Is there a natural way to get snow white hair?

[Raekwon]

Since I was 16 years old I have stopped watching Television, listening to the radio, and stopped playing video games. Yet, cartoons and video games left a permanent mark on me, as some of the characters I found cool influenced me to have long hair.


To be more precise, Sephiroth, from Final Fantasy VII gave me motivation to have super long white hair.


http://www.399animeshop.com/sephiroth-poster.jpg



So I was wondering... would there be a natural way to get my black / brown hair to be white?

[Maddy_T]

I wish there was! :( but there's no way you can go from being almost black to white naturally, it would take a **** load of bleach and toner to get to the color you're wanting!!!

[christine1989]

The only natural way is to get old and wait for it to turn white. If you want white hair before you're 80 then bleach is your only option :(.

[frizzinator]

It wouldn't be a fantasy anymore if you were living it.

It would be less desirable if you could have it.

[akurah]

Age, maybe? *hides!*

[Roseate]

You're talking serious bleach here! My own attempt to go platinum ended in a pixie cut, so proceed with caution.

[sunshine-locks]

paint it? :P

[milagro]

I suggest buying a wig :) just to indulge your fantasy and get over it without completely ruining your hair.

Snowy white is next to impossible to achieve unless you're aged and blessed with beautiful massive gray (it is a blessing indeed and very rare for many people's gray is naturally not perfectly white but grayish or yellowish, and usually not even). But it is striking for sure.

[Katze]

If your hair is light enough (this works fairly well on mine) you can powder it and get a greyish, very temporary look (that I like, myself).

But as others have already said, there is no way of lightening your hair that much without severely damaging it. I know, I've wanted silver hair for 20 years now, and am finally getting my wish granted with a beautiful stripe of silver at my left forehead...sadly I don't look as young as I did back then!

[leslissocool]

you can try the honey lightening... I don't think it will take you to white, but it might take you to really light brown naturally and maybe you will need to bleach less?

[Honestwitness]

You may not have to wait until 80. I was mostly white in my 40s

[Lianna]

I second the wig idea.

[Karala]

I think we all agree that there isn't, but this is one kind of grief that time will heal. :D

[Anje]

Go to grad school. That seems to be speeding up the whitening process on me considerably!

[ravenlily]

I also think that a wig is the best option for you, and hope for early white strands.

And I must say, Honestwitness, you have beautiful hair!

[Raekwon]

I don't think age will bring me to the "white" i imagine :D

[Honestwitness]

Thanks, Ravenlily.

[Anje]

I may have something else for you. Be very, very clear, though: I am not advocating that you do this! I strongly advise against it. However, for some reason I'm providing the information, which is probably stupid and irresponsible of me.

There are a lot of risks and I don't know that it would work. I don't know if this has ever been tried on humans! Not to mention it would hurt like hell, will certainly cause your hair to fall out before it goes white, the hair might not grow back ever, and you would be stuck with white hair for life. We're talking permanent body modification here...

Still reading?
There's a procedure done on livestock called freeze branding (http://www.manyponies.com/articles/freezebranding.htm). It involves cooling a temperature-conductive metal branding iron in liquid nitrogen, then applying it to a pre-shaved section of the animal. The area swells and the hair falls out. Done for the right amount of time, the hair grows back white a few months later. Too long, and the follicles are dead and won't grow hair again. How long depends on the thickness of the skin/hide, so times for horses would have to be a lot longer than for human scalps.

Again, I think it would be extremely unwise to apply liquid nitrogen to your head!

[enfys]

I may have something else for you. Be very, very clear, though: I am not advocating that you do this! I strongly advise against it. However, for some reason I'm providing the information, which is probably stupid and irresponsible of me.

There are a lot of risks and I don't know that it would work. I don't know if this has ever been tried on humans! Not to mention it would hurt like hell, will certainly cause your hair to fall out before it goes white, the hair might not grow back ever, and you would be stuck with white hair for life. We're talking permanent body modification here...

Still reading?
There's a procedure done on livestock called freeze branding (http://www.manyponies.com/articles/freezebranding.htm). It involves cooling a temperature-conductive metal branding iron in liquid nitrogen, then applying it to a pre-shaved section of the animal. The area swells and the hair falls out. Done for the right amount of time, the hair grows back white a few months later. Too long, and the follicles are dead and won't grow hair again. How long depends on the thickness of the skin/hide, so times for horses would have to be a lot longer than for human scalps.

Again, I think it would be extremely unwise to apply liquid nitrogen to your head!

Wow. Just...wow.

Where/how did you find out about this? More to the point...how did the first person to discover it find out!

[Anje]

Wow. Just...wow.

Where/how did you find out about this? More to the point...how did the first person to discover it find out!
My mother-in-law's gorgeous black stallion had a pistol freeze-branded on his hip. Looked awesome as white-on-black. I have no idea how it was invented...

I've been thinking about it for a while, mostly debating whether it was ethical to share such information here. Bounced it off a few folks, and their positive opinions plus my personal belief that more information is categorically better finally got me to share it.

[Juneii]

I may have something else for you. Be very, very clear, though: I am not advocating that you do this! I strongly advise against it. However, for some reason I'm providing the information, which is probably stupid and irresponsible of me.

There are a lot of risks and I don't know that it would work. I don't know if this has ever been tried on humans! Not to mention it would hurt like hell, will certainly cause your hair to fall out before it goes white, the hair might not grow back ever, and you would be stuck with white hair for life. We're talking permanent body modification here...

Still reading?
There's a procedure done on livestock called freeze branding (http://www.manyponies.com/articles/freezebranding.htm). It involves cooling a temperature-conductive metal branding iron in liquid nitrogen, then applying it to a pre-shaved section of the animal. The area swells and the hair falls out. Done for the right amount of time, the hair grows back white a few months later. Too long, and the follicles are dead and won't grow hair again. How long depends on the thickness of the skin/hide, so times for horses would have to be a lot longer than for human scalps.

Again, I think it would be extremely unwise to apply liquid nitrogen to your head!

How horrible! my head is throbbing from thinking of all the things that will happen if you pour/apply liquid nitrogen to your head!

I know there was this article where a girl over dosed on her meds for about a week and her hair grew out white. Very unsafe and not at all natural.
I am sure that if there is a natural way to get snow white hair you'll see many girls sporting this look already.

[Nae]

Still reading?
There's a procedure done on livestock called freeze branding (http://www.manyponies.com/articles/freezebranding.htm). It involves cooling a temperature-conductive metal branding iron in liquid nitrogen, then applying it to a pre-shaved section of the animal. The area swells and the hair falls out. Done for the right amount of time, the hair grows back white a few months later. Too long, and the follicles are dead and won't grow hair again. How long depends on the thickness of the skin/hide, so times for horses would have to be a lot longer than for human scalps.

Again, I think it would be extremely unwise to apply liquid nitrogen to your head!

I remember when I was very young we used to do this to our cows on the dairy farm. It had to go on the black part of the Holsteins because otherwise it wouldn't show up. I remember hating it like crazy because I was sure they cows were hurting. (We soon went to ear piercing for tagging purposes. If anyone is worried.)

These are really old memories I am dusting off but if I remember correctly for many of the cows the hair on the nitrogen treated area seemed pretty sparse; whether it was from rubbing against it or whether it grew back that way I don't know. I suspect that it grew back sparsely due to the damage caused.

I am going to second the suggestion to NOT do this!! It wasn't pretty watching it done to cows and you do NOT want to do this.:run:

P.S. *bonks Anje on the head for even thinking of it.* Girl your brain works in weird and wonderful ways lol. I wouldn't have made that connection, I am going to nominate you for Jeopardy, I think your mind makes the right leaps for it!!! ;)

[Anje]

I know there was this article where a girl over dosed on her meds for about a week and her hair grew out white. Very unsafe and not at all natural.
I am sure that if there is a natural way to get snow white hair you'll see many girls sporting this look already.
Yeah, I linked that a few months back. But that's a 7x overdose of chloroquine. Neither natural nor safe nor permanent. It's rather surprising that she didn't have heart problems or convulsions. Not to mention that those quinine-based drugs tend to cause nausea.

[enfys]

I'm not going to at all question ethics over posting that info. They asked, you answered and you pointed out tha massive risks. That's actually more than most farm sites probably would do because they are trying to promote it in a positive way.

It's pretty fascinating and I understand the reasons for it being done in an animal branding context.

[Unofficial_Rose]

Get investigated by the tax authorities. Not that I would recommend it, simply because it ages the skin also. :(

[leslissocool]

Wow Anje I think the info is fascinating! It totally caught me by surprise, thank you for sharing! I didn't know this was done to animals.

Now, If you think bleach is damaging to the hair.... I'm sure this is even worse, non to mention, IMO, this could be really toxic. And the fact that you might not even grow out your hair! Seriously, OP, stay away from this one :).

I'm curious to see if this was done in a human, like ever... How do you know if you've done it enough, if if it's too much???

[2peasinapod]

Not quite what you're looking for, but Nivea cream (yes, the stuff for baby rash!) will make your hair a really cool silver / blue color. It works better on lighter hair (although it will still show up if your hair is darker).

I have no idea what the after effects are since it's been so long since I've done it, but I seem to remember it just washed right out with no problems. Sorry if that's not very helpful.

[kwaniesiam]

No. It is chemically impossible to lighten black hair to snow white without completely destroying it in the process. I bleached my hair white starting from a medium-light brown and it completely trashed my hair. Check out my albums. I loved the color while it lasted. I ended up having to shave my head though, I had massive breakage all over. Unfortunately only time and age will give you white hair, one strand at a time.

[Katze]

you can try the honey lightening... I don't think it will take you to white, but it might take you to really light brown naturally and maybe you will need to bleach less?

If this were true, I'd be a blonde. :) Honey never lightened my hair one bit. I use it pretty regularly, on its own and as part of an SMT.

September 11th and serious PTSD gave me my first silver hairs, and having a baby gave me the rest. I now have a silver streak.

[Madame J]

Go to grad school. That seems to be speeding up the whitening process on me considerably!

+1. I went from having a few well-hidden silver's to having a noticeable white streak when I part my hair in the middle in just 5 years.

[Chetanlaiho]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I thought it was impossible to get white hair even wíth bleach? Even with a heck of a lot of toner I thought plain white was just, out of the question =/

[uwodahikamama]

That was quite fascinating... my grandfather had pure white hair and my mother has black hair with a white/silver streak :-) had it since she was 19! I had a silver streak when I was 16 and have been coloring my hair since! No white hair for me! I like the idea of a wig... like chetanlaiho said, I seriously doubt you could even bleach your hair to that color. Maybe have a few kids! That should bring on some white hair...

[kcyarn]

In 1948, my then 20-year-old grandfather went from natural brown to natural white and has stayed that way ever since. No one knows why. Since he's now in his 90s and, fingers crossed, going strong, I don't think it was related to chemical exposure, cancer, or a thyroid condition.

[Rini]

You can get white hair from ageing of course. Having kids helps :D As for the scalp injury thing, I second that (although would NOT recommend hurting yourself!). My sister has had a thick pure white streak growing from her forehead area since she was 10 due to my other sister throwing a rock at her when we were kids :o

But seriously, go for the wig idea. You can get the length too, and change your mind when you want to. I love wigs!

[NouvelleNymphe2]

Age, maybe? *hides!*

LOL my thoughts exactly. But on the real I mean black to white? Naturally? I'm still fairly new, but I'm gonna go with no on that one. Even with chemicals that's going to reek havoc on your hair to bleach it that many times. *shivers as she recalls own chemical mishaps*

[jane53]

Get older. My sister, at 64, has snow white hair.

[spidermom]

Once it lightens with age, you can make it white with Manic Panic.

[apfelblumen]

well, if your hair is already blonde, you can lighten it by spending more time in the sun and doing lemon rinses. once it's a lighter shade of blonde, you could go in to a saloon to get a blue rinse. a lot of older ladies with grey/yellow hair get this done. as you age, your hair looses pigment, especially if it's lighter! the blue neutralizes the yellow and lightens/tones the grey, giving a softer white/silvery shade of hair. it may not get your hair completely snow white, but it would certainly make it lighter! though, if your hair is brown or black, this method wouldn't work.

i do not recommend you try and bleach your hair white. this doesn't work at all, it only makes your hair a yellow/orange color and completely fries it. keratin is naturally yellow/orange colored, when you strip out all the other pigment when you bleach it leaves behind the natural keratin color. even if you blue rinse it after that, it will still stay very yellow looking.

[MonaLisa65]

I've seen 100% human hair clip-in extensions that come in white. They were pricey, but it's an option...

[trillcat]

Accept your hair as it is.
Yea, yea, I know, I am not really one to give hair bleaching advice given my history of messing with my hair color, but you WILL kill it by trying to go white.
If the bleaching process does not fry your scalp and turn your hair into crunchy breaking off fun, combing through your hair becomes a distant memory and you watch as your long hair now becomes shorter and shorter as the ends snap off if you even look at them, and you are sporting nice new hair of chemical hair cut, what are you going to do when you want to go back to your natural color?
You have removed all the pigment from your hair, it is not as easy as going to get a box of brown hair dye to restore the color. It is MORE chemicals and a lot of them and if your hair is still more than about 3 inches long after all this, consider yourself lucky and admire your weird poofy dried up mess of hair.
Harsh words, yes indeed, but real words.
We all seem to want what the other has, be it brown hair, blonde, red, black, white.
Think further down the line of what will happen and you may not be so much enthusiastic about wanting such a drastic change in your hair color.

[Loviatar]

Manic Panic does a temporary dye called Virgin Snow. But you do have to put it over their Flashlightening Bleach, so it wouldn't be natural.

I have a white/grey wig which looks amazing. I got it from a Japanese company on ebay. I would say either get a wig or go for the bleach. But drown your hair in coconut oil first, STRAND TEST like crazy and don't try to bleach out completely to white. Virgin Snow will tone out yellow-orangey bleached hair.

[oktobergoud]

My hair was bleached to death and white, but I think that was only possible because I had a pixie!! If you have virgin hair than it might be possible without crazy damage (if you already have blonde, natural hair) but the upkeep and everything is craaaaazy!

[Veviticus]

I suggest buying a wig :) just to indulge your fantasy and get over it without completely ruining your hair.

Snowy white is next to impossible to achieve unless you're aged and blessed with beautiful massive gray (it is a blessing indeed and very rare for many people's gray is naturally not perfectly white but grayish or yellowish, and usually not even). But it is striking for sure.

I totally agree, espiclally the bolded. If you are able to achive totally white hair, I believe you will regret it later on as the damage would be massive.

[Arya]

I have an Asian friend who dyed her hair bright silver, so I know it is possible. I think it would entirely depend on how strong your hair is and how long you want it. She had shoulder length hair, and it looked really cool. There are ways to do it I'm sure, but it would depend on your hair. If you're dead set on dying it, why not commit yourself to one streak in an unnoticeable area? See how it goes, and if it starts crumbling, than at least it's not your whole head. They make really nice silver wigs nowadays, though.

[ScarlettAdelle]

If you do bleach it, you can reduce the damage by doing bleachwashes over time. It'll take ages, and you'll have probably a year of in between colors (lighter brown for a while, through red, then orange and then blonde and yellow/gold and then, finally, to platinum, but will help decrease how destroyed your hair will be. You'd still have to blue/violet tone, though.

Best to just let time do its thing. Cool thing is brunettes tend to get really pretty silvery whites, not unlike the lovely mane Sephiroth sports.