Not ready to be a silver fox? Sure, you can
color your gray hair,
but coloring your hair and maintaining the new shade can be
time-consuming, expensive, and damaging to the hair itself. While you
can’t stop nature from changing your hair color to gray, you can reverse
the graying with some simple home remedies.
Hair grows gray naturally, so why not reverse it naturally as well?
First, you need to understand what turns your hair gray. There may
be a variety of causes, such as stress, illness, heredity, vitamin and
nutrient deficiency, or any combination thereof. But the key issue is a
rapid decline in melanin, which gives pigmentation, or color, to the
hair. When the melanin molecules separate from each other, the hair
takes on a gray appearance. When the body’s production of melanin
decreases, the hair turns gray. So to increase your body’s production of
melanin you need to fortify yourself inside and out with these home
remedies for graying hair.
- Beef up the protein. Be sure to eat protein-rich foods such as lean meat, soy, whole grains, eggs, and cereals.
- Be strong as iron. Each day, eat foods rich in iron, minerals,
and vitamins A and B, such as green leafy vegetables, bananas, tomatoes,
liver, yogurt, kidney beans, dried apricots, oysters, eggs, and
sunflower seeds.
- Take a pinch of salt. Iodine, most commonly found in table salt,
is essential for the production of melanin. Add iodine-rich foods to
your diet, such as bananas, carrots, and fish. Avoid other types of
salts (such as sea salt and kosher salt, for example) and use ordinary
iodized table salt instead.
- Mellow out. Stress reduction is an easy home remedy for graying
hair. Studies have shown that the link between psychological stress and
gray hair is not folklore. Rest, exercise, meditate, and find other ways
to relieve anxiety and stress.
- Slather on the butter — on your head, that is. Cow’s milk butter
massaged into hair roots helps prevent additional graying. Melt the
butter so it is pliable, then spread into your hair and scalp twice a
week. Rinse well.
- If you live near a store that specializes in ethnic foods, ask
the owner for Indian gooseberry. Cut the fruit into slices and soak
overnight in water, then let dry. Set water aside and boil the dried
fruit in coconut oil until the solid matter disintegrates. Rub the dusty
paste on hair, then rinse with the coconut oil and water mixture.
- Try amaranth if you can find it (your best bets are Indian food
stores). The fresh juice of the leaves of this vegetable as well as the
grain varieties help hair retain its natural color and prevent it from
graying.
- Add curry to your food and your hair. Eat lots of curry in
condiments, sauces, or mixed with buttermilk. Boil curry leaves in
coconut oil to form a hair tonic. Rub on hair to bring the color back to
its original pigmentation.
- Grate fresh ginger, mix with honey, and set aside in a jar. Eat one teaspoon of the mixture every day.
- Mix one tablespoon of table salt (with iodine) into a cup of
strong black tea (no milk). Massage into scalp and let sit for an hour
before rinsing.
- Make a paste of henna powder, yogurt, and fenugreek seeds (also
known as methi seeds). Or use methi seed powder, coffee, basil juice,
and mint juice. Apply to hair, let sit for three hours, then shampoo
hair.
- Try ribbed gourd, which is said to enrich hair roots and restore
pigment to hair. Cut the gourd into pieces, let them dry, and then soak
in coconut oil for three days. Boil until there is black residue in the
pot, then massage oil mixture into scalp. Rinse and style as usual.
http://www.dailyglow.com/hair-care-tips/home-remedy-for-premature-graying-of-hair.html
