Gray Hair Rinse

dipat2005
dipat2005 Posts: 1,289 ✭✭✭✭✭

To help with Gray Hair:

  • I found this post in Lost Herbs-Make a Gray Hair Rinse: Potato peels have long been used as a home remedy for graying hair. Peel two large potatoes and simmer the peels in a saucepan full of water for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before using as a rinse after every shampoo.

Depending on your natural hair color, the peels will either highlight or darken your grays, making them easier to hide.

Do you have any other ideas to get rid of the grey @Marjory Wildcraft ?

Comments

  • kbmbillups1
    kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,390 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wow! I've never heard of that. Always learning something new!

  • annbeck62
    annbeck62 Posts: 1,028 ✭✭✭✭

    I'd never heard of that either. But I think mine is past hiding at this point :(

  • RustBeltCowgirl
    RustBeltCowgirl Posts: 1,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I don't want to hide mine. I inherited my paternal grandmother's sparkly silver gene.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The only one I had ever heard of was using leftover cold coffee to rinse it for dark hair. Had never heard of one with potato peels.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    My herbal teacher, Rosie Hicks used sage tea. Granted, she was half Cherokee, but her hair was long and black into her 80s.

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,289 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank you all for your comments. @judsoncarroll4 interesting information as I am part Cherokee. @vickeym I have never heard of cold coffee. I have noticed I do have some silver tips but the rest is still brown. I got a kick out of my mother's hair in the back under her gray hair she still had brown hair and she was in her late 70's.

  • jowitt.europe
    jowitt.europe Posts: 1,465 admin
    edited May 2022

    I think grey hair is something genetic. My mother got her grey hair very early and I got my first ones at the age of thirty and started dying it. For much too long, I think, as every commercial dye contains some kind of harmful stuff which I put so close to my brain 😕. In those days I did not use herbs for coloring the hair. It is only with 55 I got wiser and understood that there is no sense. Now I am very much satisfied with my white hair. White/grey hair is a sign of wisdom. This is how I take it.

    but, of course, all the natural measures are all right, especially when they strengthen hair and do no harm to the skin.. @dipat2005 an interesting idea with potatoes peel.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    I do wonder if the color of potato peel makes a difference with the result as well. There are varieties of red, yellow, pink and purple. I wonder which is used for doing the hair?

    I know our purple potatoes, which I leave unpeeled as long as it is possible, make a very purple water. The peels make everything even more purple.

    I think it was @Marjory Wildcraft who talked about doing something to her hair at one point. Maybe she will experiment with potato peels?

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning The purple would be interesting. Everyone seems to want colors in their hair nowdays. I work with a couple ladies that you never know what color they will show up with next. One has done a shade of green several times.

    I remember years ago after getting in a pool and jacuzzi at a hotel we stayed at for a couple days something turned my dark blonde / light brown hair green. I spent several hours trying to get it all washed out and they it still took days for it to get back to normal. I was told back then that too much chlorine could do that.

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,933 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @jowitt.europe I agree with you, my mom was completed salt & pepper by 35 and my dad did not start to get gray hair until he was in his late 50's. I started to get white hair around my face at about 45 and even now I have mostly white hair with one streak of salt & pepper around my face - I always said I had my mom's straight hair in front very straight and in the back. I still have salt & pepper mostly pepper and my dad's curly hair in the back. I have always been a mixture of both my parents 😊

  • jowitt.europe
    jowitt.europe Posts: 1,465 admin

    @vickeym beet root peel might give a pink or purple hue. I have never tried on the hair, but I have dyed eggs pink.

  • Merin Porter
    Merin Porter Posts: 1,026 admin

    @dipat2005 here is a video on the topic that @Marjory Wildcraft made with herbalist and forager Katrina Blair: https://thegrownetwork.com/how-to-reverse-grey-hair/

    I agree that there must be a lot of genetics involved in when a person goes gray -- I'm in my 40's and still have dark hair, but I have a neighbor who's around my age who has already gone completely white.

    Those who have opted not to dye their hair as they age, what is your advice to those of us who are still facing that decision down the road?

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,933 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The decision was kind of made for me when COVID hit, and my hairdresser had to close up (hair dying is not my thing). By the time when things opened up again, I retired and I already had decided that once I left the corporate world I would not be concerned about my grey hair.

    At first, it did take some time to get used to hit, I tried hiding it since there was a line from years of dying my hair and the fact that it made me feel old. But I got used to it and I started getting Senior Discounts without even asking for it even though I was not yet 60. Now that I am 60, I just roll with it and I now have more money to spend on keeping my skin in good shape instead of dying my hair 😄

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,289 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Merin Porter thanks for the video on grey hair. I appreciate it a lot. Seaweed soup-that is most interesting. I never wanted to dye my hair and I just believe in letting your hair dye itself. Great discussion!

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @jowitt.europe Good to know. I'll let my co-workers know.

    I have dyed other thing with beets, but never even considered doing "colors" in my hair. I choose to keep that with whatever the good Lord saw fit to provide.

    Besides, I earned every one of these grey hairs I have. LOL

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,289 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I took this from the Epoch Times (May 9, 2022 because I thought it was interesting: "In terms of diet, it is recommended to consume foods high in vitamin B12, copper, zinc, iron and other nutrients to help maintain healthy hair."

    "Iron: Pork liver, red meat, fish, and shellfish

    Zinc: Oysters, fish, other seafood, offal, red meat, eggs, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, walnuts, and soybeans

    Copper: Crustaceans, shellfish, offal, and nuts

    Vitamin B12: Milk, eggs, liver, meat, fish, clams, nori, and seaweed"

  • jowitt.europe
    jowitt.europe Posts: 1,465 admin

    @dipat2005 a good list to keep hair healthy. But grey or white hair is not unhealthy hair. I somehow do not relate turning grey or white with being unhealthy. Or is it proven to be otherwise?

  • marjstratton
    marjstratton Posts: 1,132 ✭✭✭✭

    I've never been interested in dying my hair either (except temporarily). When my kids and I were swimming regularly, sometimes our hair would take on a greenish tinge. We are all blond. So, we would try to find some products that would supposedly remove that greenish tinge. As I remember it, nothing was particularly successful.

    Anyhow, later I took a short class on dying wool with natural materials. Some would be very interesting for hair color, except for the mordants that would be needed. Not going anywhere near my head with some of those.

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,289 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I found another article today in the Epoch Times, July 4, 2022-"Did you know? Human hair is originally white. Before it emerges from the scalp, melanocytes inject melanin into the hair cells that contain keratin, giving the hair the different colors that we see. Keratin is the protein that makes up hair, nails, and skin. And there are two types of melanin: pheomelanin (responsible for ginger and red shades) and eumelanin (responsible for brown and black shades)." "Stress, Smoking and Diseases and Genetics"

    The article also states that "Grey hair can be reversed sometimes if the stress is relieved such as going on vacation".

    As we all know stress is hard on our bodies.

  • babygrand53
    babygrand53 Posts: 10 ✭✭✭

    Just wondering if anyone has tried the potato peels for the grey hair and if so how did it work for you, and what is your hair color?

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,289 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @babygrand53 potato peels? very interesting! I asked my granddaughter to trim my hair about four weeks ago and she said I grew my grey hair out and she was trimming it off. I was amazed.

  • Marjory Wildcraft
    Marjory Wildcraft Posts: 1,615 admin
    edited September 2022

    @dipat2005 and @LaurieLovesLearning and you too! LOL, Thanks @Merin Porter for that interview with Katrina Blair - the "13 Wild Weeds" powerhouse of a woman in Durango CO and she has nice brown hair without any gray. She said it was because of all the nutrition in the weeds.

    Some of the goat people say that a copper deficiency is the cause of gray hair in goats - and humans.

    Ha, ha, @vickeym yes I might try purple potato skins for when I turn 60. If you recall I'm going to dye my hair purple, get a purple outfit of short shorts, sports bra, and purple roller skates and zoom around town to celebrate. There is also in the plan to get my body ripped? I'm working on that but dang, has my tummy grown since I looked at it last. So many delicious carbohydrates here in Puerto Rico LOL.

    @vickeym I was a swimmer in high school - blond hair, blue eyes, yeah that look... Lots of cholorine and I often had a green tint to my hair. If I recall my sisters and I decided it was a combo of the cholorine and sunlight that turned it green. Not really seeing color that well I didn't care.

    My mom even at 94 had the "salt and pepper' look which I took to heart to mean I probably won't go all gray.

    Just remember that in the dark everyone hair looks great.

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,289 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Marjory Wildcraft thanks for all of the good news! How exciting for you. One of my favorite colors is Purple!!

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Merin Porter For things that influenced my decision...

    I have seen many folks who have damaged their hair terribly using so much hair dye. And there are so many chemicals and toxins in just about everything we are exposed to, why deliberately add more especially that close to our brains.

  • Merin Porter
    Merin Porter Posts: 1,026 admin


    You are so right. I like my hair color, but I do like it with highlights. It's just that my hair grows so fast that keeping up with highlights is kind of a commitment. I did it before kids, but now ... it's expensive and time-consuming enough that I haven't taken the plunge again. Keeping the extra chemicals out of my hair is a bonus!

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,289 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Merin Porter I totally agree about the extra chemicals. It is certainly a bonus!