How to whiten gray hair???

[indigonight]

My mother-in-law has white hair with some gray streaks in it.
Since she knows I frequently lurk around in LHC so she asked me to ask you lovely haired people if anyone has any suggestions of NATURAL ways she may make all her hair white as she has some gray streaks in it...... any advice anyone????
Many thanks.......Xmas hugs to all.........

[Flaxen]

The only way to get white hair is to remove every trace of pigment, and that requires a bleaching process. There's nothing natural that will do that. She may find in time that her hair will grow in without any pigment and turn white on its own, but that timeline is different for everyone.

[Elenna]

There is still some melanin color left in gray hair, while white hair has no melanin color.

It might not take a lot of bleaching to attain the overall whiteness, if your mil hair is gray and white already.

[ktani]

She can make her white hair appear to be whiter with blue tinted shampoos or shampoos designed to remove yellow.

She can also use products without colour added so that if her hair is dry and porous, it does not absorb the FD & C colours added to make them more appealing visually. Sometimes, hair gets a yellowish tinge from environmental factors.

A safe way to try and lighten her pigment is honey lightening. See my blog below, Part 4.

[angelthadiva]

Not sure if they sell it in the UK, but there is a laundry product for increasing the bright in whites. It's called Mrs. Stewart's Bluing. You only need a couple of drops diluted in water. I use it myself as I transition from years of bottle dying and it really makes my silvers sparkle.

[Latin Tea]

http://www.mrsstewart.com/pages/othe...htm#anchorhair

Looks like bluing works on all sorts of problems.

I also read the "What's in this stuff anyways?" question and it said, "Basically, bluing is made of a very fine blue iron powder suspended in water ( a "colloidal suspension")."

I'm wondering if it could be inhaled when your hair dries. I guess since bluing was used way back when and for quite some time, it's probably safe, but then again, they used to use straight lye soap too. Hmmmm.

[akka naeda]

My mother-in-law has white hair with some gray streaks in it.
Since she knows I frequently lurk around in LHC so she asked me to ask you lovely haired people if anyone has any suggestions of NATURAL ways she may make all her hair white as she has some gray streaks in it...... any advice anyone????
Many thanks.......Xmas hugs to all.........

Here you go.
Reckitts blue, I use it myself
http://www.carbolicsoap.com/reckitts-blue-p-864.html

But, you must remember that it will only make the white hair whiter. The grey hair is not actually grey, but areas where there are more dark hairs than white hairs. She must wait for those hairs to come in white at the roots

[heatherdazy]

I've seen so many women with grey hair that has a blue or violet cast from those shampoos. They're fine if you're trying to remove warm tones, but since it sounds like your friend's hair is already cool toned and she just wants it to be lighter, she'll have to choose whether she's willing to lighten it the traditional way or live with her existing color, which may eventually become more white or could very well just stay grey.

[Elenna]

From my reading about shampoos for grey/white hair, these shampoos need to be clarified out every so often and not to use more than once a week. Otherwise, that person can end up with purple tinged hair.

I recently tried Clairol Shimmer Lights for blond and silver hair. And it left my hair a frizzy mess. I was so upset about this.

Usually, I clarify my hair with citric acid which I buy from here. It leaves my silvers bright and shiny.

[francismary]

My sister told me of a hair rinse called "Roux" that's used after shampooing, that is supposed to take out the yellowish cast that white grey hair tends to get. She couldn't remember the exact name of the shade, something like "silver fox". My dad's in his 80's and has a head of thick gorgeous white hair, and she gets this rinse for him when it starts looking yellowy.