What can you use to dye your hair that is natural, organic and toxin-free? Well, there are everyday items that you can use to stain hair darker like coffee. Lemon juice can be used to lighten hair. However neither of these have a permanent effect and the new colour will wash out fairly quickly. So what alternatives are available for more permanent hair colour?

Henna powder can be ordered online, and can be made up at home. Henna is totally natural and organic versions are available. Henna will condition your hair beautifully, although it yields variations of red only. The main disadvantages are that it’s rather messy to use, and it will stain skin, towels and baths/showers if you’re not careful. Indigo powder is also popular and,like henna, is a great natural conditioner. Used on its own it is an effective black dye. Many people combine indigo with henna to colour hair brown, but you need guidance on the ratio of henna to indigo in order to get the right colour tone.

The other option is to go to a hair salon that uses the most natural hair dyes possible. This video clip focuses on Aveda, a skin and hair care brand that uses natural, organic ingredients as much as possible. Their hair dyes contain between 96 and 99% natural ingredients. The other 2 to 4% are synthetics (oxidative dyes) that simply have no natural alternative, according to Aveda. Having done some research into this, I think they are probably right. However this company has phased out PPD’s, coal tar, ammonia and lead based additives. Just as well as PPD is linked to an increased risk of various cancers with prolonged use.1

What I’m hoping is that as more and more people turn away from beauty products that contain synthetic and toxic ingredients, companies will try even harder to delilver products like hair colouring which are 100% natural and eco-friendly.

The other two brands that are worth remembering for their use of natural organic ingredients in their hair care range are Logona and John Masters. Logona has a number of hair colouring products on the market which contain no synthetic nasties whatsoever. John Masters produces lovely organic hair care products which are available online, although I was unable to find hair colouring products.

The bottom line is that conventional hair dyes are potentially dangerous and contain toxic ingredients. Avoid these. More and more companies are looking to provide natural and organic alternatives – it’s a question of finding them. Do let me know if you find brands that produce organic hair colouring products – I’d love to know.

  1. EC Scientific Committee on Consumer Products [↩]

Filed under: Organic Cosmetics

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