TheSpottedCow
April 3rd, 2008, 10:58 PM
Edited to include pics!
Hi guys... I'm not sure if something just like this has been posted before, but here goes...
Today I decided to try an herbal dye on my hair, going off of Nightshade's article. Originally, I wanted to try the walnut hull dye because it sounded to be the most effective. I scoured my area for walnut hull powder or walnut hulls... or walnuts. However, all I found was a health food store that was out of stock on walnut hulls/powder, and already shelled walnuts at the store. So I decided to make a dye out of what I had here at home, modeling it after a few dyes listed (the sage and the potato rinse) with a few other herbs in it to encourage darkness.
I have medium brown hair, which was fading on the lengths and ends to a more coppery brown. I want dark brown hair, but also, I wanted to at least cover the coppery color and restore it to my original color.
Overall, I'd say this dye darkened my hair 1-2 shades (my boyfriend says it's more like 2-3. i like to make a conservative estimate). It is also extremely soft.
Because this is a new experiment for me I don't have exact measurements, but I'll do my best to estimate. Also, some of these herbs were brewed separately, but that was mostly because of a lack of proper strainers and proper tea ball thingies (i had one that goes over a cup but does not seal over the top, so I couldn't put it into the pot)... Anyway, I can't see any reason why they can't all be brewed together. I'm going to write it the way I did it though.
Ingredients:
Potatoes (unpeeled)
Sage
Parsley
Rosemary
Molasses
First I boiled two small potatoes in a small pot. The pot probably doesn't hold more than 5 cups of water, maybe six. I put the two small potatoes in and put enough water in to cover them, and then boiled. I left them in for over 1/2 an hour. Mostly because I was unsure of how long to boil them, and also, I boiled them until they stopped making the water look darker. It was kindof a dark, but clear golden color. I only boiled them alone first because I was unsure of how long they should be in.
I brewed a tea using parsley separate, and used that to replace the water as it boiled off, so that the potatoes remained covered with water.
I made a makeshift teabag for ground/powdered sage out of a coffee filter, and in that I put about a heaping teaspoon of the sage in it.
I put that into the boiling water, after removing the potatoes, with two rosemary teabags, and boiled them until the water turned dark brown and about 50% opaque, and I did add a little extra water a few times as it boiled away. This took over 1/2 hour. Once I was satisfied with the amount of dye that appeared to come out, I allowed the water to boil off until there was only 2-3 cups left. I cooled that off and kept dunking and squeezing the teabags, which made the water darker and also more opaque. Finally, while it was still warm I added Molasses. I added a significant amount, probably like 5 tablespoons worth. After mixing the dye was now black, and completely opaque.
I did add a bit of conditioner, which proved to be a mistake, because it did not want to dissolve in the water until I placed it back over the stove, but it was still lumpy and caused weird little "crumb" like particles to form in the dye... But they didn't cause a problem when I used it. It just was annoying and I will not use conditioner again.
When I put it in my hair I poured it through, and dunked my head in the bowl, and just did whatever it took to fully saturate my hair, and left it on for a half hour, in addition to the 20 minutes it took just to fully cover my hair.
The dye was pretty ashy, and gave my hair a good neutral tone over the slight copper tint I had.
I rinsed it out, then conditioned with VO5 SKR, and followed with a ACV rinse which I did not rinse out.
Anyway, sorry this was so long... And sorry if someone else has already posted something just like this, haha. I just thought I would share that I had really good results with this.
Since I did this today I cant comment on how much it fades, however, it did not bleed into my turban towel after washing.
I'll try to get some pictures up.
Edit!
I have the pictures now.
Before:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b107/2dana4/b7bfa6eb.jpg
And after:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b107/2dana4/8e454286.jpg
As you can see, they were taking in the same room infront of the same natural light from the window. Infact, I think it is brighter out today (for the after picture) than it was for the before picture, really showing the amount my hair has darkened.
Hi guys... I'm not sure if something just like this has been posted before, but here goes...
Today I decided to try an herbal dye on my hair, going off of Nightshade's article. Originally, I wanted to try the walnut hull dye because it sounded to be the most effective. I scoured my area for walnut hull powder or walnut hulls... or walnuts. However, all I found was a health food store that was out of stock on walnut hulls/powder, and already shelled walnuts at the store. So I decided to make a dye out of what I had here at home, modeling it after a few dyes listed (the sage and the potato rinse) with a few other herbs in it to encourage darkness.
I have medium brown hair, which was fading on the lengths and ends to a more coppery brown. I want dark brown hair, but also, I wanted to at least cover the coppery color and restore it to my original color.
Overall, I'd say this dye darkened my hair 1-2 shades (my boyfriend says it's more like 2-3. i like to make a conservative estimate). It is also extremely soft.
Because this is a new experiment for me I don't have exact measurements, but I'll do my best to estimate. Also, some of these herbs were brewed separately, but that was mostly because of a lack of proper strainers and proper tea ball thingies (i had one that goes over a cup but does not seal over the top, so I couldn't put it into the pot)... Anyway, I can't see any reason why they can't all be brewed together. I'm going to write it the way I did it though.
Ingredients:
Potatoes (unpeeled)
Sage
Parsley
Rosemary
Molasses
First I boiled two small potatoes in a small pot. The pot probably doesn't hold more than 5 cups of water, maybe six. I put the two small potatoes in and put enough water in to cover them, and then boiled. I left them in for over 1/2 an hour. Mostly because I was unsure of how long to boil them, and also, I boiled them until they stopped making the water look darker. It was kindof a dark, but clear golden color. I only boiled them alone first because I was unsure of how long they should be in.
I brewed a tea using parsley separate, and used that to replace the water as it boiled off, so that the potatoes remained covered with water.
I made a makeshift teabag for ground/powdered sage out of a coffee filter, and in that I put about a heaping teaspoon of the sage in it.
I put that into the boiling water, after removing the potatoes, with two rosemary teabags, and boiled them until the water turned dark brown and about 50% opaque, and I did add a little extra water a few times as it boiled away. This took over 1/2 hour. Once I was satisfied with the amount of dye that appeared to come out, I allowed the water to boil off until there was only 2-3 cups left. I cooled that off and kept dunking and squeezing the teabags, which made the water darker and also more opaque. Finally, while it was still warm I added Molasses. I added a significant amount, probably like 5 tablespoons worth. After mixing the dye was now black, and completely opaque.
I did add a bit of conditioner, which proved to be a mistake, because it did not want to dissolve in the water until I placed it back over the stove, but it was still lumpy and caused weird little "crumb" like particles to form in the dye... But they didn't cause a problem when I used it. It just was annoying and I will not use conditioner again.
When I put it in my hair I poured it through, and dunked my head in the bowl, and just did whatever it took to fully saturate my hair, and left it on for a half hour, in addition to the 20 minutes it took just to fully cover my hair.
The dye was pretty ashy, and gave my hair a good neutral tone over the slight copper tint I had.
I rinsed it out, then conditioned with VO5 SKR, and followed with a ACV rinse which I did not rinse out.
Anyway, sorry this was so long... And sorry if someone else has already posted something just like this, haha. I just thought I would share that I had really good results with this.
Since I did this today I cant comment on how much it fades, however, it did not bleed into my turban towel after washing.
I'll try to get some pictures up.
Edit!
I have the pictures now.
Before:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b107/2dana4/b7bfa6eb.jpg
And after:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b107/2dana4/8e454286.jpg
As you can see, they were taking in the same room infront of the same natural light from the window. Infact, I think it is brighter out today (for the after picture) than it was for the before picture, really showing the amount my hair has darkened.