We dyed four grey hair swatches, blow-dried two of them and air-dried the other two, and photographed all four at one hour and again at 72 hours. The gap between them does not close over those three days. It widens.
Indigo is in 18 of our 24 shades, and it is the only herb in the pouch whose colour is still developing after you rinse. Henna and manjistha are finished at that point — what happens next decides whether the blue ever arrives to cover them.
What we tested
Grey hair swatches, two shades, one pouch each. Half of each pair was blow-dried on warm heat immediately after rinsing. The other half was patted with a towel and left to dry on its own. Everything else was identical: same batch, same paste, same one-hour processing time, same room.
Soft Black
Light Brown
We used grey swatches because grey has no pigment of its own. Nothing is hiding underneath, so whatever the herbs do is fully visible. On dark base hair the same difference occurs, but you see less of it.
One hour after rinsing
Soft Black
Light Brown
The difference is already obvious at this point. The blow-dried swatches are warm and light; the air-dried swatches are darker and cooler. Both swatches in each photo are in the same frame under the same light — the difference is not the photography.
72 hours after rinsing
Soft Black
Light Brown
This is the part we did not expect the first time we ran it. Over those three days the two swatches move in opposite directions.
- Air-dried: keeps deepening. The Soft Black swatch is noticeably darker at 72 hours than it was at one hour.
- Blow-dried: does not deepen. It shifts further towards warmth instead — the red and gold become more prominent, not less.
So waiting does not rescue a swatch that was force-dried. Waiting makes the difference larger.
Why one turned red and the other turned orange
Both swatches lost the same thing — the blue. What showed up underneath was different, and the ingredient list explains why.
| Shade | Indigo | Henna | Manjistha |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soft Black | 1st | 2nd | 3rd of 5 herbs |
| Light Brown | 1st | 2nd | 6th of 7 herbs |
Soft Black has two red pigments sitting high on the list — henna and manjistha. Manjistha is a blue-leaning red, so when the indigo fails to cover them the result is a wine red rather than a plain copper.
Light Brown has manjistha near the bottom, and colourless henna in third place diluting everything below it. Take the blue away and what is left is mostly henna, which gives one colour: warm orange.
Same failure, two different results — because the two pouches are holding different things under the blue. You can check the full ingredient order for every shade on our ingredients page.
It does not reverse
We tried re-wetting a blow-dried swatch and wrapping it in a towel to restart the process. It stayed red. Adding moisture back after the fact did not bring the blue.
We would rather tell you this plainly than suggest a rescue that does not work. If a shade has already gone red or orange this way, the honest options are to live with it or to colour again.
If this was your first order with us and the result is not what you expected, we will send a different shade free or refund the colour. How the assurance works →
What to do instead
- No dryer after rinsing. Not warm, not cool, not "just a little to take the drip out."
- Wrap it in a towel and let it dry on its own. The slower the better.
- If the air is dry where you live, a humidifier or a steamy bathroom slows the drying down further. We are in Southern California and this makes a visible difference here.
- Leave it alone for the next couple of days. No shampoo, no hot styling.
The instruction is not "wait 72 hours." It is don't dry it. The colour keeps developing as long as you let it.
Which shades this applies to
Any shade with indigo in it, which is 18 of our 24. It matters most where indigo leads the list — Soft Black, Dark Brown, Brown, Light Brown, Copper Brown and Violet — because those have the most blue to lose.
Six shades contain no indigo at all: Champagne Blonde, Strawberry Blonde, Beige Blonde, Caramel Blonde, Wine Red and Sun Blonde. Drying method does not change those the way it changes the rest.
What this test does and doesn't show
These are swatches, not heads. A swatch is spread thin and dries faster than hair on a scalp, where body heat and hair volume hold moisture longer. On your own head you probably have more margin than these swatches did — but there is no reason to bet on it.
This was one run, one batch, two shades. We did not record the humidity. What we can say is that the difference was large enough to see across the room, and that it repeated in both shades.
Grey shows the most. These swatches had no pigment of their own. On dark base hair the same thing happens, but the base absorbs some of the difference.