Background: Black bean is one of the important beans as the second most consumed bean globally after soybean. It has been reported as a sustainable source of anthocyanins, important natural colorants used in food and consumer products. However, industrial uses of black bean anthocyanins in pharmaceutics and cosmetics have rarely been explored. Thus, here, a black bean anthocyanin extract was prepared, quality controlled and developed into an efficient hair coloring product. Results: Black bean was macerated in hydrochloric ethanol to produce a dark-reddish 1.85 ± 0.04% dry extract with total anthocyanin content (TAC) of 1.24 ± 0.48 µg/ml cyanidin-3-glucoside. The extract was readily dissolved in propylene glycol (25%), giving a reddish to red-brownish solution at pH of 4.00-7.00. The addition of antioxidant significantly (p = 0.000) enhanced the stability of the extract in an accelerated stability test (90.34 ± 5.32 from 67.83 ± 3.45% TAC remaining). Three base hair gels containing different thickeners were developed to yield clear gels with a viscosity of 101,666.67-447,333.33 cps and a pH of 4.80-4.97. The gel base with the best hair application properties was chosen to mix with 8, 10 and 12% black bean extract to produce similar visually assessed red-brown gels (L* = 33.25-33.76, a* = 0.06-0.09, b* = − 0.45-0.38 and h* = 277.54-283.31) at 73,733.33-99,666.67 cps and a pH of 5.00-5.01. All of the black bean hair coloring gels were stable under the accelerated test. The 10% hair gel was tested for its hair staining efficacy. The black bean hair coloring gel was found to efficiently color hair, and the color was maintained through four washings. Conclusions: An alternative application approach of using black bean as a natural colorant is presented here, including its basic requirements for preparation and quality control from an industrial aspect. The efficient semi-permanent hair coloring product containing black bean is an innovative natural product and is considered as one progress towards a sustainable bio-based economy using a readily available industrial crop, black bean.