Holi is already a few days away and holi colors are needed by everyone to celebrate this festival. And whether dry or wet, the colors should be 100 percent safe and skin and hair friendly. So how about making your own herbal colors at home instead of buying the chemical ones….Here is how you can do it.
Red-
Dry powder– Red rose or hibiscus flower petals can be used to get a completely safe and herbal red color. Sun dry the petals of the flower of your choice and when they dry completely, grind them in a mortar. You will have to add a little bit of flour to this dry powder to achieve a good quantity.
Wet solution– In a cup of water mix a teaspoon of limestone or chuna powder with an equal quantity of turmeric and dilute this solution in a bucket filled with water. Limestone when comes in contact with the turmeric gives a orangish red color. Red sandalwood can also be boiled in water to achieve a bright red color but only if you can find an authentic one. Madder tree is used for natural dyeing but you can boil wood of madder tree in water to achieve a deep red color. And if you are from Gharwal or Kumaon region then Buras flower needs no introduction, just dip few flowers in a bucket filled with water and leave it overnight. In the morning you will get a nice red color.
Yellow-
Dry powder– Mix 2 tsp turmeric with 4 tsp of gram flour or besan. This will give you a deep yellow dry holi powder or gulal. If you don’t have besan then you can also mix any flour available like maida, aata, arrarot. You can also mix dried orange peel powder to this color for a nice fragrant gulal. Marigold flowers can also be dried and powdered to achieve a yellow gulal.
Wet solution– Boil one teaspoon haldi in a litre water and dilute it further according to the color consistency you want. You can also boil marigold flowers in water and leave them overnight to get a bright yellow color.
Green-
Dry– Mix heena powder with flour in equal quantities for a nice greenish shade.
Wet– You can mix 2 tsp of heena powder to a bucket full of water or simply soak and boil spinach or neem leaves in water to get a green color.
Pink-
Dry– Sun dry pink rose petals and grind them to powder. Mix with a flour of your choice.
Wet– Grate a beetroot in 2 litre water and boil, leave overnight and dilute it before use to get a deep magenta color. You can also use onion peel for a light pinkish hue.
Brown-
Dry-Mix Henna powder and Amla powder in 1:4 ratio for Brown color.
Wet– Boil equal quantity of coffee and tea leaves in water and leave overnight. Paan katha can also be mixed in water for a brown color.
Black– Boil dried Indian gooseberries or ‘amla’ in an iron vessel and leaving it overnight. Next morning dilute this mix with water for a black shade.
Image reference- Pinterest
