Natural Hair Recipes

Learn to color and condition your hair with herbs!

After you’ve learned about the different herbal options, we’ll help you get started with a personalized recipe for your hair goals.

How TO Color & condition your hair

You’ve got options whether you want to tame frizzies, add moisture and shine, or change up the color.

THE BASICS

To color or condition your hair, all you really need is your herbal powder blend + water + optional add-ins.

That’s it! From there, you can customize the ingredients to come up with the perfect blend for you and the results you want. Keep in mind that herbal hair color blends with your natural hair color, so the results will be unique for each person. These recipes are guidelines. It’s always a good idea to test a small section of hair in a hidden spot to make sure you like the results before applying to all of your hair.

Choose Your Herbal Blend

For red hair: Use pure henna powder. It will range from a vibrant orange-red (on light hair) to auburn to subtle red highlights (on dark brown/black hair).

For brown hair: Use a blend of henna and indigo to achieve brown or red-brown shades. You can tweak the proportions until you find a blend that works best for you. Starting with a 50/50 blend is a good place to start. The greater the proportion of indigo, the darker brown and less red it will be.

For strawberry blonde or copper hair: Blend henna with cassia to add golden tones to the red. Tweak the proportions until you find your favorite blend. Try starting with 75% cassia and 25% henna if you want a subtle change. Reverse it for more dramatic red color. The greater the proportion of henna, the redder it will be.

For conditioning only: Use pure cassia powder. It’s an incredible deep conditioner, and adds shine and smooths the cuticle. Cassia alone does not color your hair.

Photo by John Curry Photography

Find the Quantity You Need

The amount of powder you need depends on the length and thickness of your hair.

Choose Optional Add Ins

When preparing your mix, you can add some simple ingredients for conditioning, nourishment and scent. It’s fun to develop your own recipe! Here are some ideas from our previous customers’ suggestions:

Moisturizing & conditioning: Mashed avocado, raw egg, coconut milk, olive oil (a couple of tablespoons), mashed banana, yogurt, aloe vera juice

Protein: Raw egg, yogurt

Scent: Rose hydrosol, essential oils: sweet orange, lemongrass, Bulgarian lavender, tea tree

*Important! Essential oils must always be diluted properly for safety. Limit essential oils to 15 ml per 100g herbal powder (source).

Mixing & Application

Important: We always recommend that you do a strand test first to ensure the color will come out the way you intend. A strand test helps ensure it's not too dark or light, too red (or not red enough), and to be sure there are no surprise reactions with your water source (you can avoid this by using bottled water rather than tap).

• In a stainless steel or glass bowl, mix your herbal powder blend with any add-ins you’ve chosen (except essential oils, which should be added later).

• Then, add water 1/4c at a time and mixing with each addition until it’s a thick yogurt consistency.

• Add a high quality essential oil if desired (no more than 15ml per 100g herbal powder) and mix well.

• Add just a little more water, aiming for a thick pancake batter or yogurt consistency. Your goal is for the paste to be thin enough to apply easily, but not so thin that it drips and makes a mess.

• For less intense color: Use immediately.

• For stronger color: Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 1-4 hours (more time = bolder color) and then use.

Wearing gloves, apply evenly to your hair from roots to tips. When finished, pile your hair on top of your head. Wrap your hair with plastic wrap to prevent the mud from drying out. Leave on at least one hour, and up to 4 for more intense color and conditioning.

RInse

Rinse thoroughly. If the mixture isn’t rinsing easily, soak your hair in warm water for a few minutes to soften it up. Condition with your favorite product.

Avoid shampooing for 2-3 days to allow the color to develop.

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