This has been a long pending post which had been requested by Smile. I am so sorry for the delay. To start with, I don’t have much experience with gray hair as my mom also has only couple of them coming up now that she is 51. And, she is not interested in covering them up. I do tell her to get the hair colored but she flatly says no.
Hair Coloring
This should come up as a different post altogether but I think its imperative to mention it here. You can always get your hair colored. Remember to get salon treatment. Shell out money coz its your hair!! It definitely falls on an expensive side when you count in the maintenance costs.
Henna-ing
This is definitely the most common practice but it turns the white or gray hair into orange which people now a days absolutely hate. So, really doesn’t do much of a job. Also, using Lush Caca Noir also doesn’t work on gray hair. I had suggested it to one of my friends but she confirmed that it didn’t work on gray hair.
Hair Science and Home Remedies
The hair which has already turned gray can never be turned black naturally. For that you will have to color the hair. But, you can always prevent new gray hairs from coming up. Also, gray hair is a lot of times hereditary so in such cases, its a little difficult to control. So, let me suggest some home remedies to PREVENT gray hair.
- Use mustard or sesame oil on a regular basis, like twice or thrice a week. A regular usage helps prevent the hair from growing gray. They also help with hair which has turned brown!!!
- Black Pepper and Yogurt mask
- Curry leaves are supposedly great for protecting the black color of the hair. So, infuse your oil with dried curry leaves. (learn how to infuse oil here)
- Other herbs which are amazing to prevent hair from growing gray are rosemary, thyme and amla (Indian gooseberry). They also help with hair growth.
So, what’s your best bet to deal with gray hair?
my parents started experiencing gray hair post 35 and to prevent the same happening to me, i always use curry leaves in my oil.i finely chop the fresh curry leaves and fry them in the oil and then use that oil for massage.
Pranali, never boil any vegetable oil!!! that breaks the oil’s chemical composition. infusion should be done in color process method or double boiler method only. that retains the properties of the oil as well. there is a link to how to infuse herbs in oil in the post itself.
nothing prevents greying. no curry leaves nothing.its genetic when will you start graying. unfortunately starting to color hair at first few strands of grey usually speedens greying because coloring hair overall affects quality of scalp, hair follicles and hair fibre itself. So don’t delude yourself that you can delay greying by topical applications !
well, you are right actually!!! if its hereditary, its very difficult to prevent the greying but sometimes, these things may help 🙂 its just trial and error!!!
be regular with henna…avoid curd if you need color…add some curry leaves to the tea decotion
Sesame oil might help…I used one bottle of Fab India and liked it…
Try to take curry leaves in your diet
because of today’s lifestyle, premature graying has become common…for few hairs all these methods are fine…but if lots of them are there, then better see a doc and analyse the reasons..
does curd affect the color??? didn’t know that!!!
Not very sure …it’s a shahnaz hussain tip…i either add curd or lemon…and egg…
Point I missed is… don’t apply henna to oiled hair if color is priority
hmm…with henna, something acidic should always be added to help release better color. yes, henna shouldn’t be done on oiled hair. some people even add oil to the henna mixture to prevent dryness. i think a better way is to henna the hair and then wash it off with just water and oil the hair after hair dries and then shampoo the hair next day. that helps with better color adherence.
I want to thank you for sharing this information about take care of gray hair and I really appreciate your information. Thanks………….
I am 29 and have naturally dark black hair with a few grey strands. At least only a few I manage to spot! My mother started greying sooner than I did, same with my husband whos all salt and pepper now . My father, I don’t know, he was bald by the time I was born 😉
I regularly use Amla and herb containing oils, made in sesame oil. Sometimes I use plain coconut oil, or almond oil or nothing at times.
I don’t know if its true but I have heard that processed oils which have been bleached, contain residues of the bleaching agent and make hair grey? Is it true?
BTW my hubby has a grand aunt who’s 90, with over 90% jet black hair. No kidding! Even his dadi passed away with an almost black mop of hair. And his bua who recently touched 60 has greys lesser than me! I believe that genes determine your age at greying, some amount of care will help mask or delay or lessen greying, but won’t prevent it altogether
hey Varsha…yup, its true that a lot depends on genes and their lifestyle was way different to ours. even one of my friend’s nani had jet black hair till she was 67 or something. she used to use mustard oil only!! even my mom had black hair till a year back…now its started graying and she is 51. i attribute that to stress. i am a very stressful daughter 😀
castor oil is said to be great for hair darkening. even sesame is amazing. and, curry leaves. diet may help but it really depends on life style I feel. but, yes, as you say one can’t prevent it altogether!!