True Hair Color

[blackgothicdoll]

Has anyone thought their hair was one color, and found that the color changed with different care?

For example, when my hair was relaxed, it was black. Once I started transitioning, it grew in reddish brown. Ever since then I dyed it black because I thought something was wrong with it (hey, this was around 2010, before the internet was invented). I thought it was sun damage, heat damage or hair products, and finally starting 2018 I've just accepted my hair color and started growing it out. I wonder if anyone else has had this happen? Perhaps color changes because of age, or maybe it was the chemical processes that somehow made my hair darker?

I've seen a lot of people who start out with blond hair as children and then turn brunette. That's always intrigued me as well.

[almostghost]

I know pigmentation can change over time, especially in youth, because I was born with bright blue eyes, but at some point in my adolescence they turned grayish-green for some reason. My natural hair color darkened from dark blond to medium-light brown too. I've always put it down to hormonal changes.

[GrowlingCupcake]

I think it's pretty normal for a lot of people to experience hair colour changes over time. That said, I do not know anyone who went from black to reddish brown. Maybe it is because of gradual greying? Rather than individual white strands, maybe it is all going grey very slowly? It would make sense for black hair to turn brown or reddish brown depending on the pigments under the eumelanin.

My natural hair colour is soft black, and my greys are individual white strands. Other than a slow increase in the number of strands, I have not experienced any changes to my natural hair colour. I don't even get highlights from the sun.

[blackgothicdoll]

I think it's pretty normal for a lot of people to experience hair colour changes over time. That said, I do not know anyone who went from black to reddish brown. Maybe it is because of gradual greying? Rather than individual white strands, maybe it is all going grey very slowly? It would make sense for black hair to turn brown or reddish brown depending on the pigments under the eumelanin.

My natural hair colour is soft black, and my greys are individual white strands. Other than a slow increase in the number of strands, I have not experienced any changes to my natural hair colour. I don't even get highlights from the sun.

My hair could have been brown as a child, and relaxing changed the color, but I don't have any pictures of me as a kid so I'm not sure. I have some greying happening, but those strands are snow white and there's nothing gradual about them LOL. But there are only two or three, they don't really mix in with the rest.

[GrowlingCupcake]

My hair could have been brown as a child, and relaxing changed the color, but I don't have any pictures of me as a kid so I'm not sure. I have some greying happening, but those strands are snow white and there's nothing gradual about them LOL. But there are only two or three, they don't really mix in with the rest.

Would your parents/relatives know your hair colour as a child? If it's changing to reddish brown, and not linked to greying, it seems likely that it was your 'true' hair colour.

I know what you mean about the not mixing in xD

[spidermom]

I remember being surprised years ago that a perm made my hair a lighter shade of blonde.

[blackgothicdoll]

Would your parents/relatives know your hair colour as a child? If it's changing to reddish brown, and not linked to greying, it seems likely that it was your 'true' hair colour.

I know what you mean about the not mixing in xD

I forgot I could just ask LOL. I sent my mom a picture of my hair, she said it was brown as a child but it looked like I had been spending a lot of time in the sunlight in that picture (it looked a bit lighter than my childhood hair). So that answers that mystery, it must have been the relaxers that made it darker before I went natural.

Thanks!

[blackgothicdoll]

I remember being surprised years ago that a perm made my hair a lighter shade of blonde.

A perm is the same chemical as a relaxer but just a different process, if I'm not mistaken? I know it breaks down the bonds in hair, which could maybe make it lighter. But my relaxed hair was darker. Hmm. :/

[lapushka]

Has anyone thought their hair was one color, and found that the color changed with different care?

No ever since my hair is its natural color, I haven't noticed it changing with the use of products. But I tend to know my ingredients. I do still have a mask that has henna in it that is not supposed to color, and it was in my stash, to use up still and I hadn't used it so far because I was really afraid it might stain. It doesn't.

When I was born I had black hair. Then it grew in a light straw-blond. Stayed that way until age 6/7 when it started to grow in darker and darker.

Hair can be odd sometimes. ;)

[Danglish]

I was born with long, very dark brown(basically black) hair. That was the most beautiful, and so it promptly fell out. Then, I became platinum blonde throughout childhood. Then turned dirty blonde in my teens. And now it is a medium, slightly brassy blonette. I still dream of getting my darker hair back, but... Probably not gonna happen

[lithostoic]

My hair was white. Now it is dark blonde but gets really light highlights from the sun. All my baby hairs are nearly white.

[Servana]

Yes, hair can actually go lighter over time. While most of my family were born with blonde hair that turned dark brown, I was born with dark brown hair that turned black by age 5, but when I went through puberty it lightened up to a medium to dark brown with lots of golden highlights. And as time goes on I keep finding more strands of pure red and blonde. Not sure if those are hairs gradually turning grey or what...

[Doreen]

My hair has always grown out of my scalp the same color - black. I'm rather boring in that way, I guess.

[lunasea]

I was born with long, very dark brown(basically black) hair. That was the most beautiful, and so it promptly fell out. Then, I became platinum blonde throughout childhood. Then turned dirty blonde in my teens. And now it is a medium, slightly brassy blonette. I still dream of getting my darker hair back, but... Probably not gonna happen

Same here. My mother was very surprised when my dark hair fell out and everything came in light blonde. I am also a blonette now- although things are going gray.

[blackgothicdoll]

Same here. My mother was very surprised when my dark hair fell out and everything came in light blonde. I am also a blonette now- although things are going gray.

Fell out? Was this right after you were born?

That's all so interesting.

[lapushka]

Fell out? Was this right after you were born?

That's all so interesting.

Born I had black hair, and when I was 9 months old and a cousin of mine was born, I had blonde hair, so yes, my hair fell out as well. It's common for a baby to go through this transition!

[Missymo]

My hair has never been through any major color transitions. When I was little I had light honey blond hair that when I hit adolescence darkened slightly, so that now I'm in my late teens and have hair that is dark blond or light brown and has light auburn streaks on the underside.

[Dark40]

I've heard that chemical processing can change your natural hair color if it's naturally dark to a reddish color. It has happen to me before. Nothing is wrong with your hair. It's just the chemicals mixing in with your hair. I was born with cold-black hair, and as I got my toddler years my hair lightened up to a sandy brown. My mom told me that when I was a baby my hair looked blondish. But as I got older into my teens my hair darkened to a dark brown. Now, with me being in my 40s it is just brown more like medium brown, and now I'm planning on dyeing my hair blonde.

[Sparkles122]

My hair was a medium to dark blonde when I was a child, my hair is naturally medium brown now, so it darkened a couple shades

[Dark40]

Born I had black hair, and when I was 9 months old and a cousin of mine was born, I had blonde hair, so yes, my hair fell out as well. It's common for a baby to go through this transition!

Hey, me too was the same way! When I was born I my hair was cold-black, and when I was a few months old my hair lightened up to a sandy brown or blondish. I'm sorry to hear that your hair fell out. Mine didn't fall out, it started getting thicker from it being fine.

[pailin]

Mine was pretty dark as an infant, I think. Don't know what happened but all my pictures from about one on are a medium-dark blond. My siblings all started out really light blond and darkened by the time they hit their teens, but they have blue eyes, and that is a really common pattern- blue eyes and platinum bond hair that darkens around adolescence. I never had the blue eyes or the platinum blond hair, but these days my sister and I have about the same level hair. She STILL thinks she's blonder than me though, even though she isn't anymore.

[RubberDucky]

As a child I had light blond hair that turned pure white during summer. Somewhere around ten it darkened to a dark blond/light blonette that I had until about two-three years ago. Now it's a mixture of golden and ash blond, silver, grey and some bits of brown; it still gets lighter during summer but nowhere near pure white.

[Begemot]

Previously I thought I was born with blonde hair, like my brother was, but then realized that I have had the same hair color all my life. It's just the kind of color that can look a lot lighter or darker depending on surroundings, colors I wear, light source etc. and tends to bleach easily from sun light and mechanical wear. If I protect my hair from sun it's a solid level 7 light brown.

[iforgotmylogin]

I thought I had black hair for most of my life.

I grew my hair out twice in late teens/early 20's, and I always ended up with brown hair for half it's length, but that was after bleaching it then dying it dark months later. We assumed it was just the darker dye fading over the bleach

Then I grew my hair out this time with no bleach (or any permanent dye for that matter), and it's done the same thing - looks black for half it's length, and brown for the rest

The possibilty still remains that I DO have black hair, and that the harsh sun of Oz is fading it, but I think it's just that I have dark brown hair and that density is what makes it look black (and low density reveals the true color)

[Jo Ann]

I went from light blonde as a baby, to a medium blonde by age 8-10, to dark blonde in high school, to a light brown by my 30's, to an almost medium brown by my 50's.

Now, I have *ahem!* natural highlights and white streaks in my early 60's... :p

[iforgotmylogin]

If it's any consolation. white streaks are hella badass

[MusicalSpoons]

I had white blonde hair as a young child; somewhere around 6-8 it darkened a bit to light blonde, and has gradually (very gradually!) darkened to my current colour in my 20s. I think it's now dark blonde, quite probably blondette in reality but my lengths are still definitely blonde so I still think of my colour as blonde. I still have some white blonde wispies which I used to think were from the sun but I haven't been out in the sun much over the last couple of years, and some of them are literally only a few inches long, so :shrug:

As for chemical processes, I have no idea but OP and spidermom your experiences are intriguing!