There are cruelty-free and vegan hair dye options out there! I’ve listed the best ones below, whether you want to do-it-yourself or go to the salon.
Box Dye VS. Going To The Salon
Getting your hair done at the salon can be cruelty-free, but you’ll have to do a bit of research. I personally get my hair done at the salon and have had success finding good salons that don’t support animal testing. It’s doable!
Many salons use professional hair care brands that don’t test on animals. The most popular ones are Kevin Murphy and Paul Mitchell. As for professional hair dye, Pravana is the best cruelty-free dye. Ask your salon owner what brands they use, and pick a place that opts for cruelty-free brands.
There are Aveda salons in many major cities. Aveda itself is a cruelty-free brand, but you should be aware that Estee Lauder, its parent company, still tests on animals where required by law in China. Aveda itself is however not sold in China.
Hair Dye and Animal-Testing
Let’s face it: box hair dye is terrible for us. We know it’s filled with some of the most harsh chemicals the cosmetics industry has to offer, and we’re aware of how easily those chemicals penetrate through the skin. Ammonia, lead acetate, arylamines, 4 APB, resocinol, and phenylenediamine are just some of the most alarming chemicals found in hair dyes.
Most box hair dyes you can find are being tested on animals, specifically because they’re filled with potentially toxic ingredients. Basically, we have more than enough reasons to stop using mainstream box hair dye brands, but so many of us still resort to it because of the huge selection of shades they offer, because it’s cheap, and because it’s, quite frankly, super fun and awesome to experiment with hair color!
The following hair dye is tested on animals:
- L’Oreal (Preference, Feria, Excellence, Healthy Look +)
- Garnier (Nutrisse, HerbaShine +)
- Clairol (Nice’n Easy, Natural Instincts, Age Defy, Perfect 10 +)
- Revlon (ColorSilk)
- Schwartzkopf (Brilliance, Color Ultime, Live, Palette +)
- Wella
- Vidal Sassoon
- John Frieda
Cruelty-Free Options
Luckily, there are cruelty-free options! And the good news is they’re just as affordable as the drugstore hair dye that’s tested on animals. Most of the options below are also vegan, and aren’t quite as harsh as the mainstream box dyes.
The following hair dye brands are NOT tested on animals:
Ecocolors
The Leaping Bunny-certified company EcoColors (pictured above) makes a full range of hair dye without some of the nasty chemicals.
Smart Beauty
Another cool brand is Smart Beauty (pictured above), which offers both natural colors as well as ombre kits and pastel hair dye (which I’ve used and loved!).
Herbatint
Herbatint is another cruelty-free option, and they offer a big selection of natural shades.
Manic Panic
Manic Panic is also cruelty-free, and they not only have all sorts of vibrant colors but also black semi-permanent dye.
Arctic Fox
Last but not least, give Arctic Fox a shot if you’re into fun colors. Their dye is 100% vegan and cruelty-free, and claims to be long-lasting.
A Milder Alternative: Lush Henna
Lush Henna, called Caca, comes in a bar (as pictured above). The blocks are crumbled (or grated, to speed up the process) and mixed with boiling water to form a runny paste. To dye your hair, simply coat it with the paste, cover, and wait! The process can be rather messy if you’re not careful.
Lush Henna has pros and cons. It doesn’t have as many harsh chemicals as other dyes, and it leaves your hair shinier than box dye because of the added moisture. However, you’ll have to wait for the henna to grow out of your hair if you want to dye it again using box dye or bleach.
If you want auburn or reddish hair, and if you’re certain that you won’t dye your hair any other color in the near future, this might be a great option for you.
I hope you were able to find a cruelty-free option that works for you, no matter what color you like to dye your hair!
Download the full list of cruelty-free brands in my 10-page guide, Cruelty-Free Made Simple. Enter your name and email below to get it in your inbox.
what about manic panic??
Yes, cruelty-free as well!
Do you know of any at home box hair colour that is available in the UK?
Pravana isn’t vegan. Only their hair care line is. Not the dye. Ive written to the company before.
Interesting, thanks! Do you know what animal products are in the dye?
Pravana’s chromasilk range uses silk derived ingredients which are therefore non vegan
Thank you!
Their website yells that Pravana color is “cruelty-free”. but of course it isn’t, it’s just not tested on animals, and you have to dig to see their ingredients… the first two they disclose are keratin and silk. Obvious animal products. I guess “silk” in the name should have been a red flag!
Do they have other animal products in their colors besides silk worms? Do they test on animals? And is there a lightener or bleach that is cruelty free?
These are the ingredients:
Water (Aqua), Cetyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Lanolyn Alchohol, Ceteareth-20, Propylene Glycol, Hydrolyzed Keratin, Ethyl Ester of Hydrolized Sylk, Sodium Sulfite, Simethicone, EDTA, Fragrance (Parfum). Colour may contain: Basic Blue 1, Basic Red 22, Basic Orange 1, Basic Violet 1, Basic Yellow 57, Basic Green 4.
•Cetyl alcohol is wax found in spermaceti from sperm whales
•Lanolyn alcohol is oil glands from sheep extracted from the wool
•Hydrolyzed keratin also sheep wool derived
• And as far as I know most color dyes are from animal pigments.
Nevo their hair care line is vegan tho. Hopes this helps.
If you write to them on their website they respond rather quickly. ?
I’ll have to look into those!
What about ion?
Paul Mitchell is a fantastic blue-black cruelty free dye. It’s what I use and I absolutely love it.
I had to Google it but it says ion is crultey free and possibly vegan. I can’t rely on this sorce anymore as it doesn’t seem to be kept up to date..
Ion labels all of their vegan products, so unless it’s explicitly stated on the packaging, its best to avoid. As far as I know, none of their colors are vegan :/
Can I ask why there is no mention of Shea Moisture? I’ve used them and it’s a pretty great product.
And what about Anthocyanin? I can not find any information about their animal testing policy, can not find anything at all… English is not my native language, and it’s so hard for me to deal with these, so maybe you guys can halp me. I read that South Koren is going to ban animal testing to 2018, and few Korean brands already got Bunny logo, but still no info ’bout Antho.
I use Naturtint, which is marketed as cruelty free and is milder than most. Works well at covering my greys, too. 🙂
Is this even being updated? There are products that are crultey free that aren’t even on here and I get no response..
Hey Bree, I might have missed your suggestions. Which brands should be added?
Hi Suzi me again 🙂 I have heard that Phyto brand is animal friendly or at least their website says so… https://www.phyto.com/help-contact/faq.html. Would you have any info on this one please?
Cheers!
MHK,
Try to contact via email http://www.greehare.com they may mail to India… Good Luck!
I hope everyone seeing “CRUELTY-FREE” knows that is NOT what it means. It only means that it isn’t tested on animals. Not vegan, not vegetarian, not even meat or cruelty free. It doesn’t mean anything other than not tested. I can’t believe the term “cruelty-free” can be used on actual animal products. Why do people care about testing and not the animals IN the products?? 🙁
Superdrug’s own brand hair dyes are not tested on animals and are suitable for vegetarians.
I’m so glad you said this because I knew it said cruelty free but I never really knew if it was vegetarian! Thank you! X
Superdrug dye is veggy but not vegan as it has lanolin from sheeps wool in it.
Does anyone know if the brand ‘Salon care’ tests on animals? They have it at Sally’s Beauty Supply.
How about la riche directions? Are they cruelty free?
Hi, Lisa! We’re not familiar with the cruelty-free status of La Riche right now, but I would suggest reaching out to them! Make sure to ask them about their finished products, ingredients, suppliers, as well as third party testing. Another thing to consider is whether or not they sell in mainland China, where animal testing is mandatory by law.
Hi there I just wanted to say that b4colour.com do a non animal testing ammonia and peroxide free product when you want to strip your hair of previous colour so also good for fragile hair. I have used it and leaves the hair soft ready for colour have a, silver Jerome Russell next! for UK shopper’s Tesco sell it and Jerome Russell and alot of their own products are not animal tested and fund into research for alternatives… Thanks for introducing me to animal friendly vegan hair products. I’m housebound so have to shop online and found it tricky to get the right one for ages!
Lime crime unicorn hair, jerome russels punky colors ( so much better than manic panic. Waaayyyyyy longer lasting) and lunartideshair are also crueltyfree and vegan
Awesome info, but as a 15+ year henna veteran, let me add some helpful information. You can absolutely safely color over just pure henna, I have done it many times. what you cannot color over is indigo, and a lot of companies like Lush combine henna (lawsonia inermis) with indigo to alter the consistently vibrant red into something more brownish or auburn tone. Indigo is the reason for green hair or melting hair when trying to use chemical color over a “henna” color. The best website in the world for both henna education and for buying the purest henna is Mehandi.com or hennaforhair.com They have endless resources to learn about henna for body art as well as how to use henna, cassia, amla and indigo to achieve a myriad of gorgeous colors, which even cover stubborn grey, and will never fade. Amazing stuff, cruelty free, purity/quality tested batch by batch. If you want golden hair, strawberry blonde, red, copper, auburn, warm brown or black hair without chemicals, start exploring their site. Loads of user before and after pics, too!
Is Sparks a cruelty-free brand?
yes, it is cruelty free. Sparks and Pravana semi permanent hair dyes both have the same ingredients. Sparks is cheaper than Pravana though.
I have just ordered Tints of Nature hair dye they claim to vegan, cruelty free and minimal hash chemicals, you can buy it off a lot of vegan and cruelty free websites. I look forward to trying it out as I have been getting my hair done at a l’Oreal salon and don’t like l’Oreal stance on animal testing
I am almost positive that Naturtint (sold at Whole Foods and other natural groceries) is cruelty free–can you confirm? I have been using it and love it.
I also love Surya Brasil, which is easy-to-use henna cream, and features the leaping bunny logo.
hey hey! hello from France!
your blog is fantastic!!
i’ve been vegetarian since i was young (maybe around my 10 years) but i try to be vegetalian the more i could with my husband and my two years old daughter.
i decided to really search for information about what i use on my face and body since this year (before i used bio things but never though about animal testing; in fact i did not really realised that it is a very big deal, i did not realised it was really happening in the 2000s! what a pain… and i lost one of my cat in the campaign, and i search for him for 9 months now and i found some pharmaceutical labo next to our home that have animals in there local and they are testing things on them!! just a few kilometers to my house!! i am in tears and i can do nothing about that, thats a terible feeling… sorry blablabla)
soooo do you know that KORRES do hair dye color that is cruelty free AND that works really well?
i tried it and loved it!
hi! goodDYEyoung is a cruelty-free hair dye brand, fairly new, founded and owned by Hayley Williams 🙂 Might be worth looking into for some confirmation!
What about cruelty free lighteners/bleach?
In the UK Superdrug own brand are good, I use the colour vibrance range