This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure.
Natural Hair Dye Methods:
Looking for all natural hair dyes and safe ways to color your hair? Then you are going to love this post! All of the methods for using natural hair dye listed below are 100% natural and all of them are using edible ingredients and herbs!
Many people want to change their hair color to achieve a new look or to cover gray or white hair. But they do not want to use dangerous chemicals that can be hazardous to their health. These are great alternatives to chemical dyes and all of these natural hair dye methods are very effective. I have tried almost all of them myself and they really do work!
Why You Should Use Natural Hair Dye
Chemicals in hair dye have been linked to a variety of very harmful effects. The use of hair dye has been linked to cancer, allergic reactions, and respiratory disorders. You also have to be careful of hair dyes marked as “natural” because they even contain hazardous chemicals such as resorcinol, ammonia or peroxide, and PPD, even if it is a reduced amount. PPD damages the DNA of human cells and often causes allergic reactions. Evidence has shown that those who use hair dye are at an increased risk of developing Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and leukemia.
How Natural Hair Dye Works:
Most of these natural hair dyes work progressively, although some of them have immediate results. The progressive hair dyes typically require being used more than once or repetitively to reach your desired color. Although, even with the natural hair dyes that work progressively, immediate results can still occur even from just one use.
Natural hair dye, such as the black walnut powder is one of the more potent and powerful natural hair dyes. With this natural hair dye the change in color can be quite drastic, if that is your desired result. Coffee is another one of the natural hair dyes that can be observed to make a great difference from just one use also.
How to Test Natural Hair Dye
Before using these natural hair dye methods you may want to test the natural hair dye you choose on a test strand to see how it will affect your hair color. This may be of particular importance if you have recently used any chemical hair dyes or rinses to test how the natural hair dye will react when applied.
Natural Hair Dye Options:
1. Using lemons
The method of using lemons to lighten or add highlights to hair has been known of for a long time. This all natural hair dye works more slowly over several uses. The lemon juice acts as a natural bleach and its lightening affects can be intensified by exposing the lemon treated hair to sunlight.
2. Walnuts and black walnuts
The method of black walnut natural hair dye is one of the more powerful ways to color your hair. Black walnuts darken your hair when you use walnut hulls. The dye from black walnuts is very powerful and outer casings tend to stain everything they touch. You can use either the walnut hulls or walnut powder. For the hulls, you would need to crush them and then cover them with boiling water and let them “soak” for three days. Or if you are using black walnut powder, boil water and pour a couple tablespoons of the powder in the water. Let the mixture steep from for a few hours or longer if you are looking to achieve a darker color. (the longer the mixture soaks and steeps the darker the color will become). I tried this natural hair dye method and it worked great. You can see my before and after pictures. I also wrote down the steps I did for the using black walnut powder.
3. Coffee
Strongly brewed black coffee can act as a darkening hair rinse. Let the coffee steep for a longer period of time and then pour the coffee on hair or dip you hair into the coffee mixture.
4. Beet Juice, Carrot Juice
These natural hair dyes can be used to add red tints to your current color. They can be used separately or together. For natural redheads, this method can boost their color. For those with blonde hair beet juice hair dye can create more of a strawberry blonde shade. This natural hair dye mixture of beet juice can be used as often as you like to reach your desired color. Apply the beet and carrot juice mixture to the hair and work it through the hair. The beet juice mixture should be left on the hair for at least 60 minutes.
5. Sage Tea
Sage tea is one the oldest techniques for coloring darker hair. The rinse can be made from sage leaves or sage tea bags. The sage tea darkens and deepens brunet hair. This natural hair dye can also be used to cover gray hair. This rinse can be made by steeping the dried herbs in boiling water for one hour or longer depending on your desired shade. You can continue to apply the rinse weekly to also reach your desired color.
6. Chamomile Tea
Chamomile tea is effective for lightening your hair color. Steep the tea bags in boiling water for at least half an hour. After shampooing your hair and towel drying pour the tea over your hair. This can be reapplied to reach your desired color.
7. Black Tea
Black tea acts as a stain to darken your hair color. Brew a strong mixture of black tea from one or a couple of tea bags with boiling water. Let the tea steep for at least half an hour. After you shampoo your hair and towel dry, pour the tea over and through your hair. Some rinse the mixture out and others leave the tea in their hair. To reach your desired shade you can reapply black tea several times.
You can check out my results with black walnut hair dye and our discussion posts about the natural hair dye methods that have worked for others.
I’m a natural redhead looking for ways to refresh my color as it–and I–fade into old age. My original shade was red to orange with auburn undertones. Now I’m a very light strawberry blonde. I like the idea of staining with natural juices, but is there a way to thicken carrot/beet juice up so that it sticks to my hair? As a liquid, most would wash off.
It should stay just by soaking it in the liquid. Hmm..I’m not sure what you could mix it with. Maybe aloe?
hi …yr tricks are awesome…but tell me how to bleech my hqir naturally
I have used l’Oreal perfect blonde creme highlight kit to bleach the whole head, that means i have to bleach the roots every three months or so.
I have noticed the scalp is very irritated and red and i would like to use some natural colour like Herbatint which still has some light hydrogen peroxide. I wonder if i just use it for the roots, what happens to the rest of the hair? And what would happen if i would use lemon juice (but now in the winter i don’t have a chance to sit in the sun.) Or Chamomile.
It is a problem to change to another system, but i have to now.
Any suggestions
Rita 2016
I think the lemon would still haven a lightening effect, it might just not be as powerful.
Hi. My natural hair color is what’s called natural black with dark brown highlights in the sun.
I use henna, med brown. Love the red, golden brown. I have gray hair and want to dye my growth a color close to the red golden brown color. Can I mix walnut with Chamamile? Thanks
Definitely! I’ve mixed them before.
Help Help Help… I cannot now use commercial hair dyes as I have a sever allergic reaction that leaves me very poorly. I have medium brown, treated hair with grey coming through I am 60 years old and I want a natural colour… what tea pr coffee do I use? how do I use it? only just found this page, sounds like you could be the answer? please advise……..
I’ve used instant coffee before and it definitely darkened my hair.
So I want to lighten my brunette hair. Would chamomile and mint tea work? Or does the tea have to be only chamomile? Thanks for reading!
I haven’t tried mint tea myself, but the chamomile should work. Let us know how it works you.
Hi! Just wanted to share something regarding the chamomile tea; my mother is from Germany and they have been using chamomile tea on hair for centuries. It doesn’t lighten blonde hair, per se, what it does is adds an ash tone to blonde hair. Warmer tones are achieved with beets and strawberries and cooler (ash) tones are achieved with teas. I have ash blonde hair, so I like to add warmer tones to mine. As a caution, one should be careful not to overdo as tea can create a “greenish” color which is very noticeable in photographs! 😀
Thank you for sharing!
Hi, I was just wondering if the lemon juice dye; I have had anaphylaxis before, and so my husband said that I should check up with you quickly before I actually did anything. Will it be alright for me to use this?
hello der!
I ve got jet black hair and to be frank, I am quite bored with this colour. I tried colouring with beet and carrot juice, but it didnt work. Plz do suggest me some natural tips for colouring my hair naturally.
thanks!
Since your hair is jet black, I can see why those didn’t make much of a difference. You may want to look into using lemon juice (if you’re looking to lighten your hair).
Hi there,
I have bleached blond hair and have been using purple tinted shampoos for years to help counteract the brassiness that bleaching causes. Now that I have switched to the “no poo” method I am wondering if there are any natural ways to get that purple tint in a rinse? Any suggestions would be highly appreciated!
Interesting! I wonder if using a beet juice rinse or coffee rinse may help.
Hello, i am 14 year old and a guy my hair is black and i want them to be light golden is it possible ?
I’ve used the lemon before and it has lighted my medium brown hair. But only a few shades. I’m not sure if it would be strong enough to bring black to light golden. Let us know if you give it a try.
The darker your hair is the more likely that to lighten even a few shades you will need to go with chemicals. There are products on the market that have `less harsh` formulations and some are ammonia fre but they might not work with very dark hair.
Also when dealign with black hair you have to be very patient, if you want to get a light blonde, you will have to lighten your hair past the brassy bronze colour that will probably scare you. If you are using the more natural dyes you might want to try one application, see if the results are what you want and then repeat the process until the colour is what you want.
Personally (from experience as a former hairdresser) that could take a while. I have taken black hair from natural to platinum but it was a multistep process (over a few days goving the guys hair and scalp a rest in between) and we had to use bleach as it was strong enough to get the job done.
I started drinking one and a half tablespoon of cider vinegar with hot water (one a day) for the health nutrients it contained. After a few weeks I noticed that my hair was growing faster than it ever had in my life. Everyone noticed how fast my hair had grown. I use the cloudy type that you buy in health shops as supermarket version is processed and clear. Not a good idea to drink too much of it (as with most things, it’s moderation). Love your site. Thank you. I now need to find a natural colour to soften my bleached blonde hair, as it’s looking brassy now that it’s grown long. I will try the camomile, but will it slightly darken it for me?.
That’s great it has helped increase hair growth! Most say that chamomile will lighten hair.
Hiello! I have always wanted to try this and now that I have seen that it works it want to try it.
hi there, i do see alot of options to dye hair colour darker but i actually have black hair an wanted to see if you know a way to turn my black hair to a dark brown colour naturally?
Great question! I wonder if lemon juice may work.
I have gray hair and dye my hair blond every 4 weeks. Blonde was my natural color and started turning gray in my twenties, and I’m 44 now. When coloring my hair, the white in my hair gives me nice highlights. I need something that’s going to turn my gray roots to blonde. Any suggestions?
I’ve read that potatoes and lemon help to cover grays; I’m not sure how effective they are though.
Hi thank you for all your comments and a wonderful post! I have been using henna in my hair for about a year now and I will never go back to anything full of chemicals again. I recently wrote a post about my experience with henna and it includes my recipe and pictures. Today I added beet powder for the first time just to change things up for the holidays coming. I hope it turns out brighter red ! Here is my post about henna.
Thank you for sharing! I’ve always wanted to try henna, but have never looked into.
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO DYE YOUR HAIR BLONDE OR EVEN BROWN PLEZ HELP ME OUT
I have had luck lightening my hair with lemon juice. Just wet your hair down with lemon juice until damp but not quite dripping and sit out in the sun.
Make sure though that if you do this to make sure to condition your hair well afterwards as the lemon juice can be a little drying.
Lemon juice works great!
Could you do one for people with black hair as i cannot find a single website with how to lighten raven hair
That’s a great suggestion! 🙂
As a former hairdresser and colourist I would have to say that even with professional lightening products, lightening black-black hair even a small degree is extremely hard and usually goes to a brassy orange colour that most people dont like. Imho, I think that brassy colour actually looks nice in black hair but not many people like it.
The only thing I could suggest – and this sits on the border of natural and chemical products – would be to use something like a product we had in the eighties called Sun-In. I believe it was lemon juice and peroxide. You sprayed it into your hair and sat in the sun (or blow dried your hair as the heat from the blow drier activated it as well). I dont have an exact recipe but I do know I found one online a while back.
My own hair is light brown / dark blonde and this product gave my hair a sun kissed look which could possibly work on your haircolour as well if your hair gets sun bleached in the summer.
Hope this helps.
Hi! I was wondering if the beet and carrot juices would work on dark hair! My hair is a few shades from black but I’d LOVE to have my hair red! Thank you 🙂
It should work really well on dark hair. My hair is a medium brown and it gave it a nice tint.
Hi Lori – I have grown my hair out and am now back to my natural hair colour which is a light mousey brown. I am going to a festival next week and I wanted to add some colour to it but I’d like to go back to my natural colour afterwards.
I was hoping to go a pinky/red shade by using the beetroot dye – do you think it would cover ok & also how long would it last as like I said I’m hoping to get my natural colour back so would it wash in/wash out?
Hi Sam, the beetroot dye works great when you just do it, but it doesn’t last long. It seemed to wash out for me after two shampoos, if I didn’t keep reapplying it. So, it will probably work great for what you’re looking for!
i have very dark brown hair (almost black) and got it highlighted a few months ago and i was wondering if chamomile tea will help brighten the dyed hair as well. i don’t want to have another expensive salon appointment and damage my hair with more product so i am looking for a natural way to help enhance the colour that is already there.
Chamomile is a great natural option! You could also try the lemon juice too!
If you have very dark highlighted hair, I have somethign that might work. You know that purple / blue shampoo? There are many different brands that have something like this on the market, the brand is not important as they all work equally well.
Blue shampoos are great for highlighted hair as they remove the brassiness from light coloured, greying or highlighted hair. I used to use it all the time when I was platinum to keep that crisp white. The onyl problem with it is that on lighted hair it can build up and give the hair a lavendar hue but if your hair is very dark you wont have that problem.
All I used to do was add a squirt of the purple shampoo to my regular shampoo. For it to work the best to make dull blonde hair vibrant is the leave it on a few minutes rathe rthan lathering and washing off right away.
One time I even used it to add purple highlights in my hair by putting the shampoo full strength on sections wrapped with foil like they would in a salon and left it on for a few hours. It was subtle but noticeable on platinum hair.
Hey I have a question…
If you were to mix black walnut powder into conditioner – without soaking it in boiling water first just powder and conditioner – woudl that dye your hair or do you have to mix the powder with boiling water to release the dye? I have been looking for something to dye my dark blonde hair a dark brown but want to stick with a natural product. I have found that rince type dyes dont work as well for my hair because my hair is very thick and it is hard to ensure the rince is evenly distributed.
I think it would need to be released in the boiling water, but it may be worth a try with just mixing it in conditioner. Let us know how it works if you give it a try!
Very informative piece of information for me . I have been searching for the real natural way to die my grays for sometimes now, and I think I finally found the answer. I surley going to try the coffee method and as time goes by I will try the rest
Thank you my problem have been solve.
Let us know how it works for you if you give it a try.
I have had some success using herbs and about 1/2 cup of cheap conditioner. I mixed 3 capsules of ginger, some paprika to hopefully add in missing red pigments to gray hair, and some turmeric. I’m not sure if the paprika helped it look blonde or not, but the gray was subtly stained a blonde. Too much turmeric looks too yellow though. It’s fun to just experiment since it washes out after a couple washings. Some of the grays look blonder than others. I also washed hair first then applied the herbal conditioner, and sat under a plastic cap about 30 minutes, then rinsed. A leave in might work better, so I intend to do that next with water.
Thanks for sharing Vicki! Sounds like a great mixture of natural ingredients.
I have read all the comments of using natural stuff to lighten hair. I have heard that henna is safe for the hair but I am kind of leery of which henna is best. I have heard and read to make sure that you get 100 percent henna and there are many companies who sell it and are not USDA organic. I have looked online for henna but there are so many to choose from. I don’t anyone who has used henna and can recommend a company who sells it. I would like to use henna but am kinda afraid to use it since I have sensitive skin, can you recommend a henna company that is really safe.
I would really appreciate it, thanks 🙂
I have never used henna before, but it does seem like another great option for a natural hair dye. Hopeful someone that has tried henna will be able to share a brand they like. 🙂
I used to use a brand of Henna called Henna Colora. I used their colour RED SUNSET to get a bright shimmery copper orange colour. The only thing I found is that henna does not lighten or fade – AT ALL. If you are the type that likes to experiment and change their hair colour a lot, I would avoid henna. You cannot dye over it with commercial dyes unless you want wicked witch of the west green hair and it takes several bleaches to get it to a banana yellow shade that can be dyed over.
However the good thing is that if you have a problem with split ends, henna strengthens the hair and fills in the “cracks” in your hair, essentially gluing your hair follicle in place and preventing split ends.
Also henna Colora makes a clear shade that does not add colour but still strengthens the hair.
henna colora can be hard to find but I have also seen a very good henna hair colouring product for sale at the Body Shop in Canada.
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing all that helpful info about henna! I’ve always wondered about trying it.
i have a lot of grays witch im try to grow out and not use box hair dye witch have thin out my hair now i look like a skunk lol so i want to use some thing natural my hair is brown well some of it lol what do u sugest
Some have seen good results using the black walnut powder. You can check out their comments above. 🙂
question what type of dye would you reccomend to use on coarse kinky curly african american dark hair? trying to go to a honey blonde or burnt orange c olor.
I ve had my hair dyed before a year ago but trying to stay natural.
Lemon juice is a great natural hair lightener. I’ve had really good success with it.
Hello, I have used henna twice to achieve a natural medium/dark brown colour which I absolutely love. I am debating trying beets with my henna to try achieve a burgundy colour. I absolutely would not want the orangey reddish colour but am hoping for a dark burgundy-red colour. Do you think I would be able to achieve this with beet? (if you google burgundy hair, you will see the colour i am trying to achieve, though I understand with a natural source it likely would not be so vibrant.) Do you think this colour is possible or would you have any suggestions to get this colour? currently the henna I use is called Caca Noir by a company called Lush. Please let me know your thoughts!! Thanks!!
I’ve never tried using henna before so, I’m not sure how the two will react, but let us know if you give it a try. 🙂
which woul be best if im trying to gt white hair? sry about typos my keybored is iffy
I’ve had a few comments on my post that the black walnut hair dye has helped to cover greys and white hair.
can i mix black tea and sage to dye hair
You can, I’ve tried mixing different teas before.