How to Neutralize Green Hair from the Pool without Expensive Shampoos
Summe
r Hair Care for You and Your Little Ones (Part 1)
Summer is for fun. It’s for swimming lessons, for beaches, for splash pads, and water balloon fights. And with those long days at the pool come that dull green hue of build-up on your blonded or naturally blonde hair. Summer is too fun to waste time worrying about how to neutralize green hair from the pool.
So what are your options?
Ignore it. It’ll wash out eventually.
Wash your hair twice after swimming.
Pour baking soda on your head and lather up! Surely that’ll get it out, right?
Develop healthy hair habits to keep you from getting green hair from the pool
Can you guess which one I recommend?
I’m sorry you can’t just ignore it – or at least not without painful repercussions. And no! Washing your hair compulsively with the first remedy you find on Google isn’t the best choice either.
When you have heavy metal build up and you do nothing, then the conditioner can’t penetrate the hair shaft to nourish it. (Oh, and by the way, it’s copper that turns your hair green, not chlorine. More on that later.)
And when you’re constantly washing your hair with harsh shampoos or worse…baking soda, then your hair will get dry and brittle. Poorly conditioned hair leads to intense tangling and breakage.
You don’t want that back-to-school cut to be because half your hair broke off!
Let’s break down the science behind why the pool is turning your hair green and what are some good hair habits you can form to prevent the greening in the first place.
Why is My Pool Turning My Hair Green?
I’m sure you’ve seen this on HGTV or HSN. It’s called copper patina. It’s that beautifully oxidized copper roof that Joanna Gaines put as an accent on her “French Country'' inspired home reno. Because while copper starts out as that bright reddish orange, it ages (or oxidizes) to a light green color.
It's not your pool that's turning your hair green. It's the copper.
Just about all water – especially in Florida – has some amount of copper in it. Left alone it makes your hair feel hard, but it doesn’t turn your hair green.
When you hop in a pool, however, there are chemicals like chlorine. The chlorine acts as an oxidizing agent to the copper and other heavy metals. Thus, it turns your hair green. ¹
Is Green Hair from Chlorine Permanent?
The good news is green hair from chlorine (actually copper) is not permanent. It’s just a sign that you have heavy metal build up on your hair.
Honestly, you should thank the chlorine for revealing this to you. Chances are you already had the heavy metal build-up before swimming. The chlorine is just revealing it.
Now the consequences from allowing those metals to stay on your hair can be permanent. So you still need to do something about it.
How Do You Fix Green Hair from the Pool?
There are several ways to fix green hair from the pool. The key here is to try the least invasive method first. Yes, I have used baking soda on someone’s hair before. But that was our second to last resort.
Here are the methods that I use when fixing green hair from pool water. I’ve listed them from least harsh (try first) to most harsh (do last).
1. ACV rinse
If you’ve read my earlier blogs, then you’re familiar with the Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse (ACV Rinse). It’s a simple solution:
2 Tablespoons ACV
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup of warm water.
It’s one of those go-to fixes that helps almost any hair problem. The acidity of the vinegar rinses away the build-up and restores the hair’s natural pH.
That means you get soft, build-up-free hair.
Seriously, anytime your hair’s doing something funky, start by restoring its balance with an ACV Rinse.
2. Build-Up Buster with friction on the mid lengths and ends
If ACV doesn’t budge the green, then I turn to Build-Up Buster by DevaCurl. Typically, when I use Build-Up Buster, I focus on the scalp. But for this scenario, I focus on the mid-lengths to ends because that’s where the greening appears.
Build-Up Buster² is a micellar water cleanser that leaves your hair feeling squeaky clean without stripping it of all its natural oils.
You may have heard of micellar water facial cleansers. They do a great job of attracting dirt particles, while leaving the beneficial oils behind. That’s exactly what Build-Up Buster does for your hair and scalp.
3. Shampoo Three only on affected areas
If Build-Up Buster fails, then I move to Shampoo Three³ by Paul Mitchell. This stuff is no joke. Its job is to completely cleanse the hair shaft of all impurities. And it does just that.
I can only think of one time that Shampoo Three did not come through for me. And that was a very specific case where this didn’t work.
4. Baking soda and...ketchup?
When all else fails – and only when all else fails – do we need to bring out the baking soda. But we’re not going to douse our entire head with it!
We’re going to use a mixture of baking soda and ketchup – yes, ketchup – only on the affected areas.
Now I know you’re thinking, “When did ketchup get invited to this party?”
Here’s why I recommend ketchup.
Remember what I said about ACV rinses balancing the pH of the hair? Good. Now what’s the base of ketchup?
Tomato, yes. And…vinegar!
Now let’s talk color theory really quick. Opposite colors neutralize each other. The opposite of green is…
Ding, ding, ding! RED!
So that’s why ketchup. ‘Cause, chances are, if we’re so far gone that I’m using baking soda on your hair, then we’re not getting all of the heavy metals out in one sitting. Your hair is going to be on a steady detox for about a week. (Followed by intense conditioning and possibly rebuilding treatments.)
So what I’m doing is temporarily neutralizing the green in your hair by soaking it in ketchup. Yes, it will wash out. But it will also keep you from walking around with green hair for weeks.
And no, I would not suggest using a temporary color to neutralize the green. Where the ketchup has the benefit of being acidic, and therefore helpful to restoring the hair, temporary colors tend to be either neutral or alkaline. That means they’d just add to the build-up already on your hair.
How to Prevent Green Hair from Chlorine
Let’s prevent green hair from chlorine (actually, copper) altogether by forming good hair habits. These are as easy as putting on sunscreen before you get in the pool. And incorporating them into your normal wash routine. Here we go!
1. Precondition
The simplest way to keep bad stuff from getting in your hair is to fill it with the good stuff it needs anyway.
Here’s what I do for myself and my girls.
Take a spray bottle – preferably one that mists. Fill it with softened or filtered water. Then add 1-2 Tablespoons of your favorite silicone-free conditioner. My favorites are Heaven in Hair and The Conditioner.
Keep this in your pool bag right next to the sunscreen. After you’ve lathered up with sunscreen, finish off by spraying your hair.
That’s it. It’s that easy.
Now if your hair is more porous or dries out faster, then you can just use a leave-in conditioner on your hair. Or make a thicker mixture of water and conditioner that suits your hair type. Cantu Curl Activator is a good option here.
2. Rinse hair directly after swimming
After you get out of the pool, your hair is going to be more porous. That means the cuticle layers lift away from the cortex allowing all sorts of stuff in. But it’s also easier to get that junk out when the cuticle is open.
So rinse off with warm water as soon as possible after you get out of the pool. Then do your normal routine. But even if you’re not washing your hair, add some leave-in conditioner to your wet hair. This will help replace any good stuff that washed out and seal the cuticle again.
3. Do regular ACV rinses during the summer
Now when dealing with children, I understand that perfect routines don’t always go as planned…
You have good intentions.
The spray bottle was right there in your bag. But before you knew it, the kids were off in the pool before they even got a mist.
And seriously, if you have more than one kid, rinsing each of them off in the public bathrooms at the pools may be more stress than it’s worth.
(For the record, those bathrooms echo like crazy! Especially when it’s your child…okay children…screaming because you’re inflicting them with warm water falling from the shower head.
I mean they’ll stand under the bucket pouring water at the splash pad all day. But put them in an actual shower, and all bets are off!
Yeah…I’m not scarred for life or anything… Now. Where were we…)
Oh yes! Thank goodness for that good ole ACV rinse. It’s just what the hair doc ordered.
Every month or so – in the privacy of your own bathroom – rinse out their hair with an ACV rinse, and that should keep the build up at bay.
4. Clarify with Build Up Buster if necessary
Now if your hair is naturally more porous, then you may need to go with Build-Up Buster once a month instead of an ACV rinse. Your hair just naturally soaks things up, and heavy metals don’t fall out of the hair as easily as other pollutants.
Summer Hair Care Made Simple with Good Hair Habits
And there you have it. Summer hair care that’s simple enough to keep your hair healthy and happy all summer long.
Now some of you are sitting there all smug because, “I don’t have to worry about that because I have a saltwater pool.”
Okay, so saltwater, while good in many other convenient ways, is worse for your hair.
The natural pH of hair is between 4 and 5. A pool’s pH should be between 7.4-7.6.⁴ Saltwater pools range up to 7.8. And natural saltwater from...say...the beach? Yeah, that’s got a pH of 8.1.⁵
But don’t worry. This is only part 1 of Summer Hair Care. In part 2, we’ll tackle what to do about saltwater and copious amounts of sunlight.
Until then, go be gorgeous!
Comentarios