Fortunately for us vegans, the vegan-friendly hair dye market has grown in popularity, and likely won’t stop booming anytime soon. So, gone are the done days when dying your hair meant letting go of your values. Today, whether you want to go for a crazy colour, bleach your hair at home, cover stubborn grey hair, or just do a hair dye, you totally can – cruelty-free.
Since you no longer have to miss out on the fun of splashing a vibrant colour to your hair, check our list of the top picks you can go for to find the best vegan hair dye for you to help you achieve the perfect look!
- Why Should You Use Vegan Hair Dye?
- The 6 Best Vegan Hair Dyes in 2022
- How to Pick the Best Vegan Hair Dye
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Go Get the Hair of Your Dreams!
Our Top Picks
- Herbatint Permanent Haircolor Gel
- Arctic Fox Semi-Permanent Hair Color Dye
- Manic Panic After Midnight
- SURYA Brasil Henna Cream
- Light Mountain Natural Hair Color & Conditioner
- Naturigin Permanent Hair Color
Why Should You Use Vegan Hair Dye?
Before we delve into our product reviews, we want to be very clear about why you should embrace vegan hair dye, even if you aren’t a vegan. There are a lot of benefits to using it, but here are the main ones.
No Animal Testing Involved
For starters, when you pick up a random hair dye from the drugstore or just let your hairdresser apply whatever’s available, you aren’t really acquainted with the hair dye brand’s position (ethically). Have their products been tested on animals? Well, you never know.
We believe that beauty is inside out, which means that for our hair to be beautiful, it shouldn’t be harming anyone in the process, including animals. Vegan hair dyes haven’t been tested on animals, yet they still result in the same gorgeous, natural colours. They just don’t harm our furry friends!
It’s Still Permanent
There’s a common misconception that a hair dye would quickly fade because it’s vegan and would have only temporary effects. That’s far from true! In fact, vegan hair dyes have the same lifespan as standard hair dyes!
Made of Natural Ingredients
We all know that hair dyes are jam-packed with harmful chemicals that cause hair damage, breakage, thinning, and more. One famous ingredient of hair dyes is ammonia. Natural ingredients sit centre stage with vegan hair dyes. Plus, these dyes most certainly don’t incorporate ammonia.
With that being the case, going for vegan hair dyes means you won’t be harming your hair as much as you would if you used non-vegan hair dyes. Instead, you’ll be nourishing it with botanical ingredients that your hair needs to stay strong, moisturized, full, and thick. Plus, your skin and eyes won’t suffer while you apply the dye anymore.
Better for Your Scalp
While we don’t always see or feel it, our scalps suffer too when we apply hair dye. With vegan hair dyes, that won’t be the case due to the dominance of natural, plant-based ingredients that won’t irritate your scalp. Instead, they’ll nourish your scalp, and when that happens, your hair will end up being nourished as well.
The 6 Best Vegan Hair Dyes in 2022
Now, let’s get into the details of each of our picks and why they made it here. No matter which of them you choose, rest assured that you won’t be harming any animals, and you can be fully satisfied with your look with no guilt.
1. Herbatint Permanent Haircolor Gel
Silvery grey hair is beautiful, but it isn’t desirable for everyone. So if you’re looking to banish your stubborn grey hair, Herbatint’s Permanent Haircolor Gel is what you need. Being ammonia, parabens, gluten, alcohol, and of course, cruelty-free, this permanent vegan hair dye doesn’t run or rub off and will give you natural looking grey coverage.
Other than eliminating your greys in literally a flash and right from the first application, this gel dye also comes in 23 natural shades, ranging from platinum blonde all the way to black. So, if you have brown, red, or blonde shades in mind, you’ll undoubtedly find the right one among the variety of available colours.
It’s not abnormal for hair dyes to look pretty once you’re done, but the issue is always what happens later, right? Well, not with this one. While you put on this vegan hair dye, you’ll notice how gentle it is on your hair, and after you’re done, you’ll be impressed with how long it lasts.
2. Arctic Fox Semi-Permanent Hair Color Dye
Are you after a bold, vibrant colour? Look no further than Arctic Fox’s Semi-Permanent Hair Color Dye with zero ammonia and peroxide. From aquamarine and purple rain to virgin pink, iris green, neon moon, and much more, you’ll find the hottest 13 shades where your hair will meet a rainbow.
But that’s not new, is it? Totally true. But what’s new is that Arctic Fox offers you the chance to simultaneously condition your hair while colouring it to ensure that you don’t end up with dry hair that’ll turn brassy after one wash. How so? This semi-permanent, vegan hair dye contains added non-GMO protein conditioners.
And not only will you end up with soft, undamaged hair, but the dye is also long-lasting and designed to smear and bleed minimally, guaranteeing that you’ll actually get to enjoy your new hair colour for a long time and not just a couple of hours. You’ll probably only need a refresh within six weeks, if not more.
To top it off, 15% of this dye’s every purchase is donated to a cause, and guess what that cause is? Helping prevent animal abuse.
3. Manic Panic After Midnight
Did you love our previous pick but aren’t one to be constrained by specific colours and want to create a custom, unique one? There’s where Manic Panic’s After Midnight semi-permanent hair colour cream comes in. In essence, these hair colours are all about being mixable.
Offered in 51 exceptional shade options, from pastels to intense ones, all of them are safe to mix, which makes them not exactly 51 but endless. All you need to do is combine any formula with the pastelize, and the result will be trendy pastel hues that have been tested on celebrities (yes, not animals).
But since there’s a lot of trial and error involved in the process and you may end up not liking the colour, this hair dye will fade off more with every wash, lasting around four to six weeks in total. And if you have super light hair, that could end up being eight weeks. That’s because it doesn’t penetrate your hair’s cortex; instead, it just stays on top of your hair shaft.
Tip: To ensure the best results, it’s best to apply Manic Panic After Midnight to pre-lightened hair, so you might want to bleach your hair first.
4. SURYA Brasil Henna Cream
Henna hair creams have long been an alternative to hair dyes, so if you tend to experience allergic reactions from dye, SURYA’s ready-to-go Brasil Henna Cream is here to answer your hair colouring woes.
Rich with essential oils, including ylang-ylang and rose, this plant-based formula won’t only give your hair the touch up it needs but will also leave it soft, shiny, and looking fuller and thicker. And if you happen to have some greys here and there, those will get covered up too.
When it comes to the process, SURYA’s Brasil Henna Cream stands out in that it doesn’t come in powder form, so you won’t need to go through any prep mixing. Instead, it’s ready to go out of the box. Yet, like any other henna cream, it does take a while to settle in the hair, so leave it between an hour to three to give ample time to penetrate each hair strand.
Mostly, this henna cream comes in deep and golden brown, black, and red shades – which is pretty convenient!
5. Light Mountain Natural Hair Color & Conditioner
If you trust the Safe Shopper’s Bible, you’ll certainly trust Light Mountain’s Natural Hair Color & Conditioner, too, because it recommends it! Like Arctic Fox’s Semi-Permanent Hair Color Dye, this plant-based hair dye conditions your hair while you dye it, immediately remedying any potential adverse effects of colouring your hair.
What we also love about this hair dye is that it’s basically a complete application kit. How many times do you end up colouring your hands in the process of colouring your hair? Of course, that’s not even to mention our necks that inevitably get a splash of colour. With this hair dye, you get a hat and gloves to prevent that from happening, so it’s truly a convenient experience.
Plus, since it’s an all-natural hair dye, you’ll love its consistency, which is so creamy and soft, making for a very smooth application that leaves your hair shiny and moisturized. Before moving on to the following product, this hair dye is famous for its gorgeous reds, rich auburn, deep browns, and ebony blacks!
6. Naturigin Permanent Hair Color
Made of certified organic natural oils as well as ten other pure (and gentle) organic extracts, Naturigin’s Permanent Hair Color presents with you 19 permanent hair dye colour options guaranteed not to turn “orange” on you out of the blue.
You’ve probably encountered the horrible smell of hair dye at one point in your life, if not every time. But for once, you’ll get to dye your hair and enjoy the experience without having any stinky smells coming in the way of your pleasure, thanks to the dye being dairy, ammonia, and parabens-free.
Along with that, the certified natural oils incorporated in the hair dye, which include jojoba and grapefruit peel oils and lemon peel extract, seamlessly work to condition and nourish your hair and revive its shine. So once you’re done dying your hair, you won’t only find it looking different but also feeling different as if you’ve undergone an entire treatment.
With that said, however, this conditioning effect doesn’t work for everyone. It depends on your hair type, so if you find that you’re not witnessing the above results, you’ll just need to follow up with a conditioning treatment to reap the benefits out of this hair dye.
How to Pick the Best Vegan Hair Dye
Great, so we’ve gone over our top picks for vegan hair dyes and explained why they’ve made it to the list. Now, how do you go about choosing the best vegan hair dye for you? Here are a few tips to consider as you take your pick.
Be Careful With Your Brand Choice
First things first, it’s worth mentioning that a lot of brands consider veganism as a “trend” that they want to hop onto. For that reason, you need to pick a brand with an excellent reputation for actually producing vegan hair dye.
Although you’ll find many top brands meeting the “quality standards”, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re vegan. Therefore, always read around about the brand you’re choosing, consider the testimonials and reviews that customers leave on their social media pages, and go through their website for adequate information.
Often, vegan brands will say that they are upfront, and it’ll be visible in the ingredients of their products, too. So, just be careful with what you’re choosing.
Type of Hair Dye
Simply by looking at our list, which contained just six out of thousands of hair dyes available on the market, you’ve probably noticed that not only do hair dyes come in different hair colours but also types.
Mainly, there are two types of vegan hair dyes: vegan permanent and vegan semi-permanent hair dyes. As their names suggest, semi-permanent hair dye lasts for a short period of time after it’s applied to the hair, while permanent hair dyes last for a more extended period, but also not forever.
Ideally, if you’re experimenting with colours or just looking for a brief change, you’ll want to go for a semi-permanent vegan hair dye. In contrast, if you’re sure of your decision and want the results to last for as long as possible, permanent vegan hair dyes are your go-to.
Your Hair Type
Knowing your hair type plays a significant role in the outcome you’ll get from a given vegan hair dye. While most vegan hair dyes work effectively on all hair types, others are more targeted for a specific type of hair – say, thick hair, curly hair, straight hair, pre-lightened hair, and similar.
Accordingly, make sure to pick the suitable vegan hair dye for your particular hair type. Commonly, you’ll be able to determine that from the customers’ reviews!
Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Does Vegan Hair Dye Last?
Vegan hair dyes are equally as permanent as other non-vegan dyes on the market. In other words, you should expect your vegan hair dye to last anywhere between four to eight weeks (with the average being six weeks), depending on your hair type and how fast it grows out.
Which Hair Dye Is Vegan?
Vegan hair colour dyes are those that are mostly vegetable or plant-based, like henna, and those that are ammonia-free. They also come in temporary, semi-permanent, or permanent varieties and usually contain beneficial hair ingredients like essential oils. Most importantly, vegan hair dyes haven’t been tested on animals and are 100% cruelty-free.
Can I Use Vegan Hair Dye When Pregnant?
Based on research, there hasn’t been any evidence of harm for pregnant women getting exposed to vegan hair dye or cruelty-free hair dye in general. But especially since vegan hair dyes aren’t carcinogenic and are organic and ammonia-free, there’s no harm in using them if you’re pregnant. It’s just recommended to minimize the exposure by wearing gloves.
Go Get the Hair of Your Dreams!
As you see, you no longer have to just accept whatever hair dye your hairdresser has in stock to get a brand new hair colour! Vegan hair dyes have become more widely available, and they come in a large variety of top-notch shades, be they natural or daring. So, now that you know your options, go satisfy your hair colour desires that look astonishing and last long!
