I may receive a commission if you purchase something mentioned in this post. See more details here.

Disclosure: I received a free box of Light Mountain Natural hair color in exchange for this review. As always, all opinions are my own.

When I received my box of Light Mountain Natural hair color in the mail, everything in the box smelled like my local health foods store. That smell that just makes you go Ahhhhhhh and feel at peace. Not a bad first impression. 🙂

My Hair Story

I have never dyed my hair before. I respect the hair I was born with too much to coat it in harmful chemicals. I just never understood the point. Why damage and destroy my hair when my current hair color was just find? Why spend so much money to damage my hair? Why force myself to repeat that expense and damage every however many weeks to cover roots? Oh, and we’re not even talking about the damage done by putting those carcinogenic chemicals on your scalp. By your brain. Even before I began to transition to natural products, this skeeved me out.

At the same time, I have always love red hair. I have always been a dull brunette, which works fine with my skin tone. But I do love red hair and I like to think I’m Irish enough I could pull it off. As I took a trip down memory lane recently, I recounted to my husband my lust after one girl’s hair from third grade all through high school. And I was not the only one that adored her gorgeous red hair! My husband asked my I never tried dyeing my hair, and I considered that. Then decided to look further into it.

Natural Hair Color

I had heard about using henna to color hair before, and the people I talked to were really pleased with the results. Yet I was still nervous to make the commitment. As a result I was very pleased to be able to receive a box of Light Mountain Natural hair color for free in exchange for a review. They offer a range of natural colors in both their original line, and their line for coloring gray hair. All their products are vegan, free of animal testing, and made from 100% natural ingredients.

And when I say natural ingredients, I mean natural ingredients. My box of red hair dye contains one ingredient: henna leaf powder.

Wow.

Some other colors contain more ingredients. But among all of their hair colors, you will only ever see three different ingredients, all plants that are used for coloring and conditioning. This isn’t natural in that at one point it may have been a plant. There is nothing but true, organic plant matter in these boxes!

Light Mountain products are all made in the USA, and they use no PPD, no ammonia, no peroxide, and no other chemicals whatsoever.

This is a product I feel safe having on my hair and body.

Furthermore, I love that this dye is semi-permanent. Most applications last for 4 to 6 weeks, and it gradually fades over time. While this may be a downside to some, I love it because it means roots are much more subtle and you will be able to transition back to your original hair color much more easily.

Back to Me

So I made the official decision to dye my hair with natural hair color. I picked red, because that’s the color I love. I looked at Light Mountain Natural’s color chart, which will give you an idea for how your hair will turn out based on starting color and the color chosen. Since henna only adds to hair color, you cannot lighten your hair and the darker your hair is, the less color that will show up. I thought turning my darkish brown hair to a nice auburn would be a good start to my hair dyeing journey.

Light Mountain has easy to follow instructions for both strand testing (important to do so you know how your hair reacts to the dye) and doing the actual dye. After my strand test, I decided to leave the dye on my hair for 2 hours. I felt this would add a bit of color, without overwhelming me for my first hair dye. Next time (there will be a next time!) I may try more.

I got my husband to help. Since I had never dyed my hair before, I was worried that I would miss giant chunks on the back or something. A second pair of hands and eyes was definitely helpful to make sure I got a good coating of the natural hair color.

I mixed up the dye (with glass and plastic – it is very important to use no metal in this process!) and let it cure for 2 hours. While my husband read back over the instructions, I wet my hair. I would recommend combing your hair out before applying the dye. We don’t own Vaseline, so instead I used…lube. Yeah. I haven’t posted about my homemade lube yet, but it consists of coconut oil and beeswax. And it did a beautiful job of keeping the henna from staining my forehead, ears, and neck.

After my husband thoroughly applied the lube, I put on a shower cap and used a blow dryer on low when I thought about it to keep things warm and help really bring out the red. After 2 hours, I washed the dye out. Hoooooly red shower. No worries, it all cleaned up easily.

I chose to sleep with a towel over my pillow in case my hair lost any more henna, but it didn’t seem to add much more color to the towel. If your sheets are lightly colored, however, I would definitely recommend protecting your sheets the first night.

The Results

So….Here are the results! I went from a dark brown to a dark auburn. I love the gentle change to a redder tone. I also really like how the henna plays off natural highlights. My blonde highlights turned a gorgeous red, and the rest of my hair has variants in color that I think lend a more natural look to the results. The after picture is a few days after I colored my hair, as I kinda poured coconut oil all over it. You can see that it still looks a bit oily. Not the smartest decision I’ve ever made, but my hair feels nice!

Here’s a shot from the front:

Want to buy your own?

If you are interested in getting some Light Mountain Natural Hair Color for yourself, you can get 15% off with coupon code CCFHWNDZ from now until September 30, 2014!

Like what you see? Please support this blog and help me keep it running by signing up for my newsletter, purchasing products, or donating through the links below:

DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. The information contained in this post is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, it is provided for educational purposes only. You assume full responsibility for how you choose to use this information. For more information, click here.