What happens to your dark hair when it has an extended exposure to sunlight?

[Entangled]

I know a lot of lighter haired people get blonde highlights from spending a lot of time outdoors, but what happens to the very dark haired? Ranging from very dark brown to blue black (natural, preferably), what happens to your hair color? I'm mainly asking out of curiosity, as I've been out a lot and have been contemplating different hair colors.

[heyitsmiriam]

I myself don't have extremely dark hair, anymore at least. My mom told me my hair was much darker but since I spend a lot of time in the sun, it got lighter. One summer, my mom asked if my best friend highlighted my hair, and she couldn't believe that it was caused by the sun!

[sumidha]

It gets orangey brassy bleached looking, just like if you used peroxide bleach and didn't use a toner. :(

My husband, who has almost black hair gets straight up red highlights.

[YGDW]

Copperblonde highlights on my mid-brown chestnut hair.

[tigereye]

Mine turns redder. My hair looks dark inside, but reasonably light outside. When I've been in the sun, it's like do having my own henna flare, without the henna.

[SkyChild]

I actually get a lot of sunbleached highlights, at about blondette type level. My hair is dark brown

[schnibbles]

see my signature picture. What you see there is straight-up sun damage.
My hair is way too many colors. It turns quite red in the sun.

[lapushka]

I'm on the border of blonette, maybe light ash brown and it gets significantly lighter during the summer. That's why I have lighter tips. They don't turn red, which makes me think I'm still on the blonde spectrum.

[cathair]

I'm about as dark brown as you can get without being black. When I was a kid and went abroad the ends went redder. When I lived in Australia as an adult, nothing happened. Maybe younger hair bleaches more easily?

[arelrios]

I have dark brown hair... and due to the sun (even when I avoid it as much as possible) my ends become redish and orangeish.... I hate it, but there is nothing I can do to change it...

In sunlight my hair has some red tones.... like tigereye mentioned,.... more like a henna flare...

[Entangled]

So generally very dark hair turns a red-orange color? Do we have any black hair in the sun?

[chen bao jun]

Black hair. (With a teensy bit of grey now). Nothing happens in the sun. It stays black.
When I used chemicals to permanently straighten my hair though (relaxer) the sun used to give it reddish brownish streaks, which I HATED. That's one reason I so love having virgin hair for the past 14 years. It stays black, which looks much better on me. Although, oddly, other than the black hair I'm a very golden person. I've got like hazel eyes that go green but are generally very yellowish and a strong yellow tone to my skin and I've got to wear warm colors in the yellowy-golden spectrum, autumn colors, basically the same as redheads have to, its very strange. Even when you can only see the back of my head and nothing else, my black hair looks best with gold tones or warm colors in it. Odd.
Recent photo below. Been in sun all summer. Still black.
http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a481/uloma1/hairaug2014cropped_zpsfdb7799b.jpg (http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/uloma1/media/hairaug2014cropped_zpsfdb7799b.jpg.html)

[LadyCelestina]

^ Gorgeous!


I have a sort of medium brown/auburn and when my hair was really sun-lighteded and virgin, it goes oxidized carrot orange

[TrapperCreekD]

I'm hopeless with my exact color, but its med/dark brown with quite a bit of red/auburn if you look closely. The sun gives me copper-y blonde highlights that I really love. It really is like henna-less henna flare!

http://i.imgur.com/auTcpWn.png

[curlylocks85]

I have dark brown hair and the sun brings out red and blonde highlights.

[Sharysa]

My hair's black thanks to being Filipino-American. It has a soft purple-blue tinge in VERY bright light, but in everyday lighting it just looks matte black.

Here's a picture of the purple/blue tinge (professional shoot, sorry for the size!), and the second is from my phone in normal lighting.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/1044948_10200720375746619_2037008966_n.jpg?oh=f4c8 322693b2b9fef436e6d162c9d2b1&oe=54B9959D&__gda__=1421974080_da2d9106554328ff1a1b2db94a50dcb f

https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash2/v/t1.0-9/1385962_10201234519679896_1419747306_n.jpg?oh=019c b3238117e643244f5dd9516348ad&oe=54C799FA

The only thing I can sort-of-maybe confirm on sun-lightening is that I have a few reallyreallyreally dark red/brown ends when I hold it up to bright sunlight. I found a couple of genuinely bleached yellow/orange hairs MONTHS apart last year.

[Avis]

I second what chen bao jun said about her hair. My hair is black and doesn't change at all from sun exposure. I spent two summers as a camp counselor where I spent a LOT of time in direct and indirect sunlight and all it does to my hair is make it feel really hot. :p

[Melispelos]

A friend of mine has very black hair with a warm undertone and gets dark brown streaks when she spends some days outdoors.

[chen bao jun]

thanks for the compliment, Lady Celestina. Sharysa, you and your hair are gorgeous. Just to clarify, I don't mind red/brown hightlights on others but on me they looked awful due to my coloring being so predominantly yellow--just didn't match and made me look sort of ill. I have no idea why they happened only when chemically straightened except that probably the chemicals were reacting with sunlight, which my natural hair does not.

[trolleypup]

Given that my mom's hair is black, and my dad's was (bald now) reddish brown, it is no surprise that I get red brown highlights with sun exposure...or honestly accumulated damage...which shows in my siggy, since my hair is kept covered most of the time now.

[skeletonous]

My hair is a very dark brunette, it looks black in regular lighting but in the sunlight it looks like a dark chocolatey brown. I have noticed a few golden strands in my hair, so I think that's what happens, it pretty much stays the same otherwise as far as I can tell. :)

[Sharysa]

Thanks for the compliment, Chen Bao Jun! Your hair's awesome, too!

[Arete]

I'm Auburn, and while I don't think the sun has actually affected the color, however how it reflects in the light varies wildly. So much so that I have been called a ginger on occasion :p.

One of the days I was called ginger (conveniently standing next to an actual redhead :p)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/v/t1.0-9/1176271_331538006992542_823491576_n.jpg?oh=fa7a538 7027b7eaf9e3be2f8d2649b08&oe=54C42C4E&__gda__=1421714874_718a24651b1aa0cfe75d869317c6563 6

In some lights/some days it looks ashy brown:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1464648_371716206308055_193253131_n.jpg?oh=c2f2054 1a313164cb65d51b505b3ccf2&oe=54C44C2F&__gda__=1421709148_6f367f5d1f1adb9f7cccb0f6552df30 9

And heck, it occasionally looks like I have blonde highlights!:
https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/p417x417/969527_301575356655474_1840989108_n.jpg?oh=78d7eeb c969655244e39ae4b7a29fe63&oe=54BC7E09

Most of the time it's somewhere around here though in sunlight:
https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1452225_375502209262788_2005619270_n.jpg?oh=0fa9d0 a3b7c5bb52e37bbac7243b1bda&oe=54C68FCE

[Mellenoire]

Does anyone else's hair not change even after repeated exposures to sunlight? Mine just stays dark brown. Even when I took up running one summer it didn't lighten or redden noticeably.

Although currently it's got a few red streaks near my neck from my "L'oreal fire-truck red" phase last year which only show up in the sun.

[Georgii]

My partner's hair is dark brown hair and he has golden highlights at the ends of his BSL hair. Kind of like an ombre (lucky him!). I suppose it depends what undertones your hair has. He has more yellow and ash in his hair than coppers or reds. I can imagine some brunettes getting redder ends?

[Horrorpops]

RE the black hair in the sun: my family breeds horses and it is said that you can tell a truly black horse from a horse that is dark brown (but looks black) by what happens in the summer. A dark brown horse will lighten a little and get reddish brown or light brown flecks in their coat, mane or tail. A true-black horse will stay black all summer with absolutely no colour change regardless of the sun exposure.

Not sure if this can really apply to people, but it was interssting to read about some black hair not bleaching and some getting gold or brown streaks.Totally reminded me of the horses :)

[Hedera]

My hair is a cool dark brown, now with streaks of grey, and the ends go coppery reddish in the sun...
Which I don't like at all, because in a style where you see the ends against the hair higher up (for instance when I make one or two braids and then fold them up, or with crown braids) it looks like the ends are fake hair that does not match well.

I've been trying to keep my hair out of the sun at least during the middle of the day in summer; I tend to put it up in a bun and then wear a loose cotton beret over it, and I have one hat that has a crown that's flexible in size (secured with a brooch) that can fit a bun if it's not too large.

I've been trying to find a square scarf that I can use to tie around my head, but it's difficult to find one from a nice material, with a design and colour I like and in the right size!
The scarves in stores right now are far too big, meant to be worn around your neck; the few headscarves I could find were a nasty polyester and/or floral designs that I did not like.

[chen bao jun]

Interesting. I think mine is, or was (since I am graying) a true black, which is quite unusual, even among black people or Chinese people. When I was in Taiwan, people were always commenting on how my hair was truly black and saying it was rare. And once I was with my sisters in law and one had ordered a half-wig that was black--it was too dark for her and she wanted to give it away. It didn't match anyone in the room but me. I don't know about Asian Indian or Native American people, maybe more of them have black hair. Possibly. There is a Turkish girl I know and I thought she had black hair, but it turned out that it is dark brown and she is dyeing it black because she thinks that looks more attractive. So maybe actually black hair is rare like the other end of the spectrum, natural platinum blonde.

RE the black hair in the sun: my family breeds horses and it is said that you can tell a truly black horse from a horse that is dark brown (but looks black) by what happens in the summer. A dark brown horse will lighten a little and get reddish brown or light brown flecks in their coat, mane or tail. A true-black horse will stay black all summer with absolutely no colour change regardless of the sun exposure.

Not sure if this can really apply to people, but it was interssting to read about some black hair not bleaching and some getting gold or brown streaks.Totally reminded me of the horses :)

[LauraLongLocks]

My hair gets copper/reddish and some blonde highlights in it.

[Entangled]

That seems to be the case, Chen. I remember my mom telling me about the daughter of a woman at church who had black hair, and she talked about it like it was an anomaly. I was little, and this confused me; I asked "Don't lots of people have black hair?". She told me that lots of people have very dark brown hair, but few have true black hair. I think she's right; I've seen many people with very dark brown hair, but only a few who have true black hair in all lights.

[lacefrost]

My hair goes purple after it's been exposed to the sun for a while. First it gets a sort of ashy "soft black" that I don't quite like and then it goes very strongly purple. I once got sent home for having purple hair cause no one believed it was my natural hair color. They thought I'd dyed purple streaks in it.

[Madora]

I know a lot of lighter haired people get blonde highlights from spending a lot of time outdoors, but what happens to the very dark haired? Ranging from very dark brown to blue black (natural, preferably), what happens to your hair color? I'm mainly asking out of curiosity, as I've been out a lot and have been contemplating different hair colors.

Extended exposure to sunlight is a no no (at least for me). I keep my hair covered most of the time.

[MidnightMoon]

When I was a kid and spent a lot of time in the sun, Id get honey coloured highlights, and my dark hair would look a medium brown.
Some of the tips were a very light brown.
Now I stay away from the sun, I literally never stay more than a couple of minutes under the sun, so nothing seems to happen to it.
My sisters gets reddish, the tips are almost like the colour of a natural redhead.

[gnome82]

I have dark brown hair that always has auburn and red in it, I live in a harsh climate so it probably is sun damage. My husbands hair (when it was waist length) was dark brown with bronze highlight damage at the end. His hair is now black with grey and white hairs :crush:.

[Entangled]

Woah, lacefrost, your hair is amazing! Chen, your hair is beautiful, as always. Arete, I love the streak. It's interesting that your color was confused. LauraLongLocks, I've always loved you hair and color.Sharysa, I've never seen your hair before, but I love the color, especially in the "purple" lighting. It looks stunning! Trappercreek, your color is pretty and I love henna-like flare!

I know that sun exposure can lead to damage, but it can also be very beautiful. I love the variation of color on the darker end of the spectrum. Too often darker colors get lumped together. Beautiful!

[Angela_Rose]

Red red red red red.
Haha. I am a very dark brunette, except I am the only granddaughter out of five of a brilliant redheadwho does not have naturally red or auburn hair. My sister and one girl cousin are both confirmed proper redheads and the other two have light auburn hair. My hair is a very dark brown that looks sort of monotone in most light, but trot me out into the sunlight and my hair lights up like a Christmas tree. I love it.

[Angela_Rose]

RE the black hair in the sun: my family breeds horses and it is said that you can tell a truly black horse from a horse that is dark brown (but looks black) by what happens in the summer. A dark brown horse will lighten a little and get reddish brown or light brown flecks in their coat, mane or tail. A true-black horse will stay black all summer with absolutely no colour change regardless of the sun exposure.!

Not sure if this can really apply to people, but it was interssting to read about some black hair not bleaching and some getting gold or brown streaks.Totally reminded me of the horses :)

Remember that statement the next time you see a sunbleached Fresian.

[neko_kawaii]

Ombre! My mom is a red head, so I blame her for my red highlights and reddish ends. (I was a sun bleached blond as a kid. By the time I was in high school it had settled down to a dark brown much to my disappointment. I really wanted to grow up to be a red head.)

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2791&d=1361561295

Before LHC my ends were even lighter, but I trimmed them off because they were so rough and now that I wear mostly buns the ends don't get the same exposure, so they have the potential to be much lighter than pictured here.

[tigereye]

I had to go a way back to find a photo of my natural hair under regular house lights, but this is my hair indoors. The bottom half was henna-ed here, but the top is true to my natural colour indoors.
http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq81/lost-kitty/th_P1010108.jpg (http://s436.photobucket.com/albums/qq81/lost-kitty/?action=view&current=P1010108.jpg)

This is what sun bleached ends indoors looks like (wow this picture is like 3 years old now - I hadn't even really discovered henna until a fair bit after that). At this time I mostly wore braids in the sun, because buns didn't fit under my sun hat, hence how I had sun bleaching. All of that sun bleaching was trimmed out between this photo and the earlier one
http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq81/lost-kitty/th_Untitled.png (http://s436.photobucket.com/albums/qq81/lost-kitty/?action=view&current=Untitled.png)

This was meant to be a ficcare photo, so it's really close up, but the top shows what my natural, non sun-bleached hair looks like in full sunlight. It's a stark difference from my natural hair in the first photo. One in my "friends" actually fell out with me in high school because she thought I was lying when I told her I had not dyed my hair - at the time I'd just come back from the carribean and it was sunny out so my hair looked even lighter and redder than this.
http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq81/lost-kitty/th_c3dc2fe3d4a8f710b616e1926e0978df_zpsda1e59af.jp g (http://s436.photobucket.com/albums/qq81/lost-kitty/?action=view&current=c3dc2fe3d4a8f710b616e1926e0978df_zpsda1e59 af.jpg)

[tigereye]

RE the black hair in the sun: my family breeds horses and it is said that you can tell a truly black horse from a horse that is dark brown (but looks black) by what happens in the summer. A dark brown horse will lighten a little and get reddish brown or light brown flecks in their coat, mane or tail. A true-black horse will stay black all summer with absolutely no colour change regardless of the sun exposure.

Not sure if this can really apply to people, but it was interssting to read about some black hair not bleaching and some getting gold or brown streaks.Totally reminded me of the horses :)

Reminds me of when my teacher told me that the only difference between a white horse and a really light dapple grey, is the colour of its skin. If it has pink skin it's white, while if it has darker skin, it's grey, even if their coat looks the same.
One of the horses I used to ride was a white. It's always said that there's no such thing as albino horse, but she was about as close as I've ever seen - she had so little colour in her eyes they we're pinkish lilac. We had to use sunscreen on her or keep her in on especially bright days, use a dark mesh over her eyes to protect them when we were riding in the summer and check thoroughly for any sign of skin issues when grooming.

/end sidetrack

[Horrorpops]

Remember that statement the next time you see a sunbleached Fresian.

Haha indeed... except to my understanding while fresians should look black, some are actually the dark brown coat type that sunbleaches. Indeed some freisans have chestnut coats too! :)

[Horrorpops]

Reminds me of when my teacher told me that the only difference between a white horse and a really light dapple grey, is the colour of its skin. If it has pink skin it's white, while if it has darker skin, it's grey, even if their coat looks the same.
One of the horses I used to ride was a white. It's always said that there's no such thing as albino horse, but she was about as close as I've ever seen - she had so little colour in her eyes they we're pinkish lilac. We had to use sunscreen on her or keep her in on especially bright days, use a dark mesh over her eyes to protect them when we were riding in the summer and check thoroughly for any sign of skin issues when grooming.

/end sidetrack

Wow thats amazing! I have never met a horse with such little pigment - she sounds beautiful! :D /end horse digression

I am so jealous of those who have natural fading! I know some people say it is a pain but I think it looks lovely and adds a very natural pop to hair!

[Nanna]

You know, the fact that dark-haired people mostly seem to fade to red in sunlight might explain why my hair darkens in the summer! I'm strawberry blonde, but during the winter I fade to an almost greyish blonde with a stark line between virgin and hennaed hair. In the summer my hair goes to orange-red, quite close to my hennaed ends. Allright, the difference isn't really quite that noticeable, but I can see it myself even in my bathroom (which has no outdoor light whatsoever). The sun exposure seems to make most people's hair redder, and in my case it's an addition of colour! :D

Sorry for sidetracking, but hair colour and its variations is an interesting topic!