Sage and Rosemary powder to cover greys

[KD]

I tried to search for this topic, but I'm not really that good at searching. Sorry if this has been posted. I came across this article from this site http://www.surviving-hairloss.com/Natural_Hair_Dye.html

Covering Gray Hair with Sage

Sage is a wonder herb and it was once recommended for treating all sorts of ailments. It's said sage contains great medicinal qualities that aids healing, has a very sweet aroma and help eases breathing. Another wonderful thing is it also helps returns your natural hair color.




Another viable natural hair dye besides using henna for covering your gray hair is to use a combination of sage and other herbs like rosemary for darker colored hair or chamomile for light colored hair. It doesn’t cover your gray hairs immediately but regular use can slowly bring back your hair’s original colors. Here’s an example on how you can use sage and rosemary to cover your hair.
Get some powdered sage and rosemary or chamomile. You can get it really cheap from markets and Chinatown.
Put in 4-5 tablespoons of sage into a pot of hot water.
Add in 2 tablespoons of rosemary powder for darker color or chamomile for light colored hair.
Simmer the mixture for around 30 minutes until the color turns like dark tea.
Strain the tea and the keep in a bottle spray and refrigerate until use.
Before washing your hair, spray the mixture from the scalp surface to the top of the gray hairs.
Leave it on for 15 minutes and then wash as per usual.After a few weeks of daily application, you should notice that your gray hairs will slowly darken. Continue using until you get the right shade that you want.
This way, you can cover your gray hairs and also leave it smelling nice and good all day! Rosemary and Chamomile can also repair and condition your hair leaving it healthy and shiny.
Has anyone tried this or have any luck covering greys in this way?

[kdaniels8811]

Sounds very interesting! I will be watching to see if anyone has experience with this method. We have lots of knowledgeable folks here.

[ChloeDharma]

I used to use rosemary rinses whenever my scalp played up as it always fixed it straight away. I did notice a little darkening with it when i used it regularly. I've not tried mixing it with sage for staining but i do know that combination is an old one that appears in many herbalism books. They are also considered good for enhancing growth so, bonus :D

[mellie]

I tried doing sage and rosemary strong tea infusions every day for my grays. Didn't do a durn thing, unfortunately, and was a pain in the butt to do every day. Also I didn't care for the Thanksgiving stuffing smell it gave my hair... :D

[KD]

I've done a bit more reading on it and I think once I get some more money I might try it. One website said that it takes applications at least three times a week and the effects might not show up for a month. It might be worth it though since I don't have a lot of greys, it is just where they are that is a pain (they are clustered in the front)

[ChloeDharma]

I've done a bit more reading on it and I think once I get some more money I might try it. One website said that it takes applications at least three times a week and the effects might not show up for a month. It might be worth it though since I don't have a lot of greys, it is just where they are that is a pain (they are clustered in the front)

If you want to use this regularly my advice would be to buy a plant, i got one years ago when it was tiny and now it's a huge bush kind of taking over the outside of my flat. It would be much cheaper, well....free really once you've brought the plant.
Good luck with it :)

[sorraia]

I've been using the Sage and Rosemary (with a hint of PEO Lavender) spritz
for about 3 weeks now. Up until yesterday there was very little if any color change.

I used the tea every day for the first two weeks and then backed off to using it only a couple of times this past week.
Yesterday I decided to do a deep Ayurvedic color treatment incorporating herbs, blk walnut hull and conditioners geared to darken the hair. ( No henna) It was an all day process. Actually I started the night before with a conditioning oil and followed in the morning with a pre -coconut hair bath. Anyway after applying the Ayurvedic treatment and letting that set for 4 hours ( and no color change) I decided to do a dark hair tea rinse using Spotted Cows process( using potato skin water). That didn't really make it much darker maybe a tad more and I could still see the grays. So then I decided to do my own high powered blk walnut hull / tea/coffee rinse that I had left over from the Ayurvedic herb powder blend. I ended this beauty treatment by applying a sample of John Masters Organics honey and hibiscus hair reconstructor to counteract any drying the herbs may have caused. I also used Mellie's Soapnut shampoo a couple of days prior to all of this and plan to only use this as my shampoo for a while.

I have not styled my hair yet and it is still damp but right now it feels very very soft and is definitely darker.
I was really concerned that my hair would turn to dark because instead of adding water to the ayurvedic powders I added a super dark tea blend that I mentioned above.
Today I can tell you all of my grays have all turned golden and my hair darker hair has turned a shade darker.
I plan to do another rinse tonight and probably every day until I get the desired deep rich color that I am looking for.
( I may end up missing my shiny grays) It's been so long since I have seen myself without them not sure how I am going to like it.

[physicschick]

Some people had good results from doing a rinse with rosemary and other darkening herbs after each wash. It eventually built up on their grays. I didn't get any color change despite trying for months. My hair is very dye-resistant.

[SimplyLonghair]

I have these plants and would like to use them for other reason than dye, but do you think that it could make my red a lot darker?

My DD did a few rinses and there was some darkening on hers, but her red is more toward the auburn shades anyway.

Has anyone tried just on the scalp? Is that even possible unless you are using oils?
TIA:D

[ChloeDharma]

I have these plants and would like to use them for other reason than dye, but do you think that it could make my red a lot darker?

My DD did a few rinses and there was some darkening on hers, but her red is more toward the auburn shades anyway.

Has anyone tried just on the scalp? Is that even possible unless you are using oils?
TIA:D

The darkening was the reason i stopped doing them regularly as i wanted my henna to be as red and bright as possible. I substitute the essential oil for the infusion for that reason but i don't find it clears my scalp up as well as the infusion does if i get scalp ickyness.
I'm thinking you could use it just on your scalp by using the infusion like a tonic and applying it with cotton wool parting the hair in sections to get to the scalp.....i actually keep meaning to do this with rooibos for it's growth stimulation properties.

Just a thought, maybe oiling your length then rinsing the scalp might protect the hair from being stained, although over time that hair near the scalp would grow out possibly darker but that's the same risk that you would have using it as a tonic.

[Jyot]

Hi

I have tried this method at least 3-4 times,it does not seem to work for me.

[physicschick]

Hi

I have tried this method at least 3-4 times,it does not seem to work for me.

Some people for whom it did work needed to repeat it many times over a couple months for the color to build up.

[wahmof9]

This is fascinating.....I am very curious!

[Moonstruck]

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=2
^ Nightshade's article, with pictures, of using herbs to color hair. If you notice, those were the results after an HOUR. Depending on how porous and easy to dye your hair is, even that amount of color might not be uptaken. Rosemary's not on there, but... it can give you a pretty good idea.

So as physicschick and others mentioned, it's going to need to be a repeated process that really noticeably darkens greys. It's worth doing, if nothing for the conditioning effects, IMO. You could always try adding a bit to your conditioner and see if that bothers you at all (and if not, dump it in, haha!). And if you ever do deep treatments or anything where something sits on your head for a while, I can't imagine the addition of rosemary and sage to really hurt.

[physicschick]

See this (http://archive.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=23096) old thread on the archive for some people's experiences with herbal tea rinses. I haven't kept up with what people have observed lately, since I gave up following the topic after it didn't work for me.

[ktani]

Sage has some safety concerns associated with it, used in quantity. Skin absorption to me is always a consideration, when people are experimenting with natural products (most conventional products contain ingredients that have been regulated, in terms of safety, and the quantity to be used in a formulation). There have been reports here of people having internal use side effects, with the external use of some plants, including cassia or senna.

Sage safety
".... can be toxic when used in excess or when taken for extended periods ...."
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Salvia+officinalis

"European Medicines Agency Evaluation of Medicines for Human Use" on sage, 2009
http://www.emea.europa.eu/pdfs/human/hmpc/salviae_folium/33165308en.pdf

Information on rosemary
http://www.drugs.com/npp/rosemary.html