Desire for change, the first “grey” and sandy to dark brown – always cover it up or simply give the “street mutt blond” that is typical for our latitude more radiance: Every second German woman changes her hair color regularly – in the hairdressing salon or at home. If you are sensitive to chemical ingredients or value a sustainable lifestyle, you can use natural hair colors.Purely vegan colors are particularly pleasant. Their pigments are usually obtained from the leaves of the henna bush, the indigo plant, nut shells, spices such as turmeric or the bark of jatropha (an evergreen plant from India). It wraps itself around the hair like a protective care coat and smoothes its structure, while coloring it – depending on the product in half an hour to two hours.
Natural nuances from blonde to red with an impressively healthy shine are possible. The only downside: the big leap to platinum blonde doesn’t work. “Our latest development are four shades of blonde that give light or gray hair fresh reflections, more warmth or a golden touch. We can’t lighten it up a lot with harmless plant substances,” says Heinrich Jacob, Managing Director of Khadi Natural Products.
It all comes down to care
As with any other hair color, the durability of the luminosity (maximum of about 24 hair washes) depends on personal care and styling habits and how the color combines with the hair. “A vegetable color can last as long as a chemical one,” says Marc Booten, an organic hairdresser from Düsseldorf. In his salon, he uses henna, indigo, coffee, sandalwood and other ingredients to create the perfect nuance for each and every one of his clients. Booten is particularly proud of the nourishing side effect of his colors: “The grasses, flowers and powder, which I only mix with hot water, have a regenerating effect on the scalp and free it from dandruff and fat. The vegetable tanning agents it contains can even reduce hair loss.”
Marc Booten’s extra service: Every customer can take her personal hair color powder home with her – and make the slight approach, which becomes visible after one to two months, disappear again by working at home.This is also an advantage of natural hair colors, as Claudia Düwel, product manager at Logona Naturkosmetik, confirms: “The contrast between regrowing and colored hair is much more subtle with natural colors than with chemical ones.” A major reason for this: pigments from vegetable colors add up the natural hair pigments and do not replace them, as happens with conventional colors. That’s why naturally colored hair usually feels and looks stronger and healthier. If you want to treat your very dry hair to an extra portion of natural shine care, mix the color paste with a dollop of yoghurt or honey.
And “Öko-Test” has carefully checked whether there is really only nature in what it says nature on the label. So that customers can rely on certified products in retail. However, since any substance can trigger a reaction in the body, allergy sufferers apply a small amount of a product they have never used to an inconspicuous area of the body and let it work for 48 hours. Collect a test strand while you are waiting so that you can easily try out the exposure time and the result: simply take the hair out of the brush and place it in a small portion of the mixed colour.
This is how the most beautiful colors succeed
The initial color and the structure of the hair are responsible for the intensity and an even color result: Porous or fine hair absorbs more color than healthy, strong hair with an intact surface. Important: Before dyeing, remove residues from the hair with an anti-dandruff shampoo (e.g. “Wheat Dandruff Shampoo” from Weleda) or a peeling shampoo so that the pigments can be absorbed well. Apply the paste with a brush in sections from the roots to the lengths. Then put on a shower cap so that heat develops underneath. If you like, wrap a towel over it – the warmer, the more intense the result.
After the exposure time, wash out with lukewarm water without (!) shampoo – care and styling products remain taboo for the next 24 hours. Some hair oil, which is massaged into the hair and scalp before the first wash, also fixes the new shade. Expert trick from Heinrich Jacob von Khadi: “In addition, the herbal hair color gets more intensity and durability if it is mixed with very strong black tea or coffee and a pinch of salt.”
Since the new color can still change for up to 48 hours: If you are not satisfied, do not add it immediately, but first wait and see how the new shade develops on the hair.
