rinses to color hair?

[mommy2one05]

I have really tried accepting my hair being two toned but it's hard. SO i am trying to avoid doing any more chemical hair dyes so what should I do. My hair has some light brown and a bit darker brown, and it always pulls red tones..whether I colored darker or lighter. I have been reading about tea, coffee, tomato, and other type of juices, rinses but do these work...do they color or just enhance your current color...are they a gradual change or drastic? I have also seen commercial shampoo and conditioner for differnet hair colors so they just enhance the current color? Really confused and dont know what to do. When I was going to do a tomato juice rinse my husband was afraid I would really get screwed up hair so that's why I am waiting.

[Elenna]

Well, the brown rinses (teas, coffee, molasses, etc) do coat your hair. These are gradual changes.

Before LHC went down, I recall reading about a honey and tomato mix to LIGHTEN hair!

As for commercial brown hair dyes, I'm growing mine out because of the upkeep and expense.

If you mean the shampoos with coloring agents in them, I think that these enhance your current hair color.

[mellie]

I did tea rinses for quite a while. They will stain your hair slightly, but they are temporary and will wash out each time you shampoo. They're not dyes, so it's not drastic by any means. There's some photos of mine in this thread:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=631

What color would you like to get?

[mommy2one05]

I have always had my hair naturally pull reds and for the longest time I always fought against them and even hated it but now I think I would like to help my hair pull the red tones more.

[mellie]

A hibiscus rinse produced red for me (after a honey lightening treatment):

Before:
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=423&pictureid=9743

After:http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=423&pictureid=9751

[mommy2one05]

mellie: Very pretty....so first you have to do a honey lightening ( and why do you do that first and what does it consist of) and then you use hibiscus ( what does it consist of and where do you find it)? THANKS!!

[mellie]

Thanks! Actually the red color was an accident. I had just done a honey treatment and wanted some extra conditioning, so I did a hibiscus rinse. Then I realized hibiscus stains red!

So, first I lightened with honey. You can find my honey treatment here ("Mellie's Mix"):

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=148&page=26

Then the hibiscus rinse was approx. 1 c. boiling water poured over a small tea ball full of hibiscus petals, and left to steep until cool. The mixture turned really dark purple/red, almost black. (BTW, I found the hibiscus petals in the bulk section of my herb store - you could try a health food store). Then I poured it through my hair (be careful because it stains everything it touches purple!).