Chic for Cheap: Honey Cinnamon Hair Dye

   Hey guys! So I went through some hair drama over the past year or two and I went a little hair dye, hair bleach, hair cutting madness. Now I'm paying the price! I used to have really thick, long, shiny hair and it grew about an inch per month. After some accidental bleaching, my hair is still relatively thick, but it lost a lot of its shine and was refusing to grow. I still have a lot of breakage and my hair isn't nearly as soft or shiny as it used to be but I'm treating it right and it's on the slow mend. Because I had bleached my hair about a year ago and then dyed it with the color closest to my natural hair color (dark brown with red hilights) my hair is really unevenly colored. For a while, I switched from permanent dye to semi-permanent dye (again, a color that was as close to my natural color as possible) and I felt good about at least treating my hair a bit more gently but I realized, even though semi permanent dye is a lot less stressful on your hair than permanent dye, it still stunts the growth of your hair and I want long lustrous hair! So I've been looking for better, healthier solutions (that are better for my wallet too!)

   I recently discovered using spices and juices as natural hair dye. Having already brown hair, I went with a mixture that would give me slightly darker hair with some red undertones. I also wanted to make a mixture that, if possible, also stimulated hair growth and strengthened my hair. I looked up what various spices and came up with this:

Ingredients:
-Cinnamon
-Paprika
-Brewed Coffee (2x's as strong as you would regularly brew)
-Olive Oil
-Conditioner
-Honey

You really want to play with the amount of each ingredient you use based on the look you want to achieve. I wanted the treatment to double as a hair oiling/deep conditioning so I used a decent amount of olive oil and conditioner (you can also use lotion in place of conditioner if you don't want to waste your fancy conditioner). Applying the mixture can be tricky because the honey makes it really hard to comb through. I would recommend sectioning your hair and applying the mixture section by section then tying those sections up. You have to get all of your hair pretty saturated and leave it in overnight so make sure you don't have a romantic evening planned! I recommend putting a shower cap over your hair and putting a towel over your pillow, as these spices really stain clothing and fabric. Wash your hair out with cold water, initially.