Did you recently get an amazing blonde dye job and wake up to green hair? Unless you have natural blonde locks, this is an unfortunate side effect of exposing your dyed or bleached hair to the wrong things.
This article will explain why your blonde hair turned green and how you can fix it. We’ll fix a couple of options, some that you can even do at home, and you will have you looking fabulous again as soon as possible. If this is your dilemma, keep reading to know more.
Why Did Your Blonde Hair Turn Green?
The usual culprit for blonde hair turning green is the swimming pool. The chlorine and copper in pool water that’s used to keep the water clean.
When this happens, the chemicals oxidize and bind with the proteins on the hair shaft. This oxidation causes the green color to appear, even if no green is used in your blonde hair dye.
There are a few other ways that your hair may turn green, even if you have never been in a pool. One way is overexposure to too much sunlight. Like the chemicals in the pool, sunlight can cause a chemical reaction with your hair that will turn it green.
Another way is through the minerals in your tap water. If you naturally have water with a lot of copper, or even if you live in a home with old copper pipes, you may notice your blonde hair turning green over time. As with the pool water, the copper here is the culprit.
Lastly, the degree your hair turns green depends on the health of your hair. Hair damaged from heating tools will turn green quicker than it might if you were using a heat protectant or avoiding heat styling altogether.
When you first dye your hair blonde, you may be particularly susceptible to turning green depending on how much you had to lighten your hair to get to that color. Lighting or bleaching your hair does cause significant damage that takes time and effort to repair.
How to Fix Blonde Hair That Has Turned Green?
This next section will review a few ways to fix your hair if it has already turned green. If you’re looking for ways to prevent your hair from turning green, skip this section and move to the next.
Head to the Salon
The easiest way would be to simply go back to the salon and get it fixed. You likely won’t need to dye it all over again when you go to the salon to get back to blonde.
Rather, a reputable hair stylist can treat your hair to reverse the oxidation and remove the green without disrupting the blonde underneath.
One common hair treatment that is used in salons is Redken Pre Art. If you’re comfortable with doing your hair treatments, it is possible to purchase this for yourself.
Treat Your Hair
If you opt not to go to the salon and DIY, you can perform the Redken Pre Art (or a similar treatment) on your hair at home.
- The first step would be to get the Redken Pre Art treatment and read the included instructions.
- When you’re ready to apply it, start by damping your hair.
- Next, apply a generous amount of the treatment to your hair and work it through with your hands.
- Cover everything with a shower cap and let your hair sit for 20 minutes to allow the treatment to work into your hair.
- Then, squeeze the remaining product from your hair and rinse.
- Finally, wash your hair with shampoo and conditioner as you normally would.
Clarifying Shampoo
If you’re not worried about stripping the color beneath, you could use a clarifying shampoo. This specially formulated shampoo is designed to strip away any product build-up, oils, and minerals.
So yes, that means it will remove the oxidized mineralization that has bound itself to your hair shaft.
If you originally went for platinum, you may suddenly find yourself with brassy gold.
On the bright side, the green should be gone. Unfortunately, purifying shampoo will also make your new blonde dye wash out faster.
This is a better option if you already have some fading so that it won’t be so drastic.
Cancel the Green With Ketchup
If you have absolutely no other options available, you can cancel out the green color with something on the opposite side of the color wheel – red.
Tomato ketchup tends to be the perfect option for this as it is red and not strong enough to stain your hair, so long as you don’t leave it in for too long.
To use ketchup, you can start with hair that is either damp or dry. You may find damp hair makes it easier to spread.
Apply a generous amount of ketchup to your hair and let it sit for 10 minutes. You may want to tuck it into a cap to make it less messy.
You can then rinse out your hair and repeat as necessary.
This method may be as effective as the previous two, but it will work with a couple of applications in most cases. It’s a great option if you need a fix immediately with no other products.
How To Prevent Blonde Hair from Turning Green
Finally, we’ll go over a few ways you can stop your blonde hair from turning green in the first place.
Don’t Swim With Dry Hair
Swimming can be the primary cause of your hair being turned green. If you’re going into a pool, it’ll be hard to avoid getting your hair wet. Sure, you can clip it up, but that won’t make for a fun time in the pool.
The easier option is simply to wet your hair before you get in the pool. Most pools will have showers available before you get in. Simply use them to soak your hair through.
Doing so will give your blonde hair a bit of protection from the chlorine, rather than just getting in with dry hair alone.
Adding a conditioner to your hair when it is wet will further help to protect your hair.
If you’re still finding that your hair is turning green, you could use a swimming cap to dry it and keep your hair tucked up and away from the water.
You can also go for a swimmer’s shampoo that is made to remove pool chemicals from your hair.
Add a Filter to Your Shower
If you’re getting green hair at home and think your hard water is to blame, try adding a filter to your shower head. A filter will prevent minerals such as copper and chlorine from reaching your hair.
Keep Your Hair Healthy
One of the leading factors in hair health is the quality of your hair. Damaged hair will turn green far faster and easier than healthy hair. For the best protection against green hair, do everything you can to protect your hair from damage.
This includes steps like avoiding heat styling or using a heat protectant, using a deep conditioner treatment at least once a week and using hair masks regularly to restore the damage.
If your blonde hair turns green, there’s no need to panic. You can take care of the problem in a few simple ways, both in the salon and at home.
If you’ve never had your hair turn green, we hope our preventative tips will keep it that way for you for as long as you enjoy your blonde locks.
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