First Time Trying Natural Hair Dye!

I have always kind of wanted to dye my hair something crazy but have never had the guts. Ok, well actually I did a semi-permanent dye like 10 years ago which was mildly purple (and I loved it!). I have also heard some great things about henna. So I decided I would try out both – sort of.

I had heard henna was quite nourishing for your hair and helps restore some life and shine, which I could definitely use right about now. I had never tried it before so didn’t want to go too crazy so thought I would start with something pretty similar to my own hair colour.

Enter VIVANESS and CULTIVATORS Organic Herbal Hair Colour.

I stumbled across the CULTIVATORS stand at VIVANESS this year and the lovely girls there gave me two different colours to try. One that should be about the same as my natural hair colour, and then I went for one a little darker to try next. Now, these are not pure henna hair colours. They include a mix of other herbal ingredients as well, but just check out that INCI list! Organic, plant-based, everything!

I did a test patch of hair 48hrs before and my hair didn’t fall out so I thought it was probably safe to do my whole head. And I wasn’t worried about any of the ingredients anyway.

So, as I have pretty long hair, even though it’s thin, I went for the four packages option. This ended up being just about right, and perfect for my first time trying and not having to worry about running out of product.

So I tried to section as best I could to distribute evenly. This ended up being quite difficult as the hair was just kind of tangling together so in the end I was just basically mashing it in everywhere. Spent a while mashing evenly so I think it worked out ok.

Now, this is an incredibly messy process to be aware you’ll probably flick it everywhere if you’re anywhere near as uncoordinated as I am. And it’s probably going to stain – since it’s supposed to colour your hair! – so go for old or black clothing. Or go naked, also works well, but not so good if you’re going to blog about it.

The smell is very herbal – as expected, and it’s SUPER green to start with. As I was sitting around waiting for it to do it’s thing I did notice the colour start to change (it dripped down my neck quite often). I definitely went brown towards the end before I washed it out.

The results

The first pic is after I washed my hair and let it air dry. Make sure you’ve been washing your hair for at least a week with silicone free shampoo. The henna won’t penetrate if the hair is coated with silicones.

I left the henna in for around 90 minutes as directed, and then washed out in the shower without shampoo or anything. A LOT of colour came out in the shower, for a long time. Was a bit worried I was going to stain everything I touched for days but no problems. My hair towel copped a bit but after I washed it, you could barely notice it. The middle pic is straight after this wash with blow drying the roots and letting the rest air dry.

The final pic is the next day.

I feel like I notice the difference a lot more in real life, it’s quite hard to see in the photos. My hair colour just seems a bit richer and with a little more depth. In the sun, the strands seem just that little bit shinier. But of course, this was just supposed to be a my-hair-colour-but-better-colour so I wasn’t expecting anything too drastic. I’m quite glad it’s not super red as I know henna is basically just going to turn everything red.

I don’t think I really noticed a difference in terms of how “nourished” my hair felt, but I feel like it’s going to take more than one treatment anyway.

All in all, I’ll certinaly be doing this again with a different colour!

Anyone else tried henna-based hair colour?

Love,