Coffee Hair Color
This was a blog that I turned into a DIY page
6/15/2011
Well these will be my documents about my kitchen experiments. I am starting with hair color / rinse, more rinse than color. Let me give you a little background.
I started going a bit greyish in my late teens but it came and went. I am a natural red / auburn head so I am only really interested in the darker colors and pulling out my highlights and covering the grey. I started this last Summer but then things happend and I did not have the time or energy so I was content to ignore it again, but with recent events going on I am choosing to do something about it again.
So let me begin with last Summer, I went online and found you could do this with tea, so I got some tea 4 bags brewed them for 2 hours allowed them to cool and rinsed it thru my hair 20 times, it worked but I do not recommend this as it really is painful on the neck hanging over the sink all that time. I was doing that for about 2 months every other day but then "life happened" and I no longer had the time this took, so I stopped it and was once again content - no more though
I started this again 2 weeks ago with most of my hair still dark but on the top greyish and sun damaged / faded. I read again online that I could use other spices to help enhance this process, why not just use Henna you ask, well I had a friend have a very bad experience with it and it kinda turned me off to using besides the price, if I am going to spend alot of money on this latest experiment it will be only for ingredients I can use to drink or cook with or some color enhancing conditioner and or the same shampoo, but since I have gone cruelty free I will only be using the companies with natural ingredients.
So here is what I have been doing.
I started with a small spray bottle
Brewed 2 Lipton regular black tea bags for 1 hour
Allowed it to cool
Sprayed it on after shampoo and conditioning and left it in
Then I had the thought to add some Paprika, I saw the color of it in the store and just nearly fainted, so I got it
Brewed 2 Lipton regular black tea bags for 1 hour
Added 1/4 of a bottle of Paprika took out the tea bags and allowed to set for 1 hour - by now its cool.
Strained the mixture thru an old nylon into a coffee jar
Strained again the mixture into the spray bottle
I have used this mixture now everyday for 5 days after I shampoo and condition just spray it in and leave it
I usually use about half the bottle
My eyebrows and lashes with are naturally blonde, are now a lovely auburn color, the dark in my hair is considerably darker and my highlights are all out again. The grey though is the stubborn problem. It is though blending away. This is taking a long time to do - obviously. It is though all natural and I understand it will take a long while, so this is why I am documenting it all. I am not looking for an overnight fix just a gradual build upon stain.
I found some old coffee packets so this afternoon I will brew that up and pull out some grey hairs from my hair brush, which there are not so many now, and do a strand test, which I strongly recommend so you can see what will happen on test hair rather than on your head. One day I will also make some regular conditioner and put some mixture on it and sit outside, as I am sure that will be messy but the weather is not really warm enough for that.
All of this is a moderatly messy so take care not to get it where you don't want it, being a spray bottle take especial care. Don't use your favorite towel or top. I have read you can put lotion on your face and where you don't want stain, but I have not noticed stain on my face or neck.
I am just now brewing some instant coffee and will do a test sample and see what happens then I will possibly mix the two mixture together. I am using Starbucks Italian Roast, its smelling all thru the house, makes me want breakfast. LOL
6/17/2011
Well I had brewed the instant coffee all up nice and then I read not to use that on your hair ? So I took some strands of the grey and just nice chunk I cut off just to see what would happen, Heaven knows I got more than enough to go around. So I left all that in the jar overnight pulled it out the next and nothing had happened to it, except the grey was colored. So I went ahead and mixed this mixture { which I also put a fair amount of Paprika in } with my other tea and paprika mixture, the sun still is not out so I can't really see what it really looks like in the sun, I though put it up to the light and its the exact color I want my hair to be, so after shampooing and conditioning today I went ahead and sprayed it all in from the small bottle and worked it in with my fingers all thru, my hair never completely dries in this type of weather, even with the hair dryer, so I will have to wait some hours before I can see the true results. Though from what I can see the grey is more blended away than before and my ex blonde eye brows are just a lovely color auburn.
Overall I think its working but only in very subtle ways which is what I want but in any event its not doing any harm only drying some of my hair out but hot oil can help that. My next experiment will be some of the shampoo and conditioner for color treated hair, I want to try only small bottles though as for the moment I really don't need a whole large bottle. Once I finally get the desired color and grey / sun damaged coverage I can go down to doing this once or twice a week, my hand are getting cramps spraying it in every day. I wish the sun would come out and stay out so I could do the conditioner experiment. Oh another word of caution, the coffee mixture stains the bottom of the bath tub much much more, when it drips out onto the ends I squeeze it out into the tub then its a very good idea to rinse the bath immediately
6/21/2011
I read somewhere that if you do this in the direct Sun it helps somehow ???? Well since the weather is finally nice enough I went outside after shampoo and sprayed it all in, in the direct sunlight - I must admit it was alot less messy than having to be so careful in the bathroom, not to get it on everything. Just spray it on and squeeze it out and let it air dry. I did not use the hair dryer this time either, its still pretty wet but the smell of coffee is not so strong like it usually is, if I did not like coffee I think I would be in a world of unfriendly smell.
I did a real good once over before I washed my hair even in the back with a mirror and I can honestly say that what was dark is so much darker and the red highlights I think are just beautiful - like they were when I was a child from old pics.
I think I am lucky I am getting this going now. Though since all the rest is OK the grey really sticks out more than before. Since though my eyebrows are a nice color and they were not that much different in color than they grey this will work, I guess just because the grey is more coarse than the rest its taking longer but then I knew when I started this it would take a long while. Its nice though not using the harsh chemicals, I can do this anytime I want and not even to mention how inexpensive this is. In total I have spent .99 cents all together. I had the tea already and I suppose I was luck I found the coffee, even still just to buy some cheap coffee is better than - I checked and for my color the cheapest I could find was just under 15 dollars. Yikes
6/24/2011
I saw in the Sun today, my hard work and near sprained wrist is paying off, my hair is definately darker. The grey is still there yes but not anywhere near as bad as it was before I started. Yay. I could not find any shampoo and conditioner that I wanted, that keeps the color in and helps bring out the red, so I will have to keep looking around for that. Once though I get my color and guessing by the rate I am going it might be by the end of next month for sure. I am so happy this is working. I will only do it perhaps twice a week or maybe thrice. I will also be doing a deep conditioning hot oil treatment this weekend.
6/29/2011
I made up a new batch of rinse yesterday, this one consists now of half and half Italian Roast coffee and regular Lipton black tea with no particular measured amount of Paprika in both but a good healthy amount. The color of the new batch is much redder than the previous amount and honestly smells much nicer. The coffee I use as I said is old I found it in the back of the cupboard and it really stinks like old coffee but it did what I wanted it too.
The color is a bit more brown than I wanted but at least its not anywhere near as grey as it was before, now I can really see the difference. There is still a great deal of grey there but not like before. I am satisfied enough of the progress that I am now also working {spraying} the batch into the rest of my hair and not so much concentrating on the roots, though that is still my primary spot to do.
Once this batch is gone I will only use Tea and Paprika. I will make up a batch of the coffee to do maybe every other month or so but my goal now is to just finish with the coffee and go back to tea. My hair looks like it did when I was in my early 30's late 20's now.
Experiment: Success
7/4/2011
The color is still going well. The bottom parts of my hair are the same color now as they were when I was like 7 years old. Yay. The top is much darker the grey much less visible. All worked well. Now since I noticed the hair on my arms is getting a bit too dark for my taste, I will go and get some lemons and see if that will make it blonde again.
8/24/2011
Down to doing the coffee rinse just once a week now, it takes a bit for the grey to come back it never really turned red again but a Strawberry Blonde which is OK with me, the rest of it down my back is a beautiful shade of red. I am still taking the time off for the weekend to give my hair a rest and a real good conditioning. Yes indeed the experiment was a success. I would recommend this to everyone wanting dark hair, all natural and people have been doing it for centuries. My eyebrows and eyelashes are also a lovely shade of brown something I always wanted. :D
9/19/2011
I just have to share this, I had been thinking about the hair color in the boxes again, thinking I can't believe they don't put some sort of natural ingredients in there, so I was looking and naturally found none, just a whole bunch of stuff I could not even begin to pronounce let alone understand what it was, so I was just standing there looking at them all - still shocked at the price too. So this lady comes up to me all timid and shy - and asked me in a tiny voice, - she was very sweet. " Excuse me Miss, can I ask you what brand you use, it looks so natural " I almost cried. She looked to be in her late 20's like when I started to go real gray I thought she was very pretty. I told her I was just checking ingredients and prices and we got to talking about how bad it is for you and I told her what I was doing - the look of wonderment that came over her face. I told her that even the most expensive coffee's will be cheaper than one application of color and its true. I still have what will amount to about 6 or 7 years worth of left over coffee from various situations and I am now down to using 1 tablespoon, still with a small bottle of water once a week, so I am good for a very - very long time. I am also wondering if flat cola might not do the same thing ??
When she left she had no box of hair color and was headed off the the market just next door, I presume to get some coffee and tea. :D
9/27/2011
Well yes still all is going well with it, BUT I made a mistake, when I went out Birding last weekend I did not bring a hat with me so I had only an umbrella, OK that takes care of the sunburn but it did not help keep the color in my hair. The Sun bleached it ALL out. It was a grey as it was before - Oh Dear. So I guess I may as well tell you, you HAVE to wear a hat if you go out in the Sun for a long period of time. I wish I knew that before. So this weekend I will have to remember the hat. I guess I saw clearly how well its working though.
10/11/2011
Well after all this time I finally figured out the worst problem I have had with this whole experiment. How not to use a spray bottle and get it all over the place. I found an old Honey Bear so I just let the coffee mixture cool and then put it in there and just squeeze it on and smear it across my hair with my hands and work it in with my fingers. I have to have a napkin to wipe up the extra that drips down but other than that it works wonderful. It takes a bit more time than the spray bottle but for use in the Winter time it will work. :D
5/29/2012
Well its been about a year, I am down to doing either Tea or Coffee now once a week and it keeps the color pretty good all week. Yes there is still some grey but unless you really look for it you can't tell. My spray bottles keep breaking so I just gave that up and go ahead and just pour it on and rub it in with my fingers. I also try to leave it on for as long as I can which usually turns into several hours.
Overall I am very please with this whole process, doing it naturally and much cheaper what more could you ask for.
2/12/2013
New Experiments
Since I am real good with the color, the grey really has turned strawberry blonde, even my own critical eye can not tell the difference. So I am now wanting to try something new - carrot juice. I have been researching online and will again document my own findings here.
Today I have some carrot peels, I have boiled them in a sauce pan - mistake ALOT of the color came out. I took what was left and put some boiling water in a glass jar and am letting it cool, yes there is still color but there was much more before the saucepan. I will take some sample strands and put it in and leave it overnight and see what happens in the morning and will report.
1/27/2015
Never tried the carrot juice, just stuck with the coffee and have been very happy with the end results.
6/15/2011
Well these will be my documents about my kitchen experiments. I am starting with hair color / rinse, more rinse than color. Let me give you a little background.
I started going a bit greyish in my late teens but it came and went. I am a natural red / auburn head so I am only really interested in the darker colors and pulling out my highlights and covering the grey. I started this last Summer but then things happend and I did not have the time or energy so I was content to ignore it again, but with recent events going on I am choosing to do something about it again.
So let me begin with last Summer, I went online and found you could do this with tea, so I got some tea 4 bags brewed them for 2 hours allowed them to cool and rinsed it thru my hair 20 times, it worked but I do not recommend this as it really is painful on the neck hanging over the sink all that time. I was doing that for about 2 months every other day but then "life happened" and I no longer had the time this took, so I stopped it and was once again content - no more though
I started this again 2 weeks ago with most of my hair still dark but on the top greyish and sun damaged / faded. I read again online that I could use other spices to help enhance this process, why not just use Henna you ask, well I had a friend have a very bad experience with it and it kinda turned me off to using besides the price, if I am going to spend alot of money on this latest experiment it will be only for ingredients I can use to drink or cook with or some color enhancing conditioner and or the same shampoo, but since I have gone cruelty free I will only be using the companies with natural ingredients.
So here is what I have been doing.
I started with a small spray bottle
Brewed 2 Lipton regular black tea bags for 1 hour
Allowed it to cool
Sprayed it on after shampoo and conditioning and left it in
Then I had the thought to add some Paprika, I saw the color of it in the store and just nearly fainted, so I got it
Brewed 2 Lipton regular black tea bags for 1 hour
Added 1/4 of a bottle of Paprika took out the tea bags and allowed to set for 1 hour - by now its cool.
Strained the mixture thru an old nylon into a coffee jar
Strained again the mixture into the spray bottle
I have used this mixture now everyday for 5 days after I shampoo and condition just spray it in and leave it
I usually use about half the bottle
My eyebrows and lashes with are naturally blonde, are now a lovely auburn color, the dark in my hair is considerably darker and my highlights are all out again. The grey though is the stubborn problem. It is though blending away. This is taking a long time to do - obviously. It is though all natural and I understand it will take a long while, so this is why I am documenting it all. I am not looking for an overnight fix just a gradual build upon stain.
I found some old coffee packets so this afternoon I will brew that up and pull out some grey hairs from my hair brush, which there are not so many now, and do a strand test, which I strongly recommend so you can see what will happen on test hair rather than on your head. One day I will also make some regular conditioner and put some mixture on it and sit outside, as I am sure that will be messy but the weather is not really warm enough for that.
All of this is a moderatly messy so take care not to get it where you don't want it, being a spray bottle take especial care. Don't use your favorite towel or top. I have read you can put lotion on your face and where you don't want stain, but I have not noticed stain on my face or neck.
I am just now brewing some instant coffee and will do a test sample and see what happens then I will possibly mix the two mixture together. I am using Starbucks Italian Roast, its smelling all thru the house, makes me want breakfast. LOL
6/17/2011
Well I had brewed the instant coffee all up nice and then I read not to use that on your hair ? So I took some strands of the grey and just nice chunk I cut off just to see what would happen, Heaven knows I got more than enough to go around. So I left all that in the jar overnight pulled it out the next and nothing had happened to it, except the grey was colored. So I went ahead and mixed this mixture { which I also put a fair amount of Paprika in } with my other tea and paprika mixture, the sun still is not out so I can't really see what it really looks like in the sun, I though put it up to the light and its the exact color I want my hair to be, so after shampooing and conditioning today I went ahead and sprayed it all in from the small bottle and worked it in with my fingers all thru, my hair never completely dries in this type of weather, even with the hair dryer, so I will have to wait some hours before I can see the true results. Though from what I can see the grey is more blended away than before and my ex blonde eye brows are just a lovely color auburn.
Overall I think its working but only in very subtle ways which is what I want but in any event its not doing any harm only drying some of my hair out but hot oil can help that. My next experiment will be some of the shampoo and conditioner for color treated hair, I want to try only small bottles though as for the moment I really don't need a whole large bottle. Once I finally get the desired color and grey / sun damaged coverage I can go down to doing this once or twice a week, my hand are getting cramps spraying it in every day. I wish the sun would come out and stay out so I could do the conditioner experiment. Oh another word of caution, the coffee mixture stains the bottom of the bath tub much much more, when it drips out onto the ends I squeeze it out into the tub then its a very good idea to rinse the bath immediately
6/21/2011
I read somewhere that if you do this in the direct Sun it helps somehow ???? Well since the weather is finally nice enough I went outside after shampoo and sprayed it all in, in the direct sunlight - I must admit it was alot less messy than having to be so careful in the bathroom, not to get it on everything. Just spray it on and squeeze it out and let it air dry. I did not use the hair dryer this time either, its still pretty wet but the smell of coffee is not so strong like it usually is, if I did not like coffee I think I would be in a world of unfriendly smell.
I did a real good once over before I washed my hair even in the back with a mirror and I can honestly say that what was dark is so much darker and the red highlights I think are just beautiful - like they were when I was a child from old pics.
I think I am lucky I am getting this going now. Though since all the rest is OK the grey really sticks out more than before. Since though my eyebrows are a nice color and they were not that much different in color than they grey this will work, I guess just because the grey is more coarse than the rest its taking longer but then I knew when I started this it would take a long while. Its nice though not using the harsh chemicals, I can do this anytime I want and not even to mention how inexpensive this is. In total I have spent .99 cents all together. I had the tea already and I suppose I was luck I found the coffee, even still just to buy some cheap coffee is better than - I checked and for my color the cheapest I could find was just under 15 dollars. Yikes
6/24/2011
I saw in the Sun today, my hard work and near sprained wrist is paying off, my hair is definately darker. The grey is still there yes but not anywhere near as bad as it was before I started. Yay. I could not find any shampoo and conditioner that I wanted, that keeps the color in and helps bring out the red, so I will have to keep looking around for that. Once though I get my color and guessing by the rate I am going it might be by the end of next month for sure. I am so happy this is working. I will only do it perhaps twice a week or maybe thrice. I will also be doing a deep conditioning hot oil treatment this weekend.
6/29/2011
I made up a new batch of rinse yesterday, this one consists now of half and half Italian Roast coffee and regular Lipton black tea with no particular measured amount of Paprika in both but a good healthy amount. The color of the new batch is much redder than the previous amount and honestly smells much nicer. The coffee I use as I said is old I found it in the back of the cupboard and it really stinks like old coffee but it did what I wanted it too.
The color is a bit more brown than I wanted but at least its not anywhere near as grey as it was before, now I can really see the difference. There is still a great deal of grey there but not like before. I am satisfied enough of the progress that I am now also working {spraying} the batch into the rest of my hair and not so much concentrating on the roots, though that is still my primary spot to do.
Once this batch is gone I will only use Tea and Paprika. I will make up a batch of the coffee to do maybe every other month or so but my goal now is to just finish with the coffee and go back to tea. My hair looks like it did when I was in my early 30's late 20's now.
Experiment: Success
7/4/2011
The color is still going well. The bottom parts of my hair are the same color now as they were when I was like 7 years old. Yay. The top is much darker the grey much less visible. All worked well. Now since I noticed the hair on my arms is getting a bit too dark for my taste, I will go and get some lemons and see if that will make it blonde again.
8/24/2011
Down to doing the coffee rinse just once a week now, it takes a bit for the grey to come back it never really turned red again but a Strawberry Blonde which is OK with me, the rest of it down my back is a beautiful shade of red. I am still taking the time off for the weekend to give my hair a rest and a real good conditioning. Yes indeed the experiment was a success. I would recommend this to everyone wanting dark hair, all natural and people have been doing it for centuries. My eyebrows and eyelashes are also a lovely shade of brown something I always wanted. :D
9/19/2011
I just have to share this, I had been thinking about the hair color in the boxes again, thinking I can't believe they don't put some sort of natural ingredients in there, so I was looking and naturally found none, just a whole bunch of stuff I could not even begin to pronounce let alone understand what it was, so I was just standing there looking at them all - still shocked at the price too. So this lady comes up to me all timid and shy - and asked me in a tiny voice, - she was very sweet. " Excuse me Miss, can I ask you what brand you use, it looks so natural " I almost cried. She looked to be in her late 20's like when I started to go real gray I thought she was very pretty. I told her I was just checking ingredients and prices and we got to talking about how bad it is for you and I told her what I was doing - the look of wonderment that came over her face. I told her that even the most expensive coffee's will be cheaper than one application of color and its true. I still have what will amount to about 6 or 7 years worth of left over coffee from various situations and I am now down to using 1 tablespoon, still with a small bottle of water once a week, so I am good for a very - very long time. I am also wondering if flat cola might not do the same thing ??
When she left she had no box of hair color and was headed off the the market just next door, I presume to get some coffee and tea. :D
9/27/2011
Well yes still all is going well with it, BUT I made a mistake, when I went out Birding last weekend I did not bring a hat with me so I had only an umbrella, OK that takes care of the sunburn but it did not help keep the color in my hair. The Sun bleached it ALL out. It was a grey as it was before - Oh Dear. So I guess I may as well tell you, you HAVE to wear a hat if you go out in the Sun for a long period of time. I wish I knew that before. So this weekend I will have to remember the hat. I guess I saw clearly how well its working though.
10/11/2011
Well after all this time I finally figured out the worst problem I have had with this whole experiment. How not to use a spray bottle and get it all over the place. I found an old Honey Bear so I just let the coffee mixture cool and then put it in there and just squeeze it on and smear it across my hair with my hands and work it in with my fingers. I have to have a napkin to wipe up the extra that drips down but other than that it works wonderful. It takes a bit more time than the spray bottle but for use in the Winter time it will work. :D
5/29/2012
Well its been about a year, I am down to doing either Tea or Coffee now once a week and it keeps the color pretty good all week. Yes there is still some grey but unless you really look for it you can't tell. My spray bottles keep breaking so I just gave that up and go ahead and just pour it on and rub it in with my fingers. I also try to leave it on for as long as I can which usually turns into several hours.
Overall I am very please with this whole process, doing it naturally and much cheaper what more could you ask for.
2/12/2013
New Experiments
Since I am real good with the color, the grey really has turned strawberry blonde, even my own critical eye can not tell the difference. So I am now wanting to try something new - carrot juice. I have been researching online and will again document my own findings here.
Today I have some carrot peels, I have boiled them in a sauce pan - mistake ALOT of the color came out. I took what was left and put some boiling water in a glass jar and am letting it cool, yes there is still color but there was much more before the saucepan. I will take some sample strands and put it in and leave it overnight and see what happens in the morning and will report.
1/27/2015
Never tried the carrot juice, just stuck with the coffee and have been very happy with the end results.