Blonde or light-colored hair can take on a greenish tint from exposure to chlorine or other hard metals from a swimming pool giving the hair a brassy and unattractive look. How is this rectified? There are so many simple and quick ways to do that in the comfort of your home!
Although coloring makes the hair cuticle more vulnerable to copper coating, coloring does not affect the green hair induced by swimming. The presence of hard metals, such as copper, iron, and manganese in outdated pool piping or copper algaecide, which is used to destroy algae in swimming pools and naturally hard water, causes hair to turn green.
As previously mentioned, damage to the hair cuticle can result in a shift in the tone of the hair; this damage is often brought on by excessive heat, bleaching, ironing, or chemical straightening.
There is a common misconception that chlorine is the only factor responsible for the green color; however, that isn’t totally accurate. Chlorine certainly has a role, but copper pulls the strings.
How to Prevent Hair from Turning Green
To fix a problem, it’s essential to know just how to prevent it from happening in the first place. Here are ways to prevent your blonde hair from turning green.
1. Wet Your Hair
Before swimming, get your hair wet with clean water, do not attempt to air dry. Swimming with wet hair would keep hair moisturized and prevent the pool water from getting in.
2. Add in a Leave-in Conditioner
A leave-in conditioner helps keep the hair hydrated and doesn’t require rinsing. Add a leave-in conditioner before swimming; this prevents pollutants from sticking to your hair quickly.
3. Apply a Hot Oil Treatment
Oil molecules can replenish the protective oil in hair because they are tiny enough to pass through the outer cuticle. Emollients like oils keep moisture in and serve as a defense against hair damage.
Choose the oil you wish to use for the hot oil treatment method first. Popular options include coconut oil, argan oil, olive oil, jojoba oil, and almond oil. If your hair or scalp is greasy, you might want to use less fatty oil. Jojoba and almond are fantastic choices since they absorb quickly.
3 to 6 tablespoons of the oil should be heated in a microwave for 10 seconds, or you can warm the oil by putting it in a basin with hot water. Apply the oil evenly throughout your hair, then massage it into your scalp. Massaging the scalp Increases blood flow which encourages hair growth.
4. Wear a Swim Cap
Your hair is completely covered when you wear a swim cap, protecting it from the chlorine in the water and drastically lowering the likelihood that it will turn green.
5. Always Wash After a Swim
Always wash as soon as you are done swimming; go in with a light shampoo and condition.
DIY Methods to Getting the Green Out of Hair
These are simple and easy home remedies to get that green out!
1. Using a Chelating Shampoo
Heavy buildup from hard water minerals pools water chemicals, and routine hair product residue is all removed by chelating shampoos. Chelating shampoos contain active ingredients such as the EDTA complex, which binds to pollutants, minerals, and toxins that are washed away.
After thoroughly wetting your hair, apply a quarter-sized amount of chelating shampoo, work it into a lather with your fingertips, and then rinse.
2. A Corrective Toner
The primary purposes of toners, which are semi-permanent or demi-permanent hair colors, are to freshen, neutralize, and eliminate unpleasant tones.
You may require more than the clarifier-chelating shampoo if you’ve colored your hair blue or green because the pigments are deposited deeper, which is where a toner comes in. A toner functions according to the color interaction theory, where complementary or contrasting colors balance one another. In this case, red balances green, precisely what you need.
3. Using a Dish Soap
Keep in mind that this procedure will cause your hair to become dry; thus, it is essential to condition your hair properly afterward. An amount of shampoo the size of a quarter should have four or five drops of dish soap added. Following a hot water rinse, apply the shampoo mixture to your hair and lather. After 10 minutes, rinse off this combination. A conditioning treatment should come after this.
4. Tomato Juice
Apply tomato juice to your hair and let it sit for five to ten minutes. Then, shampoo and condition as usual. You could also use ketchup; it would probably be less messy because it has some consistency. Apply ketchup to your hair and let it sit for 15 minutes before washing and conditioning as usual.
5. A Lemon Juice
Dip your hair into a bowl of fresh or bottled lemon juice and thoroughly saturate your hair for about five minutes, then rinse and condition as usual.
6. A Baking Soda
You can add baking soda to your shampoo to give it a wash or add ¼ to ½ cup of baking soda and water, stir to make a paste, and massage it into the green spots. After a thorough rinse, condition normally.
7. Vitamin C
Take a small amount of shampoo and 1,000 mg of vitamin C and mix. Make sure there are no lumps, and it is properly blended; you may also add a little dish soap to increase effectiveness. Lather the liquid onto your hair, being sure to distribute it evenly.
Put on a shower cap and clip your hair up. This method can get messy, so it is essential to wear a shower cap while you wait for the treatment to work and let this process sit for 45 minutes. Rinse and condition as usual.
8. Use a Professional Shampoo
Using swimming-specific shampoos made and engineered to remove pool chemicals is a wonderful way to get the green out of hair. When the chlorine cover is removed, the copper-induced oxidation damage on the hair fibers is restored to its normal state, enabling the hair to recover and successfully get rid of the green tint.
9. Lemon Kool-Aid
Lemon Kool-aid and water should be combined, then applied to the affected areas and left on for five minutes. As usual, shampoo and condition. This is a great substitute for lemon juice.
10. Aspirins
This seems weird, but it works because Aspirin is acidic; it has the capability to expel impurities.
Crush 6 to 8 aspirin tablets in a bowl, add warm water and stir. Apply the mixture to your hair, then wait 15 to 20 minutes before rinsing. Wash and condition your hair as usual.
11. Rinse with Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar also functions well; in a nozzled container, combine raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) and water in a 3:1 ratio, shake it, and wait a little while. First, wash your hair with a regular shampoo. Then, after rinsing, apply ACV. After that, deep condition the hair to hydrate it.
Conclusion
For the best or most effective outcomes, you might need to repeat the procedures depending on the amount of tint. Use clean water during these procedures because it could go horribly wrong if your home’s water contains these heavy metals.