Organic Hair Dye - Why you should think twice before using it

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​We use organic skincare, we eat organic, we use organic cleaning products but why don’t we use organic hair dye?

​That was my thinking when I decided that I had enough of bleach and wanted to try out organic hair dye. Seemed like a good idea at the time, sadly, dying my hair with all organic henna based dye by Colora didn’t turn out to be quite as good as my hopes.

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​I’ve heard of henna and organic hair dyes for quite some time now, I’ve always stopped by the booths at trade shows and read several blog posts from fellow hair enthusiasts on it.  Benefits include keeping your hair shaft in tact, increasing the strength of your hair and shine.  So after not touching my hair for over 4 months, I decided that I am going to stop bleaching and go organic.  

I’ve been blonde or a version of blonde for over 10 years and was in the mood for a change.  I’ve also yet to find a bleach that doesn’t dry my hair out, yes I’ve used Olaplex and no I’m not crazy about it (it’s great and all just not revolutionary for me and still causes damage).   My hair is thicker and has more shine when it is in its natural state so going with an all organic dye seemed to make sense to me.

Not wanting to commit to dark red like typical 100% henna dye, I looked at other types of dye that produce lighter colors like gold and golden brown.  Little did I know this is VERY important, if you chose dye that has metals, indigo, or plant based dye it makes it that much harder to remove.  BE CAREFUL WHEN CHOOSING YOUR DYE!

I chose a brand called Colora, I read a lot of reviews, none of them seemed negative.  It is 100% plant based and organic, very affordable and not permanent (or so they say).  In addition, Colora offers a wide range of shades from strawberry blonde to black, I chose “GOLDEN BROWN”.  My rendition of “GOLDEN BROWN” is butterscotch or dark caramel color.  I knew there was a risk of having red hints but since the product advertises itself as being not permanent, I wasn’t too worried - “it’ll wash out” I thought.

Colora Hair Color Guide

Off I go! The instructions on the box indicate that you have to leave it for 1.5 hours for results, and if you want the color to be more intense you can leave it in for longer. So I mix the paste, I put it in my hair, shower cap goes on and I wait. One and a half hours goes by, I go to the bathroom and peek under the cap. RED, all I see is RED, and not cute strawberry blonde red, fire red! I freak out and tell myself “I just need to intensify this color” and I decide to wait longer. In retrospect, this was a bad decision made in panic mode and I should have rinsed off the dye right there and then. BUT, for whatever reason, still holding on to hopes that I will get my Golden Brown, I decided to wait and after 2 hours I go in the shower to rinse. DARK RED, all I see after the rinse is DARK RED. I didn't get any strange smells from the dye that some reviews say, I also had it all out with one wash, but the color was most certainly a far cry from Golden Brown.
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At this point realizing that this was an EPIC FAIL and there is no brown in sight, I washed my hair two more times and the color did lift however, still remained red. Me being not too uptight (most of the time) I decided to embrace this change, after all this is what I wanted. I called my fiancé in a panic, he calmed me down (as per usual) and told me that change is good and to not “mess around” with dye anymore. So, I matched my hair to Color 30 in Bohyme Extensions, got myself some tape-ins and life was starting to look alright again. Here are my results from this fiasco:
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Before Natural Brown top with Ombre Blonde bottoms

Hair After Colora Dye  in "Golden Brown"

MAJOR LESSONS LEARNED:

1. Think twice before using organic dye, henna does have a tendency to go red and will be impossible to remove.
2. Do a strand test to see how the color will turn out so there are no surprises.
3. If you do decide to go organic, read the label and if there is henna, be prepared to not touch your hair for a while as it is very tough to remove from hair.
4. If you are very particular about hair color DO NOT use organic dye, it is unpredictable in nature and can give you surprise results. If you can’t handle that, don’t do it!

​SAVING GRACE MOMENT:
If you do have a color oops moment, there are HAIR EXTENSIONS!  I can match even the craziest hair colors with Bohyme Extensions and it will look better with them in…trust me!
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My current extensions color is #30

THE ONLY POSITIVE out of this experience is that my hair is much thicker and stronger.  Henna does have this effect on hair; it improves strength, increases shine and overall health of the hair.  Ironically this IS what I wanted after all, but was it worth going red for?  Not for me.
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I am getting married in about 3.5 months and I want to go back to blonde or at least lighter than this red for my wedding.  BUT now that I am doing all the proper research, I’m learning that getting henna out of your hair apparently is the hardest thing you will ever do. 

​My next blog post will be about getting this sucker out of my hair, and I hope I come out alive so stay tuned! ​

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