rosemary or amla for darkening

[Lenniemi]

what is the best product to get hair darkening over time ( so no stains or henna and stuff) is it rosemary or amla? personally I think rosemary is less dirty and smelly than amla

and when they say 'over time', does it mean weeks, months?

[bumblebums]

I do not know if amla actually darkens hair all by itself. It has a darkening effect in combination with henna, but that could be due to some chemical reaction that would not happen on your hair by itself. I put amla into my shikakai mix when I wash my hair because shikakai leaves a reddish tint in my hair, which I do not want. I suppose it's possible that amla will darken hair all by itself, but I've seen no evidence of that (I am sure someone else will correct me if I'm wrong).

Rosemary has a temporary darkening effect, in my experience. It's noticeable but not permanent.

[Lenniemi]

on my amla bottle I've read: regular and prolonged use of amla results in darkening of light colored hair

[martinxt]

a strong tea infusion of rosemary and sage helped darken my hair.

[martinxt]

I've used amla before in hopes of darkening my hair and 1. i hated the smell and 2. it did not darken my light tresses =(

[Lenniemi]

how did u use it, prepare it, how many times a week did u apply it and after how much time did u start noticing results? How long do u have to leave it on? thanks

[martinxt]

I used it as a hair rinse. 1/4of sage 1/4 of rosemary in 1-4cups of boiling water. First I place my herbs in a canning jar, I use my kettle to boil water and once the water has boiled I pour it into my jar, closed the jar and I let it infuse for about 1-2 hours depending on how soon I need it (you can let it infuse for longer if you like) the longer you infuse it the stronger the tea rinse.

I use the rinse about 3x a week after I have completed the conditioning process and I dont wash it out. I noticed the color change in about 2 weeks. Its gradual...besides being coloring agents rosemary and sage have plenty of other benefits for hair.

[martinxt]

sorry i failed to put the herb measurements which is cup so 1/4 cup of sage and rosemary.

[Lenniemi]

and if you continue using it 3 times a week, does it also darken the new growth?
does it leave spots when you leave it on overnight? thanks

[mellie]

Rosemary and sage didn't darken my hair at all (I was trying to darken my white hairs). I tried everyday for months. The rosemary caused scalp itching/burning, and has some precautions too:


Avoid dosages above those found in food because safety and efficacy are unproven. Known to have emmenagogue (to stimulate menstrual flow) and abortive effects....Based on its traditional use for abortion, as well as preliminary evidence showing embryotoxic effects, 26 rosemary should not be used by pregnant women or women who wish to become pregnant.....Other weak evidence hints that rosemary may enhance the liver’s rate of deactivating estrogen in the body. 28 This suggests that rosemary might present risks for females, as well as anyone who uses medications containing estrogen.

However, red raspberry leaf tea worked a lot better to tint them brown, actually! And of course henndigo is great for darkening, and permanent.

[burns_erin]

I was another one that found a rosemary & sage tea marginally darkening. I put it in a spray bottle because i was just doing my roots and grays between hennas.

[Lenniemi]

is that sage/rosemary tea a stain or does it reach the follicles to produce darker hair? I'm not interested in stains and stuff

[mellie]

It is just a stain.

[bumblebums]

is that sage/rosemary tea a stain or does it reach the follicles to produce darker hair? I'm not interested in stains and stuff

I hope I am not misunderstanding you, but I think what you are asking is impossible. Nothing will make your follicles grow darker hair. I suppose it can happen as a mutation after chemo or radiation therapy, but generally, your follicles do their own thing and are not affected by what you do with the length, which is dead protein.

[Lenniemi]

then why not dying it, I thought the alternatives were there to nourish follicles and produce darker hair? I know stuff like melanotan or some vitamins do it and I thought castor oil did it too, so I really thought it was much more than a stain....

[squee]

Amla darkened my hair, so did sage and rosemary :)
I don't mind the smell of any of them at all. Kinda like the smell of amla...all herbaly and flowery sorta.

[clairenewcastle]

I've used infusions of rosemary in the past in the hope of darkening my hair but to no avail, it didn't work for me at all.

[mellie]

Lenniemi, some people choose herbal tea rinses/stains because they have allergies to various dyes like chemical dyes or henna, or want something that washes out with shampoo. But no, they won't make your hair actually change its natural color.

[Lenniemi]

Amla darkened my hair, so did sage and rosemary :)
I don't mind the smell of any of them at all. Kinda like the smell of amla...all herbaly and flowery sorta.


and was it just the hair you already had or also the new growth?

[bumblebums]

then why not dying it, I thought the alternatives were there to nourish follicles and produce darker hair? I know stuff like melanotan or some vitamins do it and I thought castor oil did it too, so I really thought it was much more than a stain....

I don't know what melanotan is, but I have never heard of anything that darkens your hair by affecting the follicle. If such a substance existed, we'd have a permanent solution to graying hair.

Castor oil darkens hair by the same mechanism as any oil--probably in no small part by glueing the cuticle together temporarily. (When the cuticle is roughed up, as in dry, damaged hair, it looks lighter.)

[Lenniemi]

melanotan does not darken gray hair but blonde and red hair get darker when using it....so maybe there's a difference between darkening light hair and darkening grey hair, also when using oils

[Lenniemi]

In the mean time, I've heard that adding things to a shampoo could penetrate the follicles, so maybe a combo of herbs, shampoos, could grow darker hair, it's just about finding the right one.

[GRU]

I'm going to call BS on this theory as well. If there was a product that would change the color that your hair grows, there would be no need for costly and caustic dyes with monthly root touch-ups.

Nothing you put on the surface of your body is going to "penetrate the follicle" and change the color of the hair that grows out of that follicle.

[Lenniemi]

on hairlosshelp, hairlosstalk they mentioned many products and combo's
of course there would still be hairdyes. It's just about darkening a color, it's not that you can choose a nice red tint or something, just darker growth...

[ChloeDharma]

then why not dying it, I thought the alternatives were there to nourish follicles and produce darker hair? I know stuff like melanotan or some vitamins do it and I thought castor oil did it too, so I really thought it was much more than a stain....

I know certain herbs and oils are considered to encourage darker hair, but i don't think this is a case of artificially colouring the hair. The herbs and oils are believed to nourish new growth and in India a sign of what's considered healthy hair is to be shiney and dark. By promoting good growth in dark hair this may appear as being darker, but i would imagine that it only encourages what is natural to the person decided by their genetics......so a blond person for example would not expect to gain the same result as the pigment isn't meant to be there to begin with.

Supplementing with PABA can help to prevent premature graying, but again it won't turn blonde hair black. That said, with these herbs and oils the effect is gained over a period of consistant use.....no product used just once is going to permanently change the appearance of new growth forever after.

[Lenniemi]

On other forums I read that light blonde people got mid brown growth and stuff, so that's not going from white to black but it's definately a significat change I guess. I have heard a bout a blonde going brown with qhelmet burdock butter, she said it was because of the msm in it.

[Milui Elenath]

I hear what you are saying Lenniemi. It's as if the follicle is producing hair that is a darker version of their natural colour. Like a concentration of melanin. It sounds plausible that you could encourage your body to produce more melanin at the hair follicle but I don't think topical application would do it perhaps internally via nutrition. :shrug:

But I have to agree with others that hair might be growing darker (or appear so) because it is healthier. Hair apparently becomes lighter when the body is not nourished but again that may be as its unhealthy or because the body isn't able to produce as much melanin.

[serious]

I've been using burdock root, rosemary and nettle infused castor oil on my scalp for months, and haven't noticed any color change at all. My grays still grow gray and I think nothing is going to change that :)

[Lenniemi]

melanotan can turn red and blonde hair into dark hair, so I don't see why anything else could not do this....

[Ruvie]

do you mean melatonin? its made in reptiles (mainly amphibians) for color change. We humans cannot use it to change the color of our hair, plain and simple..melanotan is to treat people with porphyra, to darken the skin. Why would you think it permanently changes hair color? Its a stain to protect their skin from the sun..

[DarleneH]

Are you sure you guys don't mean "melanin"?