Recipes for Enhancing Blonde Hair, Gold Tones, & Natural Highlights
*NOTE* These methods are more likely to add gold tones to your hair than lighten it. If you are working with pale blonde hair, these methods may actually cause darkening.- Special thanks to Elyce for the tip!
Natural Blonde Dye
Be sure and get all the ingredients at the store and lay everything out before you start the recipe. Everything will need to be added at once.
2 whole uncut fresh lemons (squeezed & strained for juice)
2/3 ounces or 20 grams of marigold flowers (you can buy at health food store)
2/3 ounces or 20 grams of chamomile flowers (buy at health food store)
1 – 1 ¼ ounces or 30 grams of finely chopped or powdered rhubarb root (grocery store or heath food store)
2 ounces or 50 grams of acacia honey (health food store)
1 pint or ½ liter cider vinegar
2 ounces or 50 grams of 95% proof alcohol (liquor store).
Put the vinegar and rhubarb into a stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer very gently for 10 minutes. Be sure to make it exactly 10 minutes. Less or more may cause problems. Add the chamomile and marigold flowers and juice of the two lemons. Cover the pan and simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove completely from the heat. Let the mixture stand covered with the lid until the liquid is tepid. Filter the concoction through a fine sieve into a bottle. Make sure you squeeze out any liquid in the herbs left in the sieve. Remember to be careful since the liquid may still be warm or even a tiny bit hot. Add the honey, alcohol and squeezed and strained lemon juice from the 2 lemons. Put a tight cap on the bottle and store for your next shampoo.
How To Use Dye
There are a couple of ways that you can make use of the natural dyes. You can use a dilution of the mixture by adding 1 tablespoon of the dye mixture for each quart or liter of final rinse water. If you really want to punch up the highlights, apply the mixture directly to your hair and leave on for at least 30 minutes. Be sure to cover your head with a shower cap or the drippage can stain. To get less drips, you can also mix some undiluted dye with a thick rinse out or deep conditioner and glop that on your head to get a thicker mixture.
Rinse & Shine
Use the mixture as a quick rinse or as a longer leave on dye, and then rinse your hair with cold water to seal the color. Let you hair air dry if possible. While there is no guarantee of the level of color you will have achieved, changes are good that you will definitely see some blonde highlights. The lighter the color your natural hair, the more intense the blonde color from the mixture. Remember that this is a type of all natural vegetable dye. The dye will only last from shampoo to shampoo. If you want to maintain the highlights or added blonde colors you will need to apply the mixture after each shampoo.
One batch will last from 2-3 weeks if kept refrigerated. It will last a shorter period of time if kept at room temperature. Depending on the length and thickness of your hair, the mixture will provide several after shampoo applications. Remember to take special care because in undiluted form, the final liquid will dye any materials it comes into contact with. This means it can stain your hands, your skin and any clothes or other materials. Apply this mixture in the shower and wash off immediately.
Summary
Will this recipe turn you into a Meg Ryan, Pamela Anderson or Heather Locklear? Probably not. Will it work better than just some lemon juice squirted onto your hair? Definitely. There are some downside to this recipe. It takes time, you have to gather all the flowers and herbs and you have to make the mixture. It can easily stain skin or clothes and is messy. The up side is that it is all natural, it saves you from the expense of a professional salon and it may even be fun to experiment.
Rhubarb Hair Color– In the last years of the 16th century, the Italian artist Titian popularized a red-blond hair color in his paintings. Venetian women who wanted to achieve the color applied mixtures of alum, sulfur, soda, and rhubarb to their hair and sat in the sun to let it dry. Here’s a simpler recipe for bright highlights in fair hair.
3/4 ounce rhubarb root
4 cups pure water
Simmer rhubarb root in water in a covered nonmetal pot for one hour. After cooling and filtering out solids, apply to the hair as a final rinse, pouring the liquid through again and again. Effects are permanent warm/bright overtones. Red wine may be used instead of water for a warmer tone.
Blonde Boost & Condition– Adds deep conditioning and warm hues to blonde hair. Please see the chart at the end of this document for what color this may give on your natural hair color.
1 TB body art quality henna
2 TB cassia obovata
2 TB chamomile powder (open up 1 chamomile tea bag)
Mix powdered ingredients into a paste using water and/or chamomile tea as a liquid. Cover and place somewhere warm until you see dye release. The color of the paste may look darker. Mix the paste with 1C yogurt or conditioner, wrap hair in saran wrap and allow it to sit for 2 hours. Rinse and condition.
Blonde Restorative- To restore hair that was once blonde.
10 grams licorice root
10 grams oat straw
1 pinch saffron
To restore hair that was once blonde, mix 10 grams of licorice root with 10 grams of oat straw, add a pinch of saffron. Cover with water and boil to make an infusion. Strain and use as a rinse after shampooing. It should be allowed to soak into the hair and NOT rinsed out.
Chamomile Tea Rinse– Chamomile is probably the most popular herbal hair colorant among blonds. A weekly rinse with this herb tea will also remedy the brown streaking that results from overexposure to the sun, and brighten “dishwater blond” hair.
½ C chamomile flowers
1 quart boiling water
To prepare a chamomile rinse, steep half a cup of the flowers in a quart of boiling water for half an hour. Then strain the mixture, and let it cool while you shampoo. Now, pour the brew through your towel-dried hair at least 15 times (catching it in a basin each time, in order to use it again). Wring the excess moisture out and leave the solution in your hair for a half an hour before rinsing it out with clear water. Just about any yellow-blossomed flower or herb can be used on blond hair, including calendula (pot marigold), mullein blooms and leaves, yellow broom flowers, saffron, turmeric, and quassia chips.
Rhubarb Rinse– Adds honey gold tones to blonde or light brown hair.
4 TB rhubarb root
3 C hot water
Pour three cups of hot water over four tablespoons of chopped rhubarb root, and simmer the concoction for 20 minutes. Strain and pour it through your freshly shampooed hair 15 or more times, catching the rinse in a bowl and reusing it. Rinse in clear water and again, weather permitting, dry it in the sun to strengthen the effect of the dyeing agent.
ktani’s Gray to Light Blonde Catnip Rinse– Gives a light blonde color to gray or white hair.
1 level tsp organic cut and sifted catnip
250 ml ( ~ little more than 1 C) water
Put catnip into a heat resistant large mug and add boiling water. Cover and steep for 30 mins. Deactivate it by straining it into a second large mug and always tap the condensation from the cover – I use a saucer, into the cup or mug – it contains the volatile oils and cover again. When cooled strain into plastic bottle – if made in advance will keep up to a week or longer in the fridge. Wash your hair then work the catnip through and cover with a plastic bag or shower cap. Leave on 30 minutes then rinse. If you like condition afterwards – I do not – it is not necessary – catnip conditions as well. I do my hair twice sort of – I wash withmy hair forward in the shower so I do the back, sides and length, pin it up, cover 30 minutes. Then take down and do the front, top and sides and cover for another 30 min. withthe length out of the bag. Then I take the bag off and let it “cool” down and use some more on my extra grey parts for another 10 min or so before rinsing it all out. Result – no grey/white showing at all. Color – light blonde- catnip produces a light yellow dye or stain. Does not stain tub, shower, hands, scalp or fingernails. I do this every time I wash my hair – time consuming but extremely worth it.
