Help! Natural coloring for gray hairs.

[PurpleAshes]

So, I managed to encourage a friend from work to go natural, last week she did a big chop and she plans to stop relaxers and dyes:D. However, she´s not really a fan of gray hair, and said that if she doesn´t find some natural way to color her grays, she won´t do the natural thing at all.

She doesn´t like red at hair at all, and prefers brown tones. So far, i´ve come up with this ideas:

-Mixing 2 colors of Manic Panic to achieve a brown,
-Henna with some other herb to achieve brown,
-I can´t remember wether it was Emu or Castor oil that darkens hair.

The problem is that I don´t have any experience with gray hair, or henna, or either oil, or mixing manic panic:confused:. I would´t want to make her my guinea pig, so i´m asking you guys if you have any ideas that might help us, or experiences, any advice is welcome!:cheese:

Thanks for reading!

[red-again]

I cover grey too so I can sympathise with her! I use henna and indigo as a two step. I would advise for a brown she does a one step hendigo, she might be very happy with the resulting brown BUT I tried it and the one step didn't cover my greys. I need to use a high dye content henna and then indigo. I get very dark brown / black and I henna for around 3 plus hours then indigo for an hour. Maybe try a one step and move to a two step if coverage is poor - just leaving the indigo on for about 20 mins should result in brown. OR she could try henna and buxus, though I have no experience of buxus so you may have to wait for an answers that one.
I tried special effects so basically manic panic, and had poor uptake and even poorer longevity on my grey hair and tbh, it was rubbish at sticking around ONI my virgin dark hair too. These dyes work better / last longer on slightly damaged or porous hair so I can see why they wash out quickly.

I also think for grey hair, it has NO pigment and therefore, I reckon that emu/ castor oil can't darken it sufficiently but others may have tried the oil way on grey and had it work so maybe some one else will chime in here too.

Before she tries henna/indigo/ buxus it will obviously be worth strand testing AND warning her of the permanence of them

[Tota]

What about this: http://www.lushusa.com/Caca-Brun-Mama/00675,en_US,pd.html

Rewievs are pretty good: http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/lush-caca-brun-mama-reviews