This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure.
Black walnut hair dye (using hull powder)
When I was looking for ways to all naturally darken my hair I came across the method of using black walnut hair dye. At first, I couldn’t find too much information online about how to use black walnut hair dye or if it really worked. So I figured I would try it out myself. At first I tried to buy the actual black walnut husks, but since no one sold them I bought a bag of black walnut powder online. It was about 3 dollars for 8 oz. I was even able to find organic black walnut powder.
After the walnut hair dye powder arrived, the next question was how do I make the black walnut hair dye from the powder. I decided to use a method that is used for dying cloth.
So I boiled a pot of water (about 5 cups of water), took it off the stove and put in 5 tablespoons of black walnut powder. I let this steep for about an hour.
Then once my walnut hair dye mixture cooled down, I dipped the ends of my hair in the pot (since this was my first time using it, I only dipped the ends of my hair in to test it out). I let it absorb for about 15 minutes and then just let my hair air dry for 3 to 4 hours. (note: After applying the black walnut hair dye I did not even rinse with water.)
The black walnut hair dye results:
The walnut hair dye did darken my hair! Yay, success! My hair is a light to medium brown color naturally. The picture above compares my test strand to my natural hair color. It seems it may work even better for someone with a lighter hair color.
To get an even darker color you could try steeping the black walnut hair dye mixture for a longer time.
AFTER PICTURE: (This picture was taken 2 days after doing the black walnut hair dye, there is a before picture of me on my about me page with my natural hair color and also on my facebook page).
If you are going to try black walnut hair dye, just note that my hair has not been colored or dyed in anyway, so I’m not sure how doing this on colored hair would work, but I am curious if it would have the same results.
Please leave a comment if you have tried coloring your hair with black walnut powder and let us know how it worked for you!
UPDATE: I have received a few comments from readers who have tried this method and suggested sitting in the sun or using a hair dryer when you have the mixture in your hair. The heat may help increase the ability of the color to stay.
Check out more Natural Hair Dye Methods using Fruit and Herbs!
Hi Lori,
Your experiment is very interesting, as kids we used to eat walnuts a lot from trees along our village river, the walnut hulls stained our fingers and took a whole month of time to regain normal skin color.
Always thought of it after my hair went grey but never tried it, now I’m gonna do it.
Thanks a lot for your lovely experiment.
Very interesting! I didn’t know it was common to eat them. Would love to hear your results!
Hi Lori,
My hair is all Grey..rather almost white…I used Henna, Hair changed almost like your natural hair colour..I would like to try Black Walnut Dye..but you mentioned you dont wash/rinse after applying it..Will it fade after rinse… Is it that we cant rinse or wash our hair after that…Is it Ok to leave the hair unwashed after applying…I mean , we may require to wash our Head and Hair …what do you suggest
I haven’t used it in awhile, but if I remember right, I think I left it in my hair overnight without rinsing and then washed it the next day.
I want to know can we use black walnut hair dye to dye beard and moustache?
Will color be spread on face and remain for days while applying to beard?
Also, while washing black walnut dyed hair with water, do color will be spread
on my face and will remain for days?
I think it would work for other areas like a beard, but I haven’t experimented on anyone so I don’t know for sure. It didn’t color my scalp, hands, or skin when I applied it to my head. But, it did stain my towels.
Is there anything harmful in it that would mean that I couldn’t use it on my eyelashes? I read above that a couple of people used it on their eyebrows but I am worried that the could be something in the black walnut powder that might harm my eyes. My eyelashes are invisible when I am not wearing mascara and I really don’t want to wear mascara unless I am going somewhere. My eyes don’t stand out at all if I am not wearing mascara.
After preparing the black walnut dye, how long is it good for? If it won’t harm my eyes, I could keep a small amount in a bottle in the bathroom and use a cotton swab daily.
I have about half and half grey hair now, my original color was brown verging on dark brown but as I have gotten older and the grey started coming in so thickly, the brown has lightened to a light brown. When my hair started to grey, it came in spots so I started dying my hair, I didn’t want to walk around looking polkadot.
BTW, I have been using baking soda on my hair rather than shampoo and conditioner. I wash with the baking soda about every 2 – 3 days. Sometimes I will use diluted vinegar as a rinse and I think my hair has gone darker than it was. I have read that using vinegar will darken your hair but it didn’t seem to before I started using the baking soda. It could just be my imagination but I really do think it looks darker. I will be trying the black walnut dye with cornstarch when I find out if my local health food store carries it.
I would think it would be ok for eyelashes. Just be sure not to put it too close to your eye or get it in your eyes. I don’t know if there is anything in black walnut powder that can harm eyes. I know some people eat it for other health problems, but eyes are very sensitive, so I would be careful. Since there is water in the mixture, I use it right away and don’t save the rest because the color usually lasts me a good month or two. You could probably save it in your fridge for 3 to 5 days. Hope this helps 🙂
I want to know can we use black walnut hull powder plus coconut oil to prepare black walnut hull hair dye instead
of using water.
I’m not sure it it would work without any water. Just like tea, I think it would need to steep.
Hi,
Love everyone’s helpful comments. I have a family member who is having problems with PPD’s and wants to start using natural alternatives but is concerned that using this over time to cover her gray roots will just make her hair darker and darker. Has anyone who has used this for a while experienced this or does it fade enough between uses to look about the same each time you apply it? And for myself has anyone mixed this with henna to tone down the redness in the henna? I’ve heard henna tends to make your hair more and more red (or orange?) the longer you use it. I’m going for a medium brown red and though this might be a good way to go to get that color and keep it from getting too red at the same time. Thanks
It gradually faded for me over a month or two. Then I reapply it. I haven’t tried it mixed with henna yet, but I really want to!
when you shower/swim does this come out?? like turn the water black?
It doesn’t come out in the water at all for me, at least not that I’ve noticed.
What is the brand name of the organic black walnut powder for hair dye and where can one purchase it? Thank you.
I bought mine from Mountain Rose Herbs.
Can we use black wallnut for eyebrows .Is there any harm on eyes for using the same
I don’t see why not, but I haven’t tried it myself on any other areas yet.
Hi, I just wanted to ask if you would know if it’s alright to straighten or blowave the hair with the black walnut powder in it?
Thanks 🙂
I think someone commented above that the heat actually helped the color to last longer.
where can i find blank walnut hull in India. have tied enough on google but cant find
You may want to check any place that sells herbs. There are some herbal stores online that sell it. Hope this helps. I linked to the one I use above as well.
Hi frds, I am interested in using Black walnut powder, so I want know that where can I get that powder in india ?
I have tried the black tea and sage brew to dye my hair. I have long hair and fully grey on the top. There was some colouring after using this, but the most important part that was missed: the hair line and temples. I believe it has something to do with the liquid not able to sit long enough on those parts, it just runs down, leaving it not immersed. My next plan is to get the black walnut powder, mix it with tea, or maybe even coffee, and thicken it with tapioca to create more of a paste that is easier to apply on the hair line. Anyone experience doing this?
I made some super strong coffee. I put on a pot of water and brought it to boil. I poured in a lot of ground coffee. Let it simmer for a few minutes and then turned off the heat. It sat brewing for about an hour. I then poured in about a cup of the brew as I strained it into a jar and added a good amount of coconut oil that I had melted. Gave it a good shake. After I washed my hair and gave it a good towel dry I worked the mix into my hair. I used a brown towel to put my hair up until it wouldn’t drip. Then used a clip to keep it up and left it in for just over an hour. I used a little shampoo to help get the cocktail oil out of my hair. My hair is already a dark brown with red highlights and a few strands of greys. This toned down my natural highlights beautifully! Plus it really added body and beautiful shine! It did not do much for my greys. I think I will try it again and leave it on for longer. If that doesn’t work on my greys I will try the walnut shell option.
Glad it worked for you! Thanks for sharing your results 🙂
Sounds like a great idea, let us know how it works if you give it a try 🙂
im about to to try this out. I hope it works 🙂
Good luck, let us know your results 🙂
My hair is 36 inches long and I wanna try the walnut dye but I know my hair is going to require more than 1 cup of water and 5 tablespoons of walnut powder.
You may want to double it.
Hey!
I have some scattered greys that I’d love to cover. Could you suggest me something.? Should I add the Indian Gooseberry or Indigo leaves to the Walnut Hair dye .? Does the Walnut Dye method impart a dark brown color or blackish tinge.??
Thanks:)
The black walnut hair dye made my hair a dark brown color. I don’t think it would ever reach a black tone unless you added something to it. I’ve never used indigo leaves so I’m not sure how they work.
Hi,
I’ve just been reading your post and am very interested in the results and the “fading” of the colour afterwards. My hair is a kind of ginger/brown/blonde shade (naturally it’s quite ginger with brownish tones and I’ve highlighted it blonde in salons). As I am allergic to both henna and dark hair dyes, I’ve been looking for everyday alternatives to darken my hair. My only concern really is when you say it gradually fades, does it fade from the roots or all over? As my hair is quite light, I think this method may work well for me, but because I cannot dye my hair any colour other than blonde, if the colour faded from the roots, it would look odd.
I plan to do a strand test if I can find the ingredient but was hoping you could help me before I decided to do it on my whole head.
Thanks! 🙂
It fades all over in general after about a month or so. My hair is naturally a light brown color and the walnut hair dye makes it a medium brown. So, the more I wash it with shampoo, the color begins to lighten all over (not just the roots), back to it’s natural color.
can the black walnut powder procedure be done on the beard too? will it be suitable for covering the gray of the beard? and does it leave color on the skin too or not?
Great question! I don’t see why it wouldn’t work on a beard. Let us know if you give it a try! It didn’t stain my skin at all, but it did stain one of my white bath towels.
Just found this article through Coconut Mama and I’v been dying my hair for about 15 years every fall from my natural color of med brown to black. Why? Cause I love my hair black. As a a guy in his early 40’s I do have some greying so I’m curious to see how the black walnut hull powder will cover.
Off the top of your head, does anybody know the answer to this question? On the back of the package of the Mountain Rose Herbs Black Walnut Hull Powder it says it contains a chemical know to the state of California to cause birth defects?
Best Regards,
AJ
This label has been added to many products, even maca because there is a chance that the plant may uptake and store heavy metals. After researching it, I felt it was safe to use as it is no where near as toxic as chemical coloring methods. 🙂
How long did you wait to wash your hair after doing the walnut dye?
If I remember right, I think I didn’t wash it for a day or two.
Quick question: You say to boil a pot of water and add 5 tbsp. About how much water am I adding the powder to?
It was probably about 4 to 5 cups of water (I didn’t measure it exactly), enough to dip all of my hair in.
ok! I gave it a go tonight and it worked! I had chemically dyed hair (light blonde) and wanted to go back to my natural light brown-this did it! I even tinted my eyebrows (always have been naturally blonde eyebrows that I have wished were a tad darker!) I did three table spoons because my hair is a little shorter than yours. I started off by washing my hair with clay and ACV (I was 4 days post hair cleaning and had a good bit of Coconut oil in my hair but I thought the dye would have the best chance of coating my hair without the oil barrier.) I brought the water to a boil added the powder let the mixture simmer on low for 30 min then turned the heat off and let it set for 30 min to cool (I did this step while my hair had the clay ACV mask on.) I then moved the pot to my bathtub and laid my head directly in the mixture for 20 min.-after that I squeezed the excess liquid out of my hair and put it all in a disposable shower cap to keep the liquid in longer (this didn’t work well! would not suggest this step) after I got over my failed idea of the shower cap to keep the liquid on I just grabbed a dark towel and turbaned my wet black walnut hair for about 30 min. I then blow dried my hair with the liquid still in and voila! Happy hair back to its original color. I am going to experiment with using this as a post no-poo rinse to keep up the tint. If I had to do this over again I would strain my liquid better (I would suggest a cheese cloth or old t-shirt some of this powder is really fine!) and skip the shower cap idea like I said. I thought the dark towel turban was a great way to let the dye do its thing while keeping the mess at bay while I waited for my hair to dry a bit. It was so easy to tint my eyebrows with a q-tip dipped in the liquid and rubbed into the eyebrows a few times. The color came out just right (most importantly with no awful red tint that so often comes with going from blonde to brunette!) Thought I would share my experience and tweaks to your helpful post!
So nice with the details in your post, made me really want to try it as well. Did it god light brown? Ive wanted to do this for a long time, but I have chemical light and brown stripes from before, and my hair is naturally dark blond. Do you think the colour would be different from the aftergrowth hair closest to my head to the lengths? Just worried about having lumps of colour :p 😀
Eva,
I tried to add a lot of details because I scoured the comments too reading up on what worked and didn’t work on different hair types (thats how I got the idea of doing a hair detox with clay prior to the dye!) I wish I could load a picture because I am happy with the results! Since my hair was so light (chemically dyed and highlighted with a toner!) my light brown is much closer to Lori’s before picture than her after picture (which is fine because my hair naturally is light brown so that is what I was going for.) I had about two inches of regrowth compared to my all over lightened and highlighted lengths. I would say that the black walnut dye is more of an all over tint so you will still see highlights/lowlights and regrowth but it does look much more blended after the black walnut dye. I want to grow my hair out to its natural color but that is a painful process as we all know! My thoughts on this are- I’ll keep up the black walnut treatments to ease the “ghetto ombre” look and since it is temporary I don’t have to worry about long term color changes to my natural hair color (which is the ultimate goal!) I considered “eco friendly” and “organic” hair dyes but they all had chemicals I didn’t want and even if you all over dye you can never get it to match your regrowth perfectly so your still stuck with a growing out color difference. I also considered a light brown henna but I decided against that because light henna always casts a little red/orange and it wont even out hair color either (you will still be able to see regrowth and higlights/lowlights although it would be better blended-just like the black walnut!) AND henna doesn’t totally come out (it seemed like a big commitment for something that wasn’t going to match my regrowth and help me grow out my natural color which is the goal!) The black walnut dye WILL fade and wash out within about a month from my research so if you dont like it at least it is short term commitment.
SO long story short-yes I do think you will still have the three different shades in your hair (natural regrowth, light highlights, dark lowlights) but the black walnut dye will tint all of the shades to a more consistent all over color.
I say go for it! Also-It did make my hair much more voluminous but left it feeling a little dryer (this might be because I didn’t rinse the dye out but rather blow dried it in.) I hope this helped your decision!
Wow, so glad the color came out just right! Thank you so much for sharing your results and how you prepared it! 🙂
Hey,
I wanted to ask, if you would be so nice and could give me a tip, what I should do with my hair. I have ash-brown hair and I had full highlights done in blonde. Well.. don’t ask why… lol… I want my natural hair color back, so I will just let it grow out, but I don’t wanna look bad during the process. So I was thinking of dying my hair, but so lightly, that only the already blond hair will be affected… I am looking for a natural way, but not sure which one I should chose… any ideas??
Thank you very much
Katharina
I think I would try the black walnut hair dye. You could leave it on for a shorter time and do it again if you would like to get a darker shade. You could also try using coffee. 🙂
I am very eager to try this, I tried the black tea dye last night, I can tell a small difference. I was wondering if anyone had tried mixing a thickening agent, such as, cornstarch into to liquid to make a paste to help it stay on the hair better? Any thoughts on this??
That sounds like a great idea! Since it was liquid, it made it harder to put on. Let us know how it works for you.
Hi, Lori,
I’m really excited to try black walnuts dye, but I’m a little worried because my hair has already been colored (at least half of it).. Do you think I will get two different shades if I use this method? Another question: did it do any damage to your hair (especially because you hadn’t rinsed it)? Thank you very much!!
I don’t think it would affect it. I forgot to mention that the end tips of my hair probably have color in them from when I dyed it 10 years ago. It just darkened my hair overall. I didn’t have any hair damage from using it. My hair actually seemed shinier and softer. 🙂
Hi Lori,
Thank u so much for writing interesting materials and updating people all over the world. I’m from India, seen a walnut, but never heard about black walnut. Its really tough to find the black walnut hull powder in India, its impossible. I did a search, but none. Amazon.com doesn’t ship to India, do u have any suggestions?
Waiting
Sushil
There are a few other companies that sell it online (online herb stores). I would try doing a search for it. You could also check your local health food store.
Hi Lori! I have natural black hair but there are some strands of grey hair showing already. Will the black walnut powder be as effective in brunettes or blondes than in black hair? Am so amazed by the results you have shown. Will give it a try.
I have heard mixed results for it covering grey hair. You can check out some of the comments above to read others’ results. It should bring the hair to a dark brown shade. Hope it works for you!
Hi :-).. It’s been 7 months since I’ve been doing this! I must say, I love the way it makes my hair so soooft; I do a rinse once a week :-). I’ve recently started leaving the brewed mixture in the fridge for three days before straining, I store extra in the fridge; one batch lasts me for about a month. Yesterday I decided to blow dry it and then I sat in the sun for an hour or so; I don’t know if this improves the strength of the stain or not :-). Recently for about six weeks I’ve stopped using store bought shampoo and conditioner, instead I use a baking soda solution to wash and an apple cider solution as a conditioner. The combination of the three products leaves my hair corn silk soft and bouncy. I must add that sometimes I don’t want too much of a bounce so I use a spray diluted Berets Bees conditioner with water and that takes care of it and any tangles :-)..
That’s great! Thanks for sharing how you brewed it.
How long did the dye last on your hair?
Did you have roots when it grew out?
Thanks for the great ideas and recipes!
C
It lasted about a month and then began to fade so there was no noticeable difference near the roots.
This is awesome! My hair is already dark brown, and I usually dye it black. I am definitely willing to try this to see if it would at least work as a root touch up. About how long did the color last?
It lasted a month or so and slowly began to fade.