Can a Natural Hair Pigment Reverse Gray Hair?
Can hair pigments solve your hair woes? (Photo: Getty Images)
“Should I color my hair?” I once asked my stylist when I was in my early 30s. I was thinking about some auburn highlights on my dark brown (I thought drab) curls.
“No! Don’t touch it until you have to!” he shrieked, as if I’d broken one of the ten hair commandments. Coloring your hair is a time-consuming and expensive process, he explained, one that a person should pursue only when they absolutely must.
I was glad I listened to him, because over a decade passed before I saw much silver. But now it’s time: My temples are turning and a few random hairs around my part are showing their age. I’ve employed some stop-gap measures, like hair mascara and root concealer spray, but it’s kind of a pain to do it daily. Especially with my daily swimming regimen. The brown bled on my towels and sheets. Except on the days I forget to do it.
And then I got pregnant, and nervous about coloring my hair at all.
Although there are a number of ammonia-free herbal-based hair dyes or organic products, and even DIY natural hair dyes you can make at home, they’re still dyes. Added to your scalp. I wasn’t that gray, and I certainly not taking any risks.
But a new product caught my eye, promising not to dye hair but restore it to its natural pigment. Hairprint says it uses “Green Chemistry,” taking its cues from nature and biology, employing benign non-toxic molecules to achieve better results than synthetic chemicals
“In the base of our scalp there are cells that make these molecules called eumelanin and the way they pack into the hair shaft makes them the right color,” says chemist Dr. John Warner, inventor of Hairprint. We all have eumelanin, but when hair goes gray it stops making that molecule. This product claims to restore it – and reverse the graying process.
But does it work?
To make my experiment more scientific, I also enlisted my husband Solomon, who has been dyeing his hair at home for some time now—although he leaves in just a touch of gray to make him look “distinguished,” in that way that only men can get away with. (Life is so unfair.)
Let’s just say the process is not as easy as my hair mascara or his ten minutes using “Just for Men.”
It’s a four-step process, if you follow the box instructions: you have to use a pre-treatment, then apply the pigment three separate times, painting your hair with the included brush while wearing the included gloves, then waiting fifteen minutes while it’s on your hair.
It’s a five-step process if you want to foil your hair and only paint the grays, as one company member recommended, to paint the grays at their roots – targeting new growth and restore it to its original color. But having never dyed my hair before, we skipped that step.
The result? A very messy bathroom (which washed away pretty quickly), and, I must admit, fresher looking hair. My dark brown and my husband’s black seemed darker. Did it cover all the grays? No – but it wasn’t supposed to, not in one go. Restoring your hair to its default color naturally is a gradual process – and one that won’t have your friends doing a double-take, like: “Wasn’t your hair just gray yesterday?” (Our friends are New Yorkers so they just might be that blunt.)
Bottom Line: If you’re committed to a no-dye solution, you should use this. But if you’re like my husband, more interested in a quick fix, it’s drugstore all the way. As for me, hopefully my baby will appreciate the lack of chemicals her now-youthful looking mother used in utero. Otherwise, I’ll always be sure to remind her.
Related:
Why Your Natural Hair Color Trumps All Trends
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