User Guide for Khadi Herbal Hair colours
Unique and perfect long lasting colour, shine, volume and protection with Khadi herbal hair colours in one step.With nature's power only.
Introduction:
Khadi herbal hair colours dye your hair with pure natural colours. All our herbal hair colours are checked for harmful substances and subjected to regular strict controls in independent and recognized laboratories.
Khadi herbal hair colours do not contain preservatives, colour reinforcements, peroxides or general chemicals. Your health and safety is our priority.
Due to careful and special preparation Khadi herbal hair colours dye more intensively than other natural hair colours. Please keep this in mind when you apply Khadi herbal hair colours. The hair colours also contain special Ayurvedic herbs which strengthen and give lustre to your hair.
For healthy shiny hair with nature’s power only.
How Khadi herbal hair colours work
Khadi herbal hair colours dye your hair with long-lasting colour with the exception of Khadi Senna / Cassia. So to prevent any undesired colour outcome we recommend a sample test before use.
More details are provided in the following pages. Herbal hair colours lay like a glaze or a fine coating on each individual hair; which means that the result depends on your current hair colour. This fact also provides the advantage to everyone to have a hair colour and shade which is unique. Regular use of Khadi herbal hair colours will deepen the shade that you have chosen.
Since Khadi herbal hair colours are natural and contain no chemicals, it is not possible to lighten your hair colour with them.
When you have found your desired hair colour we first suggest colouring the hair roots, since the hair lengths already have the colour of your choice. More information on hair root colouring is provided in the following pages.
All Khadi Herbal Hair colours can be mixed with each other without any problem. The proportion depends on the colour that you want, your hair structure and also the colour which your hair already has.
Different kinds of hair
Just as different hair kinds can be distinguished, so also the structure of each kind. Other than smoothness, there is fine hair, curly hair, wavy hair and many more. Hair can be fine, normal or thick, healthy and shiny or damaged. Beside natural characteristics, it is important to know the structure of your hair for proper care. Chemically treated hair needs special care because the chemicals make the hair dry, rough, brittle and damaged with split ends etc.
Besides hair structure, your existing hair colour will also be a factor in the final colour outcome from Khadi herbal hair colours. If you are unsure about your hair structure, other than the sample test you should also use the Khadi herbal hair colour paste for a shorter duration.
Testing colours before actual use / Sample test
To avoid undesirable colour, we recommend a sample test with Khadi herbal hair colours on sample hair to check the results.
Collect hair from your hairbrush and place them in the a small quantity of hair colour paste to see the result.
Cover the bowl and keep it in a warm place. Collect sufficient samples of your hair so that you can see how effective the colour is at various times; 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes. Wash the hair samples thoroughly with lukewarm water. The colour on the sample hair will develop to its best colour within 24 to 48 hours.
Wait for 24 to 48 hours before applying Khadi herbal Hair colours on your head so that you already know the exact colour that would have developed in the samples.
What you require
You need the following things to colour your hair:
Khadi herbal hair colour
A bowl of appropriate size
Warm water
Disposable gloves to protect your hands
Old towel to protect your clothes
Hair colour applying brush
Shower cap
Towel or hair turban to keep the paste warm after application
Optimum preparation for your hair:
Before applying Khadi herbal hair colours, wash hair with shampoo (e.g. Khadi Amla herbal shampoo).
It is important to know that many commercial hair dyes contain silicon, which is also added in many hair care products including shampoo.
The silicon lays a film around each individual hair to create lustre. Over time hair surrounded by silicon can no longer absorb natural hair colour or conditioner. The silicon obstructs the absorption of natural hair colours.
If you are not sure that you hair care products contain silicon ( Khadi shampoos are silicon free), you should wash hair with a peeling shampoo before applying Khadi herbal hair colours.
Towel dry your hair after shampoo, then use Khadi Herbal Hair colours, this will ensure uniform distribution of the hair colour paste.
Mixing Khadi herbal hair colours
Mix the required quantity of powder gently with warm water to a smooth paste. For shoulder length hair you need about 80-100gms. The paste should be sufficiently thick in consistency so that it does not drip.
Please take care not to inhale any powder dust.
Tips for using the following colours:
Khadi pure Henna
Khadi Henna / Amla / Jatropha or
Khadi Henna + Amla
For these colours use hot water ( about 60-80 degrees centigrade) because the colour is more intense when mixed with hot water. The paste is ready for application as soon as it cools to skin-comfortable temperature.
Never apply paste at boiling temperature; this will injure your scalp.
Applying Khadi Herbal Hair colours
Do not forget to protect your clothes - resulting stains are not only difficult to remove, sometimes the stains are permanent. Use the gloves provided to prevent coloration of your hands and finger nails. Stains on finger nails are especially stubborn and will only wear away with time.
Apply the paste, possibly warm, layer by layer with a brush. Begin at the center or top of your head and progress round it strand by strand.
Take a strand of hair at the center or top of your head, apply from root and cover the entire length. Pile this strand of hair over the top of you head in a little circle.
Then take another strand nearest to the little pile, apply paste from hair root to the entire hair length and then wrap it over the little pile you have made at the top.
Continue this process, all round the pile as it gets larger till you approach your hair line – the area from where your hair growth starts round your forehead and nape.
Apply at the hairline carefully so that all the tiny hairs which fall on your forehead and over your ears and nape are completely covered by the paste.
It is important to pile it over your head to avoid messy application.
You can also use hair clips to part your hair into several segments before you begin the colouring process. You can then take each segment, cover its entire length with hair colour. Begin at segment on the top of your head and repeat the procedure mentioned above till you have a neat pile of hair completely covered in paste.
You will become efficient with this process of application after using Khadi herbal hair colours for a few times.
At the end of the application you should have a neat large bun at the top of your head.
After the application, take a long length of thick cotton and wrap it round your entire hairline: over your ears, round your forehead and the nape. This will prevent any liquid dripping out.
Put on a plastic shower cap. Remove any spots of colour on exposed skin like top of ears and forehead with wet cotton. See the colour does not dry on any portion of exposed skin like the top of ears or the nape.
You can then wrap another towel over your head like a turban to keep the paste warm inside. (You can also put on a woolen cap which will provide warmth or use an electrical heated cap.)
If you keep the paste warm the colour will be more intense.
Duration of application
As described earlier, the duration that you keep the Khadi herbal hair colour paste on your hair is regulated/estimated by individual requirement as well as hair structure.
Leave on the paste between 30 minutes (for a light colour or in case of damaged hair) to two hours.
After dyeing, steps to ensure long lasting colour
After the requisite time, wash off the paste with lukewarm water. Rinse till the water runs clear. Khadi herbal hair colours can be rinsed out easily with plain water. Avoid shampoo and other hair styling products for the next 24 hours for the natural hair colours to get stable.
The next day you can shampoo your hair. You can also oil your hair; for example with Khadi Amla hair oil for better colour durability. Massage a small amount into scalp and entire length of hair and leave on for at least an hour before you shampoo. You can massage the hair oil and leave it overnight before you shampoo.
Please note that the colour can further darken somewhat after the hair wash.
If you are not satisfied with the colour, in the next application try longer or shorter duration or a different mix of Khadi herbal hair colours. There is really no end to the various shades and colours that you can create.
Hints for more care- what you can add to Khadi herbal hair colours
For better colour durability you can add very strong black tea or coffee and a tea spoon of salt to the hair colour paste.
To give your hair a reddish glow you can use heated red wine instead of water or tea. Since the alcohol in the wine can damage your hair, heat the wine for the alcohol to evaporate before use.
In rare instances very damaged hair can become dry by plant colours. This is due to the astringent effect of the plant hair colours. You can avoid this reducing the quantity of water and instead use one to two tea spoons of high quality hair conditioner to the paste.
A suitable addition for hair in need of special care is Khadi Amla powder. This will help strengthen your hair and at the same time add shine and lustre.
With Khadi Amla powder you can have different colour effects on your hair by creating various nuances. Amla will intensify red tones, and colour blendings which contain Indigo can become slightly reddish.
Other things which you can add to your paste are honey or milk or yoghurt to prevent dryness. Different types of hair will react differently to all these additives. These additions will not damage your hair and you can try them out to see the effect. If you are not satisfied with one you can try out the other to see what softens your hair best. With a little patience and experiment you can hit upon the right additive to make your hair soft and manageable. Do not use any kind of oil in the paste, this will obstruct the herbal hair colour from colouring your hair.
Colouring hair roots
It is probable that you have coloured your hair several times in the past and the hair lengths have a dark colour compared to the hair roots. To avoid different colours near the roots and hair lengths you can just touch up the roots instead of the whole length of hair. You need to make all the preparations as if you were colouring the entire length of hair from roots to the tip. You can separate your hair into several strands with hair clips or clamps. With each strand colour only the first few centimetres from the hair roots. In case you have an old bottle which can be squeezed you can put the hair colour inside the bottle. You can make the paste slightly thin so that it can be squeezed out easily. Also you might need to enlarge the opening of the bottle somewhat so that the paste is easily squeezed out. The duration that you are going to leave the paste on also once again depends on the colour desired and also the structure of your hair.
Special tips for grey hair
Please note Indigo (in the shades dark brown, black or pure indigo) becomes green or blue on some grey hair. To avoid unwanted colours your should not use these colours directly on grey hair. Some customers report that the Khadi herbal hair colour – Dark Brown can be used on grey hair without any such problem. However to be on the safe side we advice that you do a sample test before using the hair colour.
However it is possible to colour grey hair to the colour of your choice. This is explained in greater detail in how to colour grey hair in two easy steps.
Two step process for dyeing grey hair
As explained Khadi herbal hair colours put a glaze around each individual hair, colouring your hair in the process. This means that your hair colour is determined substantially by the existing colour of your hair. For this reason each hair will develop unique individual shades with natural hair colours. This will also lead to great variation in colour between your grey hair and your original hair colour.
Henna has characteristics which help it to easily colour hair, but Indigo does not especially in connection with grey hair. Indigo also washes off faster. So the colour on grey hair can fade faster while the other is still dark leading to unwanted colour variations.
To avoid all this, it is advisable to colour your hair in two steps, particularly if you have selected a very dark shade for your hair. In following these two steps the Indigo will give the desired colour and will also be long lasting especially on grey hair.
In the first step colour your hair with
Pure Khadi Henna or
Khadi Henna / Amla / Jatropha or
Khadi Henna + Amla.
The duration you keep the paste on your hair depends on individual hair structure especially if you have fine or thick hair.
Wash off the paste. Now over this pre-coloured hair you can use any of the darker tones which you have chosen. Use the same procedure as mentioned. The result will be an even coloured tone through out your hair.
Special tips for using Khadi Senna / Cassia & Khadi Amla powder
Special use of Khadi Senna / Cassia
Khadi Senna / Cassia is a hair conditioner which does not colour hair and can be used on all types of hair.
Make a paste of Khadi Senna / Cassia, as you would your hair colours and apply.
You can choose the duration you would like to keep Cassia on, since it does not colour your hair.
In rare cases, with severely damaged or very light and blond hair, Cassia can give a slight greenish tinge to your hair if kept for a very long duration. We therefore recommend a sample test before application.
For greater care and conditioning you can mix Khadi Senna / Cassia with Khadi Amla powder. The proportion depends on your needs. A treatment with pure Khadi Amla powder is also recommended for your hair.
Create the mixture with warm water as you would your other natural hair colours. Leave it on as long as you desire and then wash off with lukewarm water. In rare cases, the Vitamin C or acid content in Amla can make your hair a shade lighter.
Additional measures to prepare Khadi herbal hair colours
Red tones can be intensified by adding one to two table spoon of lemon juice to your Khadi herbal hair colour paste. You can also add one or two table spoon of apple juice or vinegar.
Cover the paste with a foil and keep it in a warm place; we recommend 12 hours at room temperature. The duration you keep the paste depends on temperature. If the temperature is high ‘dye release’ will be faster. The acid releases the colour from the plants which can be clearly seen.
This means that the paste at the surface has a darker colour than below. You can check if sufficient colour has been released.
Using citric in the paste has some advantage. It intensifies the colour; also you do not need to apply the paste warm since the colouring material from the plant has already been released.
However Indigo is an exception, since it does not like acids. If your colour choice has a mix of Henna and Indigo, mix only the Henna with acid. Mix the Indigo with the Henna and acid just before application.
You can mix all colours without any problem with each other. By adding Khadi Indigo you can darken your hair colour, with Khadi Henna you can obtain a more reddish colour, and with Khadi Senna / Cassia a brighter nuance.
All Khadi herbal hair colours can be made into a paste with lukewarm water and left for 12 hours covered in a warm place (do not use any acids).
The longer you soak the paste the more intense the red tones will be.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Does a plant colour wash out easily?
A:
Plant colours are durable. Though natural plant colours do not penetrate the hair shaft to give hair colour, and only deposits colour like a glaze on the outside layer of hair, it is nonetheless very durable. Red tones are particularly durable and fade only somewhat over a long period of time. The durability of colour also depends on how often hair has already been coloured with plant colours.
In cases shades have been created with a good amount of Indigo, the durability of the colour is definitely less since Indigo does not enter the first layer of the hair shaft that easily. However the other colours will definitely last on hair longer.
Q: How long must I wait between two colourings?
A:
There is no time frame between two colourings. However, remember that after the first dyeing the colour will still develop within 24- 48 hours. If you are not satisfied with the result, you should atleast wait for this period, then take a decision if a second colouring is necessary.
Q: Can Khadi herbal hair colours be used on hair which has been made curly with chemicals?
A: You can use Khadi herbal hair colours without any problem on curly hair. You will also notice the conditioning, plant hair colours will give to chemically damaged hair. However since the hair has been chemically treated you might need to keep the plant colours on longer than usual to get your required shade. We also recommend that you take the advice of a professional who handle plant hair colours for your special need.
Q: Can plant hair colours cause allergies or reactions?
A:
In a few cases, yes, plant hair colours can cause some allergies or skin reactions. If you are highly allergic you should first do an allergy test preferably with your dermatologist. You can also do a self test. Mix a small quantity and use it on an inconspicuous place on your skin like in the inside of your arm and keep it on for 48 hours.
Remember that even very small quantities can give very strong colour to your skin.
Q: Can I mix all the colours available amongst themselves?
A:
Yes. All Khadi Hair colours mix without any problem with each other. You can create unique individual colours in the process. You can always do a sample test of the unique colour you have created before you use it on your hair.
Q: If the colour is too red or too dark what can I do?
A:
It is fundamental to know that because of its high quality Khadi herbal hair colours can give strong colouring to your hair. And to avoid any unwanted colours we have repeatedly recommended sample tests before actual use. However if it does happen that your hair has developed strong colours which you do not like then there are some possibilities to change that.
If your hair has become too red, you can tone it down by colouring your hair with Khadi herbal hair colours from the brown spectrum. Use shorter duration so that the hair does not become too dark. Once again before you do this we recommend a sample test.
If your hair has developed dark tones, it is difficult to achieve lighter tones. You need patience. Since Indigo washes out faster then Henna the dark tone will fade faster and a more reddish colour will remain. Some customers report that regular use of Khadi Senna / Cassia mixed with Amla powder and lemon juice lighten hair easily.
Also a mixture of honey, olive oil and lemon juice can lighten your hair. However remember that each hair type reacts different and you should test and examine to see how your hair responds.
Q: Are there Khadi herbal hair colours in blond tones?
A:
Our team in India is at present working on trying to create a blond tone from pure plant material. However it is a challenge since lightening hair colours with plant material is very difficult. As soon as we find a pure herbal blond tone we will launch it in the Khadi website.
Q: What should I do with extra paste?
A:
No problem! Just freeze the remainder of the paste in a freezing bag or in a plastic dish till the next colouring. Do not forget the ratio of your mixture so that you can achieve the same colour the next time. The frozen plant colour will thaw easily at room temperature after which you can use it again by mixing it with fresh paste.
Q: If my hair is already coloured with plant hair colours can I use Cassia or Amla for hair treatment and conditioning?
A:
You can use Cassia or Amla to condition your hair any time even if your hair is coloured with plant hair colours. It is always recommended that you use a natural hair conditioner.
Q: Is it possible to colour grey hair in a single step?
A:
This depends substantially on the structure of your hair and also the colour that you have selected. Some customers report that that Khadi Light Brown & Natural Hazel and in rare cases Dark Brown coloured grey hair in a single step perfectly.
By doing a sample test you can find out if your hair gets coloured in a single step. Otherwise you will have to do the already described two step process.
Q: How does plant hair colour react to chemically coloured hair?
A:
In principle it is possible to colour chemically treated hair with plant hair colours. However you should always do a sample test to avoid unwanted results. This is very important if you have chemically coloured your hair very light or blond. Sometimes on such chemically treated hair the result could be a very strong colour and sometimes undesirable colour changes like green, blue or even lilac.
It is not advisable to use plant hair colours and then use chemical colours to make your hair blond. It can cause undesirable colour changes.
If you want any clarification you should go to a competent salon which has knowledge in handling plant hair colours.
The Khadi team wishes you success with Khadi herbal hair colours.
You can write to us any time with your questions and suggestions. We will be glad to assist you any time.
