Natural ways to tint/highlight

[amoulixes]

I've been thinking about adding just a tiny bit of color to my hair, like barely noticeable highlights and only to the top layer. I'm wondering what kinds of things I can do to achieve this, naturally of course! Things like fruits and vegetables that stain, or just the smallest amount of henna.

My goal is to add just a little bit more of a red color. I wonder if I can do something like a henna gloss? My understanding is that it's used to freshen up the color, so what happens when you use it without having henna-ed?

[RocketDog]

There are quite a few members here that have done henna glosses for the same reason - conditioning and just a tidge of red. If you're considering doing a gloss, make sure you do some good swatch tests first, since even a little henna will more than likely be permanent, and can make future chemical coloring turn out kinda funky. Hopefully one of the members who has done a gloss will chime in with their results - I skipped the glosses and went for full-head applications ;)

[amoulixes]

There are quite a few members here that have done henna glosses for the same reason - conditioning and just a tidge of red. If you're considering doing a gloss, make sure you do some good swatch tests first, since even a little henna will more than likely be permanent, and can make future chemical coloring turn out kinda funky. Hopefully one of the members who has done a gloss will chime in with their results - I skipped the glosses and went for full-head applications ;)

Thanks a lot. I had a hunch... and believe me, I would totally take the plunge, but I know I would regret it so I'm being a good girl. I figured I could live with and maintain highlights...I'm worried that it's just going to push me into those full-head applications! :p

[rogue_psyche]

You can get subtle lightening with honey. Apply it in streaks if you want highlights. Apparently being in the sun while the honey is doing its thing helps. Here's the honey thread: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=148

[ktani]

High heat can damage and destroy the enzyme in honey that generates hydrogen peroxide, See #5, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=134083&postcount=1096.

Hydrogen peroxide can be damaged and destroyed by UV and heat. Conventional hydrogen peroxide has stabilizers added to it, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=392235&postcount=3063.

[amaiaisabella]

And here I thought you were going to stay away from color :p

I (personally) got a lot more color from my henna gloss than most members have reported. YMMV. I would try henna gloss streaks, or highlights, before slopping it all over your head. Or you can go the honey lightening route, as posters have mentioned, and ktani's an expert on that (and very patient in answering endless questions!)

[amoulixes]

Thanks for the honey suggestions, but I've got plenty of gold in my hair! I guess I shouldn't have used the term highlight. I am really looking to do a shade of red. I've been eyeing this can of beets...

Henna gloss might be the way to go then, or maybe nothing at all.

[ktani]

Thanks for the honey suggestions, but I've got plenty of gold in my hair! I guess I shouldn't have used the term highlight. I am really looking to do a shade of red. I've been eyeing this can of beets...

Henna gloss might be the way to go then, or maybe nothing at all.

Natural ways to get more red tones in hair without the comittment.
1. acv (apple cider vinegar). It has been reported to add red tones to hair. Try organic acv with the mother in it.

2. cassia senna (obovata). It is the same senna sold as a laxative. With orange juice and undiluted honey, it has been reported to add red/gold tones to hair. It is used for conditioning as well. The colour can be harder to remove from hair than acv. Honey lightening has been reported to remove the added colour successfully.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=13332

[Amraann]

How funny that just today I googled the same thing!!!

The basic recipe I kept finding was 1/2 cup of beet juice and 1/2 cup of carrot juice.
One recipe said rinse it through several times then rinse again and leave in for 15 mins.

The other said to put on hair and leave on for an hour wrapped in plastic and a hot towel. (or sit in the sun for an hour or two)

Both said you would have to repeat the process for best results.

[ktani]

Beet juice and other natural dyes had mixed results reported here, http://archive.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=59094&highlight=aboriginal (http://archive.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=59094&highlight=aboriginal)

Carrot juice rinse thread, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=2424

[physicschick]

You can probably get some red tints by rinsing your hair with hibiscus tea after washing. (Just put it up in an old towel to dry; don't rinse the hibiscus out.) It'll be subtle and build up over a while.

[iris]

The best subtle red I've gotten is with green tea. You can do green tea rinses (but that is kind of messy and may stain your shower), or just drop a green tea bag into your shampoo, wait a few days until the shampoo takes on the color, and wash as usual with that.

I call this way of infusing shampoo with color chamogirl's method because she's the one who told me about it. It works really well, and it keeps your shower clean because you're not splashing tea all over the place.

An added benefit of using the tea-infused shampoo for me is that I can go longer between washes, because tea slows down sebum production for me (so I can use every other day rather than every day when I use tea-infused shampoo). It doesn't do that for everybody though.

I'm not a great fan of henna glosses - if you only use a tiny bit of henna, the color is more gold than red. It'll depend on your skin tone etc if that looks right on you, but for me, the hint of red I get with green tea is more flattering, looks more natural, and another great thing about it is that it's not permanent at all - it washes out in a few washes when you stop using it.

Hibiscus makes my hair blueish rather than red, it varies from person to person what color it turns out (the dyestuff in hibiscus switches from red to blue depending on pH).

[amoulixes]

Natural ways to get more red tones in hair without the comittment.
1. acv (apple cider vinegar). It has been reported to add red tones to hair. Try organic acv with the mother in it.

2. cassia senna (obovata). It is the same senna sold as a laxative. With orange juice and undiluted honey, it has been reported to add red/gold tones to hair. It is used for conditioning as well. The colour can be harder to remove from hair than acv. Honey lightening has been reported to remove the added colour successfully.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=13332

Fantastic! Thanks, ktani, you are so incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. We should call you LHC's librarian! Thanks for taking the time to pull up those threads.


How funny that just today I googled the same thing!!!

The basic recipe I kept finding was 1/2 cup of beet juice and 1/2 cup of carrot juice.
One recipe said rinse it through several times then rinse again and leave in for 15 mins.

The other said to put on hair and leave on for an hour wrapped in plastic and a hot towel. (or sit in the sun for an hour or two)

Both said you would have to repeat the process for best results.

I'm feeling a little experimental, so I might just go for it!



You can probably get some red tints by rinsing your hair with hibiscus tea after washing. (Just put it up in an old towel to dry; don't rinse the hibiscus out.) It'll be subtle and build up over a while.

Cool! I'll keep this in mind, thanks! :)


The best subtle red I've gotten is with green tea. You can do green tea rinses (but that is kind of messy and may stain your shower), or just drop a green tea bag into your shampoo, wait a few days until the shampoo takes on the color, and wash as usual with that.

I call this way of infusing shampoo with color chamogirl's method because she's the one who told me about it. It works really well, and it keeps your shower clean because you're not splashing tea all over the place.

An added benefit of using the tea-infused shampoo for me is that I can go longer between washes, because tea slows down sebum production for me (so I can use every other day rather than every day when I use tea-infused shampoo). It doesn't do that for everybody though.

I'm not a great fan of henna glosses - if you only use a tiny bit of henna, the color is more gold than red. It'll depend on your skin tone etc if that looks right on you, but for me, the hint of red I get with green tea is more flattering, looks more natural, and another great thing about it is that it's not permanent at all - it washes out in a few washes when you stop using it.

Hibiscus makes my hair blueish rather than red, it varies from person to person what color it turns out (the dyestuff in hibiscus switches from red to blue depending on pH).

Very interesting! I'd like to know the science behind all of that, especially green tea turning hair red, very cool! Thanks a lot :)

[ktani]

Fantastic! Thanks, ktani, you are so incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. We should call you LHC's librarian! Thanks for taking the time to pull up those threads.

Very interesting! I'd like to know the science behind all of that, especially green tea turning hair red, very cool! Thanks a lot :)

You are most welcome!

There is this on tea http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=384876&postcount=105

as a follow up on http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=383577&postcount=96

The thread discussion, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=8888&page=10.

[iris]

Very interesting! I'd like to know the science behind all of that, especially green tea turning hair red, very cool! Thanks a lot :)
It's the tannins. 'Black tea' is called 'red tea' in many languages because the brewed liquid is actually red, not black. For green tea, the brewed liquid is not red, but it does turn red if you let it sit for a day or so. The tannins change color to red as they oxidize, or something like that. In any case, counterintuitive as it may seem, green tea gives hair a reddish cast.

ETA: Black tea gives hair a red cast, too, but black tea is more drying IME, that's why I prefer to use green tea over black tea on my hair. The color is similar though.

[ktani]

Not all tannins are red or turn red though. The yellow dye from catnip is a tannin.

It has to do with the polyphenols of the particular plant.

[intothemist1999]

Thanks for the honey suggestions, but I've got plenty of gold in my hair! I guess I shouldn't have used the term highlight. I am really looking to do a shade of red. I've been eyeing this can of beets...

Henna gloss might be the way to go then, or maybe nothing at all.


That's the colour/tint/highlight I'm looking for, too! However, any treatments I've tried (on my dark hair: Sun-In, herbal teas, Herbatint...) have all given me more orangy-red results rather than a deep red or purplish-red...which is what I'm after.

I've often thought of trying the beet juice from the can! :D There's just not enough juice for both the beets AND my hair.

Hmmmm, now you got me thinking...I believe a long time ago I saw bottles of beet juice at the health store.... hmmmm....

[iris]

That's the colour/tint/highlight I'm looking for, too! However, any treatments I've tried (on my dark hair: Sun-In, herbal teas, Herbatint...) have all given me more orangy-red results rather than a deep red or purplish-red...which is what I'm after.
Yeah, most natural herbal stuff tends to be in the yellow/gold/orange/brown family. Those are the colors that tannins can produce. They tend to be warm tones, although the yellows and the browns can also be more neutral/cool toned sometimes.

One thing that produces a violet tone over time for me, is roman chamomile, infused in shampoo as I described above. It starts out gold, but changes to violet over time. I have no idea how/why that happens. It's not a tone that looks natural to me though - it works with my skin tone, cool tones in my hair suit me better than warm tones, but there always comes a point where it starts looking unnatural. That's when I switch to green-tea-infused shampoo.

So I kind of switch between using roman-chamomile infused shampoo (which gives me a bit of coverage on my whites but builds up to the strange purply tone over time) to green-tea-infused shampoo (which doesn't cover my whites at all, but gives a very nice reddish tint to my still-pigmented hairs - it's a warm reddish tone but it still works with my skin tone for some reason).

A note about infusing shampoo with tea - with the green tea, I find that the shampoo usually loses its thickness. I infuse small batches for that reason, about 50 ml (2 oz) at a time. The roman chamomile does not make the shampoo lose its thickness (but I still infuse only small batches just because I'm not sure if the infusing affects how long the shampoo will keep).

[ktani]

When I used German chamomile, there were variations between brands as to the colour I got. Most German chamomile yields a golden yellow/red colour. One brand I used yielded the yellow/red with no brown.

No matter how long I brew catnip, the colour is yellow with no brown or red, it is just gets a deeper yellow.

There are different types of tannins and 2 major classes of them. It is really fascinating how the colours vary.

The tannins in green tea have antioxidant properties so I do not think that the tea bag would interfere with the preservative system of a shampoo as long as no extra water is added. It is my understanding that for infusing a tea bag in shampoo no extra water is used, if I remember correctly.

[intothemist1999]

Couldn't find beet juice, so grabbed some cranberry juice and blueberry juice at the health store!! :eyebrows:

What d'ya think?

Neither has sugar added, but I don't like the idea of not rinsing it out, thinking I'll get all sticky -- should I should I not rinse it out (I was thinking of using it as a post-shampoo rinse)?

Or should I do a sit-down, leave-in longer process?

Or, would adding it to shampoo (or conditioner, for a CO) be better, and use it regularly.

Dang, I just realized I can't do this till Friday! I'll let you know how it goes, amoulixes!!