Onion Peel (Pyaz Chilka) for Hair Colour, Stock and Peel Tea

Two big handfuls of onion skins simmered in 750 ml of water make a rinse that gives grey or light hair a warm golden tint, and that’s the honest limit of onion peel for hair: a soft glow, not a black dye. The rest of your pyaz and lehsun ke chilke are better used in the kitchen, as a free stock base or an egg dye, and this guide covers those uses, the peel tea trend, and the mouldy skins you should always throw away.

What can you do with onion and garlic peels in the kitchen?

Quite a lot, for something you were about to throw away. The dry outer skins carry colour and a gentle, sweet onion flavour, and they cost nothing, so the smart move is to collect them as you cook rather than make a special trip for them.

Free stock from a freezer bag

1. Keep a zip bag in the freezer. Add clean, dry onion skins, a few garlic skins, carrot tops, coriander stems and the ends of lauki or tinda as you cook.
2. Leave out skins with black powder, anything slimy, and the rooty base with soil stuck to it.
3. When the bag holds about 4 cups of scraps, tip them into a big pot with 2 litres of water, a bay leaf and a few peppercorns.
4. Simmer gently for 45 minutes to 1 hour, uncovered or with the lid ajar. Hard boiling makes it cloudy.
5. Strain through a fine sieve and press the scraps lightly. You’ll get about 1.5 litres of golden stock.
6. Cool it quickly, then keep it in the fridge for 3 to 4 days or freeze it in portions for up to 3 months.

Onion skins are what give the stock its deep golden colour. Keep garlic skins to a small handful, because too many turn it faintly bitter, and don’t add salt until you use the stock in a daal or yakhni.

Colouring eggs and rice

Onion skins are one of the oldest natural dyes there is. Simmer the skins of 6 to 8 onions in 1 litre of water for 15 minutes, add eggs and boil them for 10 minutes, and the shells come out a rich rust brown; leave them in the cooled dye in the fridge overnight for a deeper colour. For rice, tuck one clean outer skin into the pot while it cooks and lift it out before serving: the grains turn a pale gold with no taste change at all.

Onion peel for hair colour: what tint to expect

The colour in onion skins comes from natural plant pigments, including quercetin, and those pigments stain the outer layer of a hair strand lightly. On white, grey or light brown hair that shows as a warm golden, honey or copper tint, a bit like a very weak henna. On black or dark brown hair you’ll barely see it, maybe a warm glint in sunlight. It builds a little with each rinse and fades over several washes.

1. Collect the dry outer skins of 6 to 8 onions, about 2 loosely packed cups. Red onion skins give a slightly deeper, redder tone.
2. Wash them by swishing in a bowl of water and lifting them out, so the dust and grit stay behind.
3. Simmer in 750 ml of water for 20 to 30 minutes, until the water turns deep amber. Cool completely and strain.
4. Patch test on the skin behind your ear 48 hours before the first full use.
5. Pour it slowly over clean, damp hair in a basin, catching and re-pouring it 4 or 5 times. Wear old clothes; it stains towels.
6. Leave it 30 minutes, then rinse with plain water. No shampoo that day.
7. Repeat once or twice a week if you want the tint to build.

If you want real grey coverage, you need a dye, or henna followed by indigo, and our guide to safed baal and henna with indigo walks through that properly.

What about onion peel for hair growth? Different claim, different product. People who search for it usually mean raw onion juice rubbed on the scalp, and we’ve covered its honest evidence and the itch risk in hair fall home remedies with onion juice. A rinse made from peels hasn’t been shown to grow anything; it tints.

The burnt garlic peel “hair dye”

Videos show garlic skins roasted in a pan until black, crushed and mixed with oil, then painted on grey roots. What you’ve made is soot in oil. It coats hair like kajal, rubs off on your pillow and collar, washes out with shampoo, and has nothing in it that restores colour at the root, while charring peels indoors fills the kitchen with smoke. Skip it.

Onion peel tea and garlic peel tea: what they are

Peel tea is just the skins steeped in hot water. Take the washed outer skins of 2 onions, simmer them in 2 cups of water for 10 minutes, strain, and you have a clear amber drink that tastes faintly of onion, slightly bitter, better with a slice of ginger or lemon. Garlic peel tea is made the same way and tastes of very little.

Here’s the honest part. Dry onion skins really are far richer in quercetin (a plant pigment with antioxidant activity) than the onion you eat, which is where most of the online excitement starts. But a cup of peel tea hasn’t been shown to lower blood pressure or sugar or to help weight loss, so treat it as a warm, caffeine-free drink and nothing more, and don’t let it replace a prescribed medicine or a doctor’s check.

Side effects are usually minor: heartburn in people prone to reflux, and reactions in anyone allergic to onion or garlic. Don’t give it to babies. Use only clean, unmouldy skins, because you’re drinking whatever sits on them.

How to dry and store peels, and when to bin them

Onion skins often carry a black, sooty powder between the layers. That’s a common mould (Aspergillus niger), and we explain what it means for the onion itself in red vs white onion and black mould. For peels the rule is simple: any skin with black powder, grey fuzz or a damp, musty smell goes straight in the bin or compost, never into stock, tea or a hair rinse.

• Air-drying: spread clean skins on a tray in a dry, airy spot for 2 to 3 days until they crackle.
• Oven: lowest setting, about 60 to 70 °C, for 30 to 60 minutes, until crisp but not browned.
• Storage: a paper bag in a dry cupboard for 2 to 3 weeks, or the freezer bag for up to 3 months. A sealed plastic box at room temperature traps moisture and invites mould.

Onion peel powder isn’t the same as the onion powder in the masala aisle. Shop onion powder is made from the dried flesh and tastes strongly of onion; ground peel is mostly colour and a little bitterness, so it’s a dye, not a seasoning.

Garlic peels: stock, compost or bin

The papery outer skins of garlic aren’t really food. You can eat them without harm, but they’re tough fibre that your gut can’t break down, and they feel like chewing paper. Their best home is the stock bag, where they add a mild garlic note before you strain them out. The thin, soft inner skin that stays on a roasted clove is fine to eat.

Everything else can go into compost. For growing ideas with kitchen scraps, browse our Zero-Waste Kitchen section.

Did you know?

Cutting an onion makes you cry because broken cells release a gas that stings the eyes. The dry skins don’t do it.

A single onion skin in a pot of plain rice is enough to tint the whole batch gold.

Onion and garlic peel questions