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Hair changing from its intended color leaves many wondering what to do when bleached hair turns green. One of the most frequently encountered problems, green hair, can be corrected with the proper steps!
Why Your Bleached Hair Turned Green
Reaching out to a salon professional is one of the best options when considering what to do when bleached hair turns green. Colorists, in particular, offer the best advice regarding correcting color.
Remove the green from the hair by using recommended products or receiving specialized treatments at the salon. Though people feel tempted to choose the best products for themselves, an informed professional provides the best choice for each individual.
Why see a professional? Hair turns green for a few reasons, and there are several ways to remedy it. Determining why bleached hair turned green helps with correction.
While swimming shampoos, red-tinted products, and specialized treatments help return hair to its original color, they don’t fix the source of the problem. Some cases of bleached hair turning green result from improper bleach, but the cause of other green hair is chemical buildup.
3 Ways to Correct Green Hair
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A stylist or other haircare expert will give the best advice for correcting green hair, so the salon is a great place to start. They can recommend the best solutions for a specific situation. There are at-home products and home remedies as well. These are some common suggestions for correcting green hair.
1. Detox Treatments
Colorists recommend various treatments for different hair problems. The most common treatment for green hair is a detox treatment. These treatments help remove buildup from the hair by clarification.
Detox treatments pull harsh chemicals from the hair, including ones that cause hair to become tinted green like copper. The process also helps extract excess chlorine, which contributes to the prominence of green hair.
Read Next: How to Clarify Your Hair
2. At-Home Products
If opting for an at-home solution, consider products proven effective in dealing with green hair.
- Swimmer’s Shampoo: Shampoos designed for swimmers remove excess chlorine and other chemicals from hair that cause green tints.
- Red-Tinted Toning Products: Products with red pigments help balance the look of green in the hair by depositing red into strands.
- Chelating Shampoo: Formulated shampoos strip excess chemicals, including the ones causing green-tinted hair. Chelating shampoos are more potent than other products used for the same purpose.
Even when choosing an at-home product, consulting with a stylist is still suitable for their advice in selecting a shampoo or conditioner.
3. Home Remedies
Specific home remedies may help alleviate green coloration in hair. They aren’t as effective as products or treatments designed to fix green. However, some may work because they share properties with the formulas of these products.
Chelating shampoo removes buildup, but chelating agents are present in many products and have a similar effect. Two safe options for hair are club soda and apple cider vinegar.
Chelating agents bond with heavy metals and remove them from the hair. Apple cider and club soda are two natural options. One of the most popular home remedies is tomato-based products.
Many of these products do contain two things that may be able to help: red pigment and a chelating agent used as a preservative. Red pigments help to distract from green since the two are complementary colors.
The small amount of chelating agent in the products may also help it be effective. While these home remedies show results colloquially, and there may be scientific reasons why they do, products created specifically for hair have the best results.
Read Next: How to Get Green Tint Out of Bleached Hair
Why Does It Happen?
Regardless of the way it’s fixed, people may want to know how they ended up with green hair in the first place. Usually, green hair is the result of two problems. Using the wrong mix or procedure when bleaching can produce a green hue.
One common mistake is not adding pre-pigment when going from bleached hair to brown. When pre-pigment isn’t added, hair can become greenish gray. Green hair often results from a buildup of minerals on hair strands.
The buildup that causes green hair is copper. The copper becomes a greenish hue when exposed and oxidized. Typically this is most noticeable in the summer months as people’s hair naturally lightens.
Another factor involved in buildup is chlorine. While this chemical doesn’t turn hair green, it certainly speeds up the oxidation process.
People associate green with chlorine because green hair often results after swimming in pools. However, while most people know pool water contains chlorine, fewer know pool water is treated with heavy metals like copper.
Preventing Bleached Hair From Turning Green
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Want to stop hair from turning green before it starts? Try some of these steps to prevent green from discoloring your locks. Since swimming in treated pools is one of the easiest ways to get extra copper in hair, take precautions before getting in the pool.
Consider wearing a swim cap to prevent copper deposits in hair. Other methods include wetting hair with non-chlorine water or applying conditioner to prevent copper from taking hold of the hair.
Coconut oil protects hair as well. If you don’t take preventative measures, washing hair after leaving the pool removes some of the minerals before color changes take effect.
A clarifying shampoo formulated for swimmers will be the most useful. Avoiding swimming in treated pools is another way to prevent green hair. However, not all green hair results from pools.
Some people may have hard water where they live, which can also have the same effect. Consider adding a showerhead with a filter to reduce the effects. You can treat hard water to reduce the presence of heavy metals.
Read Next: How to Boil Hard Water to Wash Hair
Frequently Asked Questions
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Does purple shampoo get rid of green tones?
Purple shampoo removes orange or brassy tones from hair. Purple shampoo doesn’t correct green tones in the hair.
Does ketchup get rid of green hair?
Applying ketchup to hair stains the hair with red pigment distracting from the green tones and evening them out. However, due to the consistency of ketchup, a pink toning conditioner works better, making for a more appealing option.
Why does blonde hair turn green?
Blonde hair isn’t the only hair color that turns green. People with darker hair colors also experience green in their hair. It is harder to detect because of the other pigments in the hair.
How do you fade green hair?
Try the techniques listed above to reduce the appearance of green hair resulting from copper deposits, try the methods listed above. Fade dyed green hair with a color remover or shampoo hair with specialized shampoos and hot water.
Can you bleach green out of your hair?
Bleaching hair turned green from mineral buildup won’t take the green out of the hair. This process could damage hair with the overuse of chemicals. Bleach works to lighten hair and could make the green in hair more noticeable instead of less.
So, What Should You Do When Bleached Hair Turns Green?
If your hair bleached hair turns green, there are several ways to work back to the correct color. Reaching out to a professional is the easiest way to ensure proper treatment for fixing hair.
Another way to keep hair bleached is to avoid copper buildup when possible. In any case, we hope that our guide has helped you learn the steps you need to take to get your hair back to normal. Happy coloring!