What causes green hair?

[GraceByDesign]

OK, I have to add this...

once when I was in college and stupid, I dyed my blonde hair black. There were adult beverages involved
Anyway, it was a 'rinse', you know, that is supposed to wash out over time. Well, it did not, and I got impatient, and probably after some more adult beverages (if my mother only knew ) I put straight bleach on my hair. It did turn green. A lovely olive shade.

So, bleach (albeit in WAAAY larger concentrations than found in the pool) plus hair dye WILL result in green hair. Ok, bleach plus dye minus any good judgement whatsoever!

Take this for what it's worth...

[waterbear]

Guess I need to straighten out a few things here. I have been a licensed Cosmetologist and Barber in the State of Florida for about 30 years now and spent about 16 of that working as a colorist in high end salons and day spas and as a Cosmetology and Barbering instructor.

First, let me state that it is copper that turns hair green (and iron has been known to make reddish stains in blonde hair). Sound like a pool stain? Yep!

I posted this a while back on the only way to remove metal stains from hair that really works (and compared it to the process of removing them from pools...they are basically the same!). I learned these processes from advanced training I had from a few different professional hair product and color companies. I also used to do education for product companies. Most hairstylists do NOT receive this type of training.

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showpos...80&postcount=3

As far as dying the hair black and then bleaching it...first of all, hair bleach is not the same as chlorine. It is hydrogen peroxide and sodium and potassium percarbonate. It will remove natural pigment from the hair but will not remove oxidation dye hair color. ISemi permenent colors are just preoxidized oxidation dyes, which is why they supposedly wash out over time.) Such hair color needs a reducing agent to decolorize it and the process is only partially successful. If you try to bleach it out what happens is the red and yellow dye base molecules are oxidized first and do decolorize to some extent, they become yellowish colored molecules. The blue dye base molecules are very resistant to oxidation and remain essentially unchanged. The natural hair is bleached at the same time and becomes very porous. The net result is you have yellow and blue in the hair, which results in a greenish tint. Because of the porosity of the hair, oxidized red and yellow dye base molecules, which are small in comparison to the blue ones, do not stay and any further attempts to dye the hair result in greenish results also unless corrective color procedures are used.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know about hair coloring! I know it was more than any of my students ever wanted to know!

[GraceByDesign]

Boy, Evan, you are a Waterbear of all trades!

When I said I put straight bleach, I did not mean hair bleach, I meant Clorox laundry bleach.

However, in reading your great info on color, I came up with the following question:

Chlorine messes with metals in your pool, causing staining of the pool, right? So could putting STRONG chlorine on your color-treated hair mess with the metals in the hair dye, causing staining of your color-treated hair?

.........I wonder why the chlorine in her tap water doesn't turn it green?????

What most people do not know is that when using the BBB method PROPERLY, you probably have less chlorine in your pool than in your tap water. I think all the improperly chlorinated pools out there give us BBB'ers a bad name!

[waterbear]

Boy, Evan, you are a Waterbear of all trades!

When I said I put straight bleach, I did not mean hair bleach, I meant Clorox laundry bleach.

However, in reading your great info on color, I came up with the following question:

Chlorine messes with metals in your pool, causing staining of the pool, right? So could putting STRONG chlorine on your color-treated hair mess with the metals in the hair dye, causing staining of your color-treated hair?
Metallic hair dyes have not been around in many years because of their toxicity and incompatability with other chemical sercives such as perming except for some 'gradual hair color restorers' for men, which are based on lead and eyelash and eyebrow tint which is based on silver nitrate. If you put a strong oxidizer like beach on hair treated with a true metallic dye it would get very hot and the hair would literally disintegrate!


What most people do not know is that when using the BBB method PROPERLY, you probably have less chlorine in your pool than in your tap water. I think all the improperly chlorinated pools out there give us BBB'ers a bad name!

Hope this clears it up.

[CarlD]

What's wrong with green hair? Star Trek was famous for having INCREDIBLY attractive women in incredibly architectured clothing (that defied gravity) with green hair, green nails, and even green skin!

Hey! I've got a green smile!

[waterbear]

Personally, I LIKE green hair...when I was younger and owned a Salon my hair was various colors....including green, pink, blue and purple. One time I even had a drawing of a sailboat on the ocean dyed on my hair for a hair show I was doing education for! THAT job took my business partner and two of my workers to complete and was done over 2 days! (I admit that I went through a 'punk phase' The stuff we DO when we are young and foolish! I still have the tattoos and piercings. They don't go away as easily)

[Watermom]

I had the green hair thing happen to me before. On my honeymoon - long blonde ponytail. My new hubby said, as we were walking down the beach, "Your hair is green!" I didn't believe him at first, but sure enough, it was. I assumed that it was from the chlorine in the hotel pool -- now I know better. It was from copper in the pool. Spent the next day at a beauty shop having them put some bright red stuff on my hair. Whatever it was, it worked. Back to blonde. (Of course, I always tease my hubby that it was a sign that I shouldn't have married him! )

[waterbear]

I had the green hair thing happen to me before. On my honeymoon - long blonde ponytail. My new hubby said, as we were walking down the beach, "Your hair is green!" I didn't believe him at first, but sure enough, it was. I assumed that it was from the chlorine in the hotel pool -- now I know better. It was from copper in the pool. Spent the next day at a beauty shop having them put some bright red stuff on my hair. Whatever it was, it worked. Back to blonde. (Of course, I always tease my hubby that it was a sign that I shouldn't have married him! )

basic corrective color. They didn't get rid of the green but neutralized it with red. The metal was still in your hair.

[jnorris]

Wow, thanks for all the info! What do people do if they use the copper algaecides? Do they then have to put something in the water to sequester the metals? And if you do that, do you stil run the risk of green hair? Again, all hypothetical, since I'm not having an algae problem. But my PB did tell me that he always recommends the copper algaecides to his clients. He says he recommends a "special" one that doesn't cause problems; I think he called it "chelated".

[waterbear]

Wow, thanks for all the info! What do people do if they use the copper algaecides? Do they then have to put something in the water to sequester the metals? And if you do that, do you stil run the risk of green hair? Again, all hypothetical, since I'm not having an algae problem. But my PB did tell me that he always recommends the copper algaecides to his clients. He says he recommends a "special" one that doesn't cause problems; I think he called it "chelated".

Chelated copper only stays chelated for so long then it begins to stain. Sequstering agents also chelate copper to keep it from staining and they need to be reapplied on a regular basis!
I would avoid copper....you DO NOT NEED IT!