​Allergic to Beard Dyes? Here are Your Alternatives

For the past years, beards have been very popular. Beards are still very much in fashion, but the bearded scruffy look is now slowly evolving to the well-maintained polished beard. But what if you have grey beard hair? Having silvery hair can somehow appear shabby or can make you look older than you really are.

But what if you are allergic to hair dyes? Hair colouring products in general contain a number of ingredients that can irritate the skin. Most of the allergic reactions are caused by PPD or paraphenylenediamine. PPD is often mixed with peroxide in the dye to change the hair colour. Other ingredients that commonly cause allergies are phenylenediamine, p-diaminobenzene, p-phenylenediamine, 4-phenylenediamine, 4-aminoaniline, 1,4-diaminobenzene, 1,4-benzenediamine, ammonia, resorcinol, alcohol, lead acetate,and peroxide.

To avoid getting an allergic reaction, there are some dye alternatives that you can use, depending on your needs.

Henna is an option for people who are allergic to dyes. Although this is considered a “natural” ingredient, a patch test should still be done when using any henna-containing dye.

Coffee or tea has long been used to colour the hair. Simply brew two cups of dark roast, cool down, and add conditioner to form a paste. Apply this from roots to tip and after an hour, voila! – darker beard hair. However, this won’t last long and probably will not give a drastic hair colour change, but a good option to try. Plus – can be really messy.

Sage may be used to help cover up grey hairs. Steep about a cup of dried sage in a quart of boiling water. The longer you let it steep, the darker the tint. Cool and pour the sage water over the beard hair for as long as possible. Wash out after half an hour.

For those who want a reddish-orange tint, it is said that carrot juice is be a good option. Just mix carrot juice with olive oil or coconut oil and apply liberally to beard hair. Let it sit for an hour and rinse with apple cider vinegar. The colour will be subtle but if you want a darker shade, repeat as necessary.

If you don’t want to go through these several steps in order to extract these natural dyes, Blackbeard for Men is a temporary colour for beard that is very easy to apply. It is a brush-on beard colour that you simply apply onto the grey spots. Since this is not a hair dye, it has none of the side effects nor odour of dyes.It is also saves you the numerous steps as well as the cleanup needed after trying to extract natural dyes.With this brush on colour, the result is a natural-looking beard colour that lasts all day, won’t bleed or stain your skin but can be easily washed off with water and soap. It is non-irritating and perfect even for people with sensitive skin.