Nigredo, the First Working
Crow's Head
A black drawn from the beginning of things.
Crow's Head is the first stage of the Great Work: the nigredo, the blackening. It is not a color worn to vanish into. It is a color worn to begin.
This is not black as absence. It is black as the soil a thing is planted in.
What it is
A deep, rich black. A semi-permanent color elixir, 118 mL / 4 FL OZ.
Deposit-only: it colors without lightening. Crow's Head gives its full black on a lightened or light base. On brown hair it deepens and cools what is there; on hair already dark it is a gloss more than a change.
A conditioning base carried on coconut oil, sunflower seed oil, and aloe. No ammonia, no peroxide. Materials sourced are vegan and cruelty-free.
Blended and filled in Anaheim, California.
It fades gradually with each wash. Nothing holds its color forever. When it dims, it is renewed.
The scent
Dark Rose. Rose laid over labdanum: the resin of the rockrose, burned as temple incense in the ancient world. Warm, faintly smoky, nearer to leather and old honey than to petals.
Not a rose from a garden, but from a reliquary.
Every Working carries it.
The ritual
Every Crow's Head Edition carries the Color Rite, the considered way to apply the elixir.
Processing time is not the same for everyone. Hair takes color at its own pace, and each color keeps its own. The Color Rite gives the range, and never longer than forty-five minutes.
And the descent has a companion: a guided meditation timed to a typical application, which turns the developing hour into a rite rather than a wait. It will call you to rinse, though if your own time differs, follow your time, not the chime. It can also be practiced alone, with no color at all.
It arrives with the Editions.
It is free, and it asks nothing.