What To Do When Bleached Blonde Hair Turns Green : 5 Easy Tips

Learn what to do when bleached blonde hair turns green and how to avoid hair turning green with these DIY tips on how to remove green tones.

It is possible for your newly-bleached hair to turn green primarily due to exposure to chlorine in swimming pools or minerals in the water used to wash your hair.

What happens is, chlorine strips the hair of its natural protective oils, and the copper compounds commonly found in pool water/hard water can then bind to the protein in the hair strands.

Now, these copper deposits oxidize in the presence of chlorine, leading to a greenish tint.

There are a few ways you can prevent your recently bleached hair can from turning green and this article will fill you in on all the information you need, in addition to giving you solutions to this problem.

What to do When Bleached Blonde Hair Turns Green?

When bleached blonde hair takes on a green tinge, typically after swimming in chlorinated pools or exposure to hard water, it’s important to act quickly. A common home remedy is to wash your hair with ketchup; the red tones can neutralize the green. Apply it to the affected areas, let it sit for a few minutes, and then rinse thoroughly. For a less unconventional method, use a shampoo designed for swimmers or a clarifying shampoo to strip out mineral build-up. A salon-grade toner or color-correcting treatment can also effectively counteract green hues. Always follow up with a deep conditioner to keep your hair hydrated and healthy.

Key Takeaways:

• Green tint in bleached hair often results from exposure to chlorine in swimming pools or minerals in hard water.
• DIY methods to remove green tint include using lemon juice, tomato ketchup, red pigment-infused shampoo, and chelating shampoo.
• Address possible causes such as choosing the wrong hair dye shade or attempting to darken bleached hair.
• Preventive measures include wearing a swimming cap, rinsing hair before and after swimming, and using leave-in moisturizers for swimmers.
• Purple shampoo is ineffective for removing green tint from hair.

What to do When Bleached Blonde Hair Turns Green

Here are some easy DIY methods to get rid of greenish tint from bleached blonde hair.

Try lemon juice for hair lightening

Lemons are citric by nature and therefore, it can act as a natural bleaching agent. There are people who in fact use lemon juice instead of bleach to lighten their hair.

So all you need to do is generously apply the lemon juice all over your hair and let it sit for around 5 to 10 minutes. Once the lemon juice has sufficiently been saturated in your hair, rinse it off properly under running water before shampooing and conditioning your hair.

Remember that lemon juice is acidic in nature and can dry your hair out, so do not over leave it in your hair and also, condition and moisturize your hair properly once you have finished this lemon juice treatment.

If the green color hasn’t yet been washed off in the first attempt, then you may have to try this a second time after a couple of days.

Caution: Patch test the lemon juice on a small portion of the green hair near the scalp, because bleached hair is sensitive because of the chemicals used and can cause itching and irritation on the scalp.

Tomato ketchup to get rid of the green tones

I’m sure that many of you might be pretty weirded out by the fact that I just told you to try using tomato ketchup on your hair! Well, as weird and gross as it sounds, it could help, so it is worth giving it a try, right?

You also must be wondering how ketchup can help get rid of green hair. Well, the theory is simple. 

I’m sure that most of you know about the color chart. In the color chart, red is a warm color and green is a cool color. The color red is right opposite to the color green. This means that in order to offset the green, red color will have to be used.

Well, if the above logic works, then the ketchup (which is red) will do the trick of neutralizing the green color in your hair.

So here’s what you need to do – lather your hair with a generous amount of ketchup and then cover your hair with a shower cap. 

Leave the ketchup on your hair for half an hour before washing it off under running water and of course, shampoo and condition your hair afterwards.

Use a shampoo that is infused with red pigment

Well, just like I have mentioned before, greenish tints on the hair can only be offset and neutralized if the color opposite to green is used (based on the basic color chart). This means that red infused shampoos can help get rid of the green color in your hair.

You will have to wash your hair with a red shampoo over a couple of days (or more, if the green shade in your hair is very dark), in order to get rid of the green color.

The best part of using a red infused shampoo is that it can be used just the same way you would use any other shampoo for your hair, but you would have to leave on the red shampoo once applied to your hair for around 8 to 10 minutes before rinsing it out. 

Then, remember to condition your hair thereafter.

There could be a lot of red shampoos available to buy, but using ones that are highly rated and have the best reviews would be ideal. 

You could try out the Joico Colour Infused Red Shampoo or the Punky Redilicious 3-in-1 Color Depositing Shampoo.

Use a chelating shampoo to deeply cleanse hair

Now just like I have already mentioned earlier, if the reason your hair has turned green is because you had gone for a swim, then you now know that the copper and chlorine in the water was the problem. 

Well, luckily chelating shampoos are just for that!

Chelating shampoos are specifically meant to help get rid of mineral buildup in the hair.

Since copper is a mineral that combines with the chlorine in the water to cause your hair to turn green, using a chelating shampoo can help get rid of these mineral deposits and in turn removing the green color.

This shampoo is very effective, but it is important to note that chelating shampoos are very strong and harsh on the hair and can thereby strip away all the hair’s natural oils and dry your hair up to a considerable extent.

Thereafter, it is not advisable to use a chelating shampoo often and also, once you have used it, you will have to make sure to deep condition your hair to offset its drying effects.

And if you’re wondering if clarifying shampoos are different from chelating shampoos, then yes, these two are different. They share a similarity that both these shampoos help get rid of buildup. 

But chelating shampoos are specifically meant to help get rid of mineral deposits in the hair, which is something that a clarifying shampoo cannot do.

Why is my bleached hair turning green

There could be a few reasons as to why your recently bleached or blonde dyed hair turned green. Here’s what could have happened.

You chose the wrong shade of hair dye

It is essential to check the shade numbers of the dye you are going to buy and do not solely go by customer review images or the images on the box. 

If you had done only the latter, there could be a possibility that it caused your hair to become green and this could be because the cool tones of the hair dye come in colors in shades of blue and green. 

So choosing a dye that has warm tones that will offset and balance the color of your hair is advisable. 

You attempted to darken your bleached or blonde hair

This is another big mistake people make, leading to their hair turning green. When we bleach our hair, we get rid of all the existing color pigments in order for the next dye color to stain the hair. 

So when we dye our hair a darker shade, it tends to turn green. To prevent this, we need to first bring back the warm pigments to our hair and then dye it and this can be done by using a technique called pre-pigmentation.

This will help bring back the warm pigments to your hair before it is dyed, to avoid it from turning green.

You went for a swim after your hair had been recently bleached or dyed

The reason swimming pool water can cause your bleached hair to turn green if you go for a swim once your hair has been recently bleached or dyed.

Everyone knows that swimming pools have chlorinated water, but what is not well-known is that all water from any water source consists of a certain amount of copper in it. 

So when the chlorinated water and copper combine, it sticks to our hair (forming a bond) and makes it turn green.

Why You Should Trust Haireveryday?

The author of this article, Leah Marie Priest has a degree in Cosmetology with years of experience in dealing with hair care, scalp care, and hairstyling. As someone who extensively deals with all kinds of hair textures, products, styling methods and more, hair Leah Marie knows what kind of products and procedures suit each hair type and person. We have also tested these hair products and processes ourselves to provide you an unbiased review about every product. Each of our articles are also reviewed by a team of medical professionals so that you get the most accurate and expert-reviewed information.

Frequently Asked Questions – bleached hair turning green

Conclusion

So guys, I hope this article has helped you get all the answers that you have been looking for to get the green color out of your hair.

Remember to always be precautious while picking a shade to dye your hair and also when you decide to go for a swim.

Also Read:

How To Mix Developer And Bleach

How To Get Pink Hair Dye Out Of Hair

Can You Use Olive Oil Before Bleaching Hair

How To Soothe Scalp Itchiness After Bleaching