Hi,
I am new here.  I was wondering if anyone has had good results with using tea to enhance their haircolor?  tia

Welcome Yogagirl!

I've not used teas on my hair (yet), but many of the gals here do.  If you have light hair (light brown, blonde), chamomile tea is supposed to enhance and highlight the hair.  Dark teas work well on dark hair to give the hair color more depth.  Some will even use coffee as a rinse for dark hair.

You can find "recipes" for these in the Hair Care Recipe Cookbook area of this site.

thank you so much for the advice and warm welcome.  I have recently become allergic to hairdye and was looking for a more natural alternative.  thanks again!

Henna is also an option you might want to consider.  It is a natural vegetable dye.  Be sure to do a patch test if you do try it, just to make sure you don't have sensitivities to it as well.

I've never tried Henna color. What kind of result does it give?

Henna can be a good conditioner for the hair.  There are different types of henna, some leave no color, some deposit reds, others black.  Henna color, as I understand it, does not penetrate the hair shaft, but instead leaves the color on the shaft.  The color will then eventually fade with time.  

I'll let our resident henna experts jump in here with more info, since I've never used it myself.

I love my henna, just re-did it Sunday, in fact.  I've been using henna on my hair for over 20 years, so I guess that makes me an expert.   ::)

I really like the rich color I get and the fact that its a natural product is great.  Do be sure to check the brand though, some of them aren't as natural as they would like you to believe.  Until Sunday, have gotten great conditioning from henna too.  My hair seems to have gone through a strange transition recently, and it ended up very dry after this henna treatment.  Jojoba oil seems to be taking care of that, though.

It does make a bit of a mess to rinse out, but I've found that kneeling down by the tub and using a hand-held shower attachment reduces that a ton.  Also, on Sunday, I used Anais Satin's COW to wash it out, and it was MUCH more effective than plain shampoo or conditioner alone.  (Thanks Anais!)

Some people also object to the smell, but I rather like it - it smells like spinach to me.  And compared to a chemical dye, it's world's better IMO.

(edited for typo)

pure henna will ONLY dye hair red.  cassia/senna is "neutral", herbal henna's are henna and other natural dyes and can give as many colors as chemical dyes but one can never go lighter. the absolute nice thing about them is that they are transparant colors (not meaning you won't notice them, they actually color my hair darker than chemical dyes!). the transparancy makes the color more natural than chemical colors which are always too uniform and opaque.

wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2005 at 3:23pm:

I've never tried Henna color. What kind of result does it give?

Millie, you may wish to check out Anais's hair journal. She has some pictures of a recent henna experiment she did on parts of her hair. This might give you an idea as what the type of henna Anais used did to her hair.

wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2005 at 3:23pm:

I've never tried Henna color. What kind of result does it give?

i have never colored my hair with any chemical dies, i only use henna. i get my henna from a lady i know who is from sudan, and thats the purest, best henna (or so i've read and heard about) my hair is black so when i use red henna it gives this really nice red shine to it (sot of like an all over highlight), and it shows a lot under a light, or the sun.

if you use henna you can add greentea to make it lighter, or regular tea to make it darker. since henna tends to dry the hair(some hair types don't) what i do is the next day i put a lot of olive oil(you can use any oil you find best)on my hair and put it in a shower cap, i leave it on for a couple of hours, then wash it of, it's great :D!
GOOD LUCK!

this is (from my experience) the best henna i found online because they have a lot of colors and they only use natural ingredients to make the different colors. www.morroccomethod.com/henna

thanks for listing that site.  I really enjoyed it!  Also, thanks everyone for all the info.

wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2005 at 9:38am:

Hi, I am new here.  I was wondering if anyone has had good results with using tea to enhance their haircolor?  tia

I henna my hair (two actually "colored" henna packets mixed with two translucent packets.. as I'm already a natural redhead and want to just enhance the color) and occasionally I make a color "rinse" for my hair.

Redhead Rinse:
3/4 cup water
5-6 Bigelow "Orange and Spice" tea (or any hibiscus flower tea)
2 vitamin E gelcaps
1/4 cup carrot juice

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan.  Remove from heat and steep teabags for 30 mins.  Remove teabags and discard.  To tea add carrot juice and contents of the vitamin E gelcaps.  Mix well and pour into spray bottle.  Spritz entire bottle over dry hair (place a towel over your shoulders to keep from staining your clothes) and let sit on hair for 1 hour before washing out.  I do this about once every 2 weeks and really helps to keep my color from looking "dull"

You can adapt this recipe for brunettes by omitting the tea and carrot juice and substituting 1 cup strongly brewed coffee and a TBS or so of your favorite conditioner.  Or if you're a blonde, make a tea with chamomile tea bags and add lemon juice.  Just mix up your ingredients, put into a spray bottle, and proceed as directed.  :)