My hair color is changing. Help?

[xoerincolleen]

Hi everyone! So, my hair color is starting to change. I've been in a new city in a new country for just about 2 weeks and I'm almost positive it has to be from the water here. My hair is naturally a sort of light brown/dark blonde/auburnish color, and in the past week or so I've noticed that it's getting red/orangey highlights. I hate it. I haven't been doing anything special or different to my hair, only washing with an organic shampoo and garnier triple nutrition conditioner and putting jojoba oil on it occasionally. It must be from the water, right? :confused:

Is there any way to fix this? I'm not trying to be a ginger, I want my color to stop changing! TIA!

[Mairéad]

If it's the water, iron deposits could cause red tones. I've seen a friend whose blonde hair went completely (though unevenly) ginger due to this. If there's a way for you to find out if there is iron in your water, I'd bet that would be causing it.

If that happens to be the cause you could try club soda and vinegar (white for your case) rinses to try and break up some of the minerals. If you want fast results get a chelating shampoo. I use one from Kerna once every 6 weeks or so because my water puts green tones in my hair, which cancels out my red hair! I use it infrequently because it is very drying and I even slap a SMT on right after I use it because of this.

[xoerincolleen]

Mairéad- thanks! I just picked up a shampoo for blonde hair that says it helps "remove mineral buildup that can discolor hair". Even though I'm not really a blonde I hope it does something! I couldn't find a chelating or even a shampoo that said "clarifying" on it here. :/

[Mairéad]

No problem! I actually need to chelate my hair soon since it's looking ashy. (Supposed to be strawberry blonde). I hope it works out for you!

[swetiepeti]

Ion makes both a shampoo and a treatmetn to get Iron out. Sally's Beauty carries it. They have shampoo, conditioner and a treatmen for getting iron out. If your hair is really getting red, your best bet is the treatment followed by using the shampoo. The conditioner was just "ok" in my opinion.

http://www.sallybeauty.com/hard-water-shampoo/ION12,default,pd.html

My blonde hair got so red that one of the docs I worked with in San Antonio thought I was another nurse who is a redhead and yelled, "hey Red" and about dropped his jaw when I turned around.
Your other choice is to filter your shampoo water or buy filtered water.

[swetiepeti]

the link to the Ion Treatment

http://www.sallybeauty.com/Clarifying-Treatment/SBS-302208,default,pd.html

Oh, and they have a clarifying shampoo as well, but the hard water shampoo works better to keep out the red from my personal and perhaps biased opinion. If the red is noticable you'll notice a much more drastic improvement if you use the treatment first, then keep it up with the shampoo. I did find both to be somewhat drying. I bought and finished out thier matching conditioner but did not rebuy as I thought it did not moisturize enough for as drying as the shampoo and treatment were to my hair. Went instead with one of the generic substitutes for Nexus for dry and damaged hair conditioners that Sally's sells.

[xoerincolleen]

swetiepeti Thank you! I don't have a Sally's near me, though. I'll keep my eye out for one or a similar shampoo, though. Thanks!!

[xoerincolleen]

I'm going to bump this because my hair is still turning red...my "mineral-buildup removing" shampoo isn't working! :(

[lapispimpernel]

I found a couple old threads about iron buildup.
Try this one: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=356

I think this (http://archive.longhaircommunity.com/archive/index.php/t-59155.html) is the citric acid/"miracle water" thread they're referencing.

The natural chelator thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=1689) has an extended recipe for the miracle water & some people's results with it.

Other places suggest plain lemon or tomato juice rinses, and somebody else suggested:
If you want , you can also try baking soda and water. It takes all mineral and product bulidups out of the hair that nothing else will not remove. Here's the formula:

1 T. Bakingsoda (your store brand)
1 cup warm water

Make a paste, wet down hair, pour mixture over, massage, rinse well. Follow with deep treatment.


Good luck! :)

[xoerincolleen]

I found a couple old threads about iron buildup.
Try this one: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=356

I think this (http://archive.longhaircommunity.com/archive/index.php/t-59155.html) is the citric acid/"miracle water" thread they're referencing.

The natural chelator thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=1689) has an extended recipe for the miracle water & some people's results with it.

Other places suggest plain lemon or tomato juice rinses, and somebody else suggested:


Good luck! :)

Thanks so much! I'll definitely be trying those!

[LadyLongLocks]

Get a shower filter right away! I can't live without one.

[mora]

I'm going to bump this because my hair is still turning red...my "mineral-buildup removing" shampoo isn't working! :(

Look for a shampoo that has EDTA as one of the ingredients. The EDTA is a chelator. If you have buildup you should make sure the shampoo gets through all of your hair (not just the scalp as with normal gentle washing) and let it sit for a couple of minutes. You may want also want to do it twice. This can be very drying so you may want to do a moisturizing treatment afterwards as someone else mentioned.