Indigo Black Hair Dye is originally from India:
Indigo’s real name is indigofera tinctoria. In old times Greeks and Romans imported cakes of pigment called “indicum”, meaning “from India”, and this led to the name indigo.
Indigo is a plant that produces a dark blue dye which we all know as the colour used to colour blue jeans.
Indigo Dyes Hair Brown and Black
Indigo hair dye turns hair brown through to black when it is applied after henna. Even 100% grey hair goes brown or black when indigo is applied to hair after henna.
However, indigo it will only ever stain the skin blue, not black.
Botanical Name of Indigo
Its’ botanical family is : Fabaceae (Leguminosae). Its’ species is: Indigofera.
Indigo molecules in the leaves of the plant contain the dye which oxidises to dark blue. The leaves are are alkaline. They react with henna which is acidic to create incredible dark colour shades with undertones of red, burgundy, orange, brown, and even stunning blue black.
Note that alkalis and acids have different effects on the hair. Acids generally will harden and contract the hair, while alkalis generally will expand and soften the hair shaft. So henna and indigo go really well together and make a great botanical hair colour team !
Where Indigo Hair Dye Comes From | |
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| Tamil Nadu indigo field | indigo powder |
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| mixing indigo with water | freshly mixed indigo paste | indigo dye paste ready to use |
Renaissance Henna Indigo Hair Dye
Our indigo hair dye contains only indigofera tinctoria. The green colour indigo dye powder is made by crushing and then sieving the dried leaves of the indigofera tinctoria plant. The powder is sieved multiple times to ensure the finest powder consistency. Nothing at all is added to the indigo dye powder. It is packed into a re-sealable poly bag and foil sealed straight after sieving to ensure freshness and potency.
Here are some pictures of the indigo plant and its leaves – http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?find=indigofera tinctoria.
What the Books say about Indigo
In their book Herbs: An Indexed Bibliography, J.E. Simon, A.F. Chadwick and L.E. Craker describe indigo as follows :
“As a medicinal plant, indigo has been used as an emetic. The Chinese use Indigofera tinctoria to clean the liver, detoxify the blood, reduce inflammation, alleviate pain, and reduce fever. ………….The powdered root of Indigofera is used in South Africa to alleviate toothache.”
What is Indigo Hair Dye ? More About Indigo
Getting Black Hair using Indigo after Henna
Want to buy indigo ?
To find out more about how henna and indigo work together please visit.
All our boxed Renaissance Henna Herbal Hair Colour Kits come with a detailed instructions booklet to help make your first time herbal hair colouring application easy. The way it works is you mix henna powder with water to create a mid paste and apply that to your hair. The henna paste application will darken your hair colour towards reddish brown. And it will give shocking red and orange tones on grey or white hair when you wash it out. You can change the colour to auburn, brown or black with indigo. If you have dark hair, the henna will add deep reddish tones and make your hair look like it has natural red lowlights and any greys in your hair will look like reddish highlights. The difference between lowlights and highlights is that highlights brighten your hair and can be shocking. Whereas lowlights tend to deepen your hair colour and are more subtle.
