Has your hair turned green? It’s common but still annoying!
If you have highlighted hair, you have be proceed with caution when swimming, you’re hair will turn green!
Hair Turned Green After Swimming
We always have been told that our hair, especially the pretty highlights, will turn green because of chlorine in the swimming pools. The fact is that it is due to copper oxide and copper sulfate in the water! These ions are present in trace amounts but because of their positive charge they can easily penetrate the negatively charged hair shaft.
Furthermore, the weathering process from UV rays, and the elements can render the hair brittle and dry.
Help! My Hair Turned Green After Swimming…
Use a professional shampoo to get the green out of your blonde or bleached hair. Look for a shampoo that chelates the metal (Chelate: A chemical compound in the form of a heterocyclic ring, containing a metal ion attached by coordinate bonds to at least two nonmetal ions).
Chelating shampoos (available at hair salons) help leach out the metal ions using an ingredient called EDTA. For example, you could use UltraSwim Chlorine-Removal Shampoo.
How To Prevent Your Hair From Turning Green
1. Switch your conditioner to one with cyclomethicone or dimethicone, or if you are in to more organic choices, olive oil or coconut oil, applied to the hair before swimming can really help.
2. Wash your hair thoroughly after the swimming pool.
3. Vinegar, lemon juice and even tomato juice will help remove the green tint from swimming-pool hair once it is damaged because they contain citric acid. However, make sure you rinse these juices off before any exposure to sunlight, since they can render the hair and skin more sensitive to the sun.
4. Go super smart: wear hats once outside of the pool, sit in the shade and prevent the wear and tear on your hair and skin from heat and wind, and = UV rays.
To schedule a consultation with Dr. Kormeili, please contact us.