Indigo can be a bit of a tricky herbal powder, especially for first time users. It is very easy to fail at using indigo powder for hair. It’s very important to make sure you get dye release.
Indigo has a very short dye life. Once it’s been mixed as a paste, it only dyes for about 2-3 hours. So indigo does need to be used immediately after mixing, or at least within 10-15 minutes.
Please follow this important process to achieve dye release from your indigo powder for hair.
- Place your indigo powder into a bowl. Personally we use stainless steel. We don’t really like plastic bowls as they absorb the dye/stain, they are porous, and they begin to smell like the herbs. The bowl you choose should only be used for hair dyeing.
- You can also add a pinch of salt if you have concerns of it sticking to your hair, or to tough greys.
- Slowly adding warm to hot liquid (make sure it’s a bit in between, and not too warm, nor room temperature) to your indigo powder, and begin to mix it altogether really well. Don’t add too much water or it’ll be too runny. Slowly add your water so that it is a bit thick.
- Then you can add it to your henna paste either immediately or within 10-15 minutes, if you are doing a one step process. For a two step process, apply it right away (or within those 10-15 minutes) onto your newly washed, henna’ed hair (meaning your hair must have been henna’ed first, so that the indigo sticks to your hair strands to color it black tones).
The picture below shows you what indigo paste looks like when it’s dye releasing. This is a good test to do if you’re not sure if you have good quality indigo. When the blue-black dye climbs up and into the papertowel you’ll know the color is great!
Thank you so much for this post and the picture!
Just want to say thank you very much for your tips and advice. I am so impressed with these tips I had to write and let everyone know.
Thank you Sara! Enjoy
Will indigo turn into dark purple during hair dying process on hair? I had used henna dye one day before it . Thanks.
Thanks for your post lo. DO you mean will it make your hair purple? It’ll turn like the above picture while its dyeing your hair, but your hair would turn black when used straight/pure indigo as your second step since you’ve already done your henna. Welcome!
Indigo paste turns into dark purple in surface (also bit shiny, like metallic color) after 20 mins. But after washing off, hair can be dyed into black. Is it normal and what’s the quality of indigo? Thanks.
Lo, we do have two videos on mixing our indigo and it shows you what the paste looks like. View here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paTrZOa05E4
The whole time indigo is on your hair and if used alone, and separate from henna then it will color your hair black. Yes it’s normal. Thanks!
Hi! Thanks for the detailed information, it means a lot to me 🙂
I have never tried to dye my hair with henna and now I would like to try it. I want the black colour. Is result the same if we dye our hair in one step(mixed henna and indigo) or is it better in 2 steps? I mean, is the final colour the same black and resistant? My hair is already dyed in black with synthetic dyes.
Since I’m from Serbia, I can’t find indigo here. Do you know any firms who sell and send a pure and natural indigo via post express or somehow? Thanks for your response in advance. Best wishes! 🙂
Thank you for your post Joanna. For black tones a 2 step is a must. A one step process would be for browner tones. We don’t know of anyone that sells in your area, but we do ship worldwide. Or we can refer you to a distributor in the UK if you prefer. Email me at khadija@hennasooq.com
hi i am little worried wether i shud go for ds or not…and how we can make dat paste????wd heena???? can be add amla egg n curd in ds paste????plz help me out..n also time
Hello! Thank you for posting on our blog.
It’s never too late to post 🙂 Have you ever tried using aloe vera powder in your henna and indigo? Do you use body art quality henna? We also recommend you may want to add indigo to your first step to darken your base before your second step. This should really help. Please let us know how its going.
Hello! You’re so welcome! Enjoy your gorgeous hair xo
Welcome!! Let us know how it’s going when you have a chance.
Usually indigo would sit, if it’s from us at least 20-30 minutes just to make sure of the dye release and then leave it on the hair 3-4 hours at least, not 2 hours. Its off that this did this but there is also a way to make it darker to start. Use 50/50 henna and indigo in the first step and then follow up with indigo alone. This will really help make it darker.
Hellooo…I mixed indigo powder with henna paste(which was prepared
Hello! Sorry your message got cut. What were you saying?
Amla may tone down the red of the henna and also adding indigo to the first step of your recipe will help darken your base as well a whole lot. We hope this helps. Please let us know how it’s going with your henna hair color.
Hello
You can also try adding indigo to the first step of your henna to get a darker base and then follow up with indigo alone. This would really help. Which of our henna and indigo are you using?
Hello
It may be that you’ve come to develop an allergy to indigo. Sometimes our bodies change as we age and we can’t take the same things we use to be able to.
I’m so sorry to hear this but this is even my own experience that some things my body tolerated, it no longer does. Have you tested the indigo on your skin to see if its giving you a reaction now?