but couldn't find a trace anymore.

You can always mix, however, the veggie dye colours to make brown. Yep it would be messy and difficult. But possible.

I personally couldn't even consider having manic panic type dye on long term usage. They fade fast (although sometimes leave a lingering colour for months and months), are messy to use (both to you as a person and to your bathroom), can bleed and rub off on things... not really an "adult" (with lack of better word, I mean classy, sophisticated, more suitable for teenagers) type of hair dye.

Which reminds me, how about Elumen?

[Nellon]

From what I have seen of veggie dyes, they can be very very tenacious, even on untreated hair. Also, if you think about it, the fade process will help blend in lines from root touch ups :)

Let me do a little interweb surfing to see what I can find in the way of dyes. And resist their allure.

Yes, please! Thanks so much!!

[Nellon]

I was positive Manic Panic had some natural looking colours (like browns) few years ago, but couldn't find a trace anymore.

You can always mix, however, the veggie dye colours to make brown. Yep it would be messy and difficult. But possible.

I personally couldn't even consider having manic panic type dye on long term usage. They fade fast (although sometimes leave a lingering colour for months and months), are messy to use (both to you as a person and to your bathroom), can bleed and rub off on things... not really an "adult" (with lack of better word, I mean classy, sophisticated, more suitable for teenagers) type of hair dye.

Which reminds me, how about Elumen?

Hrmm... Yes, this was my thought too. But I guess they fade differently on different people? If I found the right colour veggie dye we could always give it a go and see I guess?

Elumen... I'll check it out. Never really heard of it or used it...

[Nellon]

Seems like Elumen could be a good choice :) But I can't find anyplace online to buy it in Sweden. Perhaps Amazon?

[missrandie]

So I found one called Herbatint, and they have true semipermanents as well as permanents with 3% peroxide. While a little pricey, they look promising :)

[Nellon]

So I found one called Herbatint, and they have true semipermanents as well as permanents with 3% peroxide. While a little pricey, they look promising :)

Interesting! I'll have a look at that. Thank you!

[jeanniet]

Elumen. Covers gray really well, non-damaging. They may have a European version of it, not sure on that. But it does work very well.

[missrandie]

Apparently Goldwell Elumen has a Swedish website too, and you can contact a representative to see if you can buy it near you :) It looks cool! I'm glad we can help.

[Nellon]

Ok, so these both options, the Herbatint and Elumen seem to be EXACTLY what we're looking for. You guys really are so so kind and helpful. I know for a fact that finding a good solution will make my friend really happy and help give some more joy and self confidence.

I'll look for someone to sell me the Elumen. Once again, huge huge thanks to everyone! Can't wait to ask tell my friend about what you all said :) There might be pictures, but I'm not promising anything :)

:blossom: :heartbeat

[hennalonghair]

Hrmm... Yup, that's another choice. But when I tried the Directions hairdye it faded very very quickly on untreated hair.

Why would you do it differently this time, if I may ask? Didn't you like the outcome of indigo/henna?
I love the colour of henna but over silvers with no pigment the colour is pumpkin Orange. If I added indigo to make it brown it lasted for about two washes then get a murky hennaed colour.
I'd do it over because while the colours wash out you don't get a demarcation line . I'm growing out my greys and it's difficult.

Theres something I saw yesterday that you might be interested in.
I've got to find it but I'll edit and at a link if I do.

[hennalonghair]

I've used herbaltint before but I've never used this before but I see someone already mentioned it
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003BQJA5G?vs=1

Also if you order herbaltint henna red the chance of you getting burgundy is very high. They seemed to have screwed up the labelling on these and never did a recall. I called them about it several times but they don't wish to take responsibility for their actions.

[Eiderduck]

Hi
I use Daniel Field Mail Order dyes - they dye darker but have no peroxide so don't bleach lighter. You mix the powder with water, shake then apply the foam to the hair. No tingle, no smell, nice depth of colour, minimum dye run off afterwards.

[Gaelic Girl]

I started using Aubrey Organics in August 2014 to cover greys. It is supposed to be organic so that part really appealed to me. I do a coconut oiling of the ends either a few hours before or the night before I use the henna. The first few times I used lemon as I was told it makes the colour adhere better. I had lovely brown/red/caramel highlights all around my temple and bangs that were the greys and it looked pretty natural but I wanted all my hair to be dark. Last year I accidentally fell asleep with the henna on....13 hours!!! BUT you know what? It covered ALL the greys and ALL of my hair was my dark brown!!!! It didn't hurt my hair either and I have been doing this since June 2015 every 4 weeks with great success.