Enhance Your Hair Color With A DIY Brewed Tea Rinse

You probably already know that drinking tea can warm or cool you and offer relaxation and stress relief. Tea can even promote your body's overall health. You may not know that it can also be added to your beauty arsenal, specifically, your mane game.

According to Pai-Shau, the herbal beverage is chock full of antioxidants and other amazing ingredients. Tea has the ability to promote hair growth, help prevent split ends, and imbue locks with shine. It can also infuse them with color, courtesy of a tea rinse.

While you won't be able to drastically change your hair shade with tea alone, explains Viviscal, the magical elixir can add a tint of color. It's also easier and cheaper than heading to the salon when you feel your current color could do with a little boost. Whether your red needs reviving, your brunette yearns for boldness, or your blonde wants bombshell status, there's a tea rinse to help.

Picking the right tea is the first step toward creating your tea rinse. Most tea will be some shade of brown when you brew it, which is perfect for just about every shade of hair. Black tea, like Darjeeling, English Breakfast, orange pekoe, and Earl Grey, according to Simple Loose Leaf, can help tint gray hair, add more richness to brunette locks, and help add a bit of depth to the darker tones in blonde tresses.

If you're looking to enhance your red hair or add a warmer tone to your brunette locks, you'll want to use teas that brew up red. Rooibos and hibiscus are both known for their vibrant ruby shades. You may also find that teas infused with red raspberry or red clover can offer a scarlet hue, too, per Tea Backyard.

If you've got blonde on the brain and your head, reach for pure, herbal chamomile tea. It brews up a light, golden-yellow color, which is perfect for boosting highlights in darker hair, or adding a bit of brightness to blonde locks. Prose suggests adding lemon juice for even more of a boost, followed by a session in the sun.

Once you've decided which tea you will use, it's time to prepare the rinse. Prose recommends boiling two cups of water, then adding three to five tea bags; the more bags, the stronger the tea and the stronger the color. If you're using loose tea, you can use a diffuser or add it to the water.

Let everything steep for about five minutes, says Hairlove, stirring the water now and then. Remove the bags or strain the tea, then let the liquid cool to lukewarm or room temperature. If you're adding lemon juice, you can do it now.

To apply the rinse to your hair, you have a couple of options. Add the rinse to a spray bottle, then mist over your washed, dry hair and distribute evenly. You can also apply the rinse to washed, damp hair using the spray bottle or pour the tea over your hair while in the shower. Cover your hair with a plastic shower cap or wrap, and let soak for 30-45 minutes. After the time is up, simply rinse your hair with cool water, add conditioner, and style it as you usually would. So beautiful!