Self-tanners (dihydroxyacetone) on Hair??

[Dreams_in_Pink]

Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) is the active ingredient in sunless tanner lotions, which turn skin's top layer to orange-brown color.

This makes me wonder what it'd do to hair? :D As far as i know, our skin, nails and hair are all made from protein and DHA reacts with it.

Anyone have an idea or made an experiment? Does it turn hair orange? does it darken?

[misspriss]

I used to sunless tan all the time, I got it in my eyebrows. I didn't notice a difference, but it looks funny on the scalp and the skin under the eyebrows. I don't remember it making a noticeable color difference, but I have really dark hair.

[Dreams_in_Pink]

I googled the situation and came up with this Q&A:


I love using self-tanner on my face, especially in the winter, but I'm not always careful when applying near my hairline. Can it dye my strands?

Yes! If you hastily rub in tanner, your skin tone may no longer be ghostly pale, but your brows and hairline could turn pumpkin orange. Hair is porous: It can absorb the tanner's dihydroxyacetone, the chemical responsible for the tint, triggering the same color-change reaction that occurs in skin, says Christyn Nawrot, an educator in NYC for Phyto hair care. The effect will wash out after two shampoos, but you can prevent the DIY dye job by applying tanner along hairline with a cotton swab. If you hit a few strands, dab the area with cuticle remover; it has an exfoliant that lifts tanner but leaves hair intact.

Orange? Could it be an alternative to henna? I just smothered a little clip-in extension with my gradual tanner-moisturizer; i'll leave it overnight and wash in the morning.

I cannot wait till tomorrow :D this could be the hair-darkening method for my highlighted ends!
:cheese:

[LoveMyMutt]

I was just wondering this myself, if it might be an easy way to touch up my roots while I grow out my henna.

Mind you, I do use sunless tanner quite a bit during the summer (I have that Irish skin that sort of glows white). I've never noticed it affecting my eyebrows or my arm hair (both pretty light blond). So I don't know if it really does anything to hair.

[Anje]

I'll be interested to see what results people get from this, if anyone tries it.

For eyebrows, elbows, and other places where sunless tanner seems to stick, I've had good results from applying a regular moisturizer first to those spots. It seems to keep them from grabbing as much sunless tanner as they can.

[Dreams_in_Pink]

well, my moisturizing self-tanner didn't do anything to dark brown hair :D a higher concentration of DHA might be needed for obvious results :/

[Oskimosa]

I googled the situation and came up with this Q&A:



Orange? Could it be an alternative to henna? I just smothered a little clip-in extension with my gradual tanner-moisturizer; i'll leave it overnight and wash in the morning.

I cannot wait till tomorrow :D this could be the hair-darkening method for my highlighted ends!
:cheese:

Is your extension made of human hair or synthetic? The two materials could be very different in their uptake of dye.

Also, even if its human hair, they typically put gobs of products to treat the hair before selling it. Might not be a good judge of how your hair would take to it. Just thinking. It could mean that your hair would be more receptive to the dye than the extensions.

Very curious as to whether this would be a semi-permanent coloring agent. I hope that it at least yields interesting results to be further researched! Thanks for your pioneering efforts :p

[Dreams_in_Pink]

hhahaha thank you :D i'm the mad scientist of this place LOL!

First of all, that hair's %100 human hair. I dyed it once, and it has splits all over the place :D second, i didn't use a true self-tanning lotion, i only used a body lotion with a hint of DHA in it for gradual tan. I guess more concrete results could be achieved if DHA itself is tested on white hair.

My guess is that only high concentrations of DHA can alter haircolor, especially on medium-dark bases, but that much DHA cannot be found in store-bought tanning products because it would turn skin orange-brown in one single application.

The color would be orange and i guess it'd be even more permanent than henna :( as far as i know, DHA is not a dye and it's colorless; it's a sugar that reacts with the protein on the outmost layer of skin (dead cells) turning it a shade of orange.

I wish i had access to pure chemicals like %100 DHA powder, but sadly i don't :(

[BattahZ]

FYI, sunless tanners don't do much to hair unless it's really light blonde, and even then they don't do that much. Think about it, if they turned hair orange, lots of blondes would have bright orange arm hair from sunless tanning! Really light blondes are usually advised to protect their eyebrows and hairline when tanning their faces, but from what I've read (on sunless.com), it doesn't happen much, and if it does it's just a hint of orange.

[Fractalsofhair]

When I used to use a sunless tanner(Aveda.) it did turn my leg hair a lot darker. Same deal with arm hair. It wasn't quite brown, but it wasn't pale any more. I can't say it was orange, it just looked dirty, and off.

If you want to get maximum results, they do make super dark tanning lotions out there. The extra dark ones for darker skin might be a good option, and not the gradual ones. Maybe the wipes as well since they aren't as moisturizing.