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View Full Version : How to get rid of my green hair, and if filter is contributing instead of helping?



pele
March 15th, 2008, 06:13 PM
Hello!

Great to see this forum up and running again!

My hair has such a green tinge lately. It seems (ironically) that since I have put my shower filter on, my hair has gone even greener than without it! Is this even possible?

I have not colored my hair since....end of September 2007 (and that's when I started with the filter), and when I had it colored it was highlights of platinum blonde (on my naturally dirty blonde).

1) What can I do to get rid of the green? (baking soda? ACV?)

2) Should I just take OFF the shower filter? Could it be doing the opposite of what I want it to be doing?

Thanks!
~Pele~:)

nicolezoie
March 15th, 2008, 06:41 PM
It sounds like you may have chlorinated hair? Usually when blond hair is exposed to chlorine it takes on a greenish hue. The longer the exposure, the greener the hair.

When I was a swimmer, we used to combat this by using Ultra Swim shapoo and conditioners, OR doing an aspirin shampoo. Seeing as I'm not blond I never tried the aspirin thing, but I can vouch for the Ultra Swim.

It *could* be related to your filter, or it could be related to your house's water.

Ursula
March 15th, 2008, 06:52 PM
My guess is that the problem is either chlorine or copper in your water. Chlorine probably only if you swim - tap water intended for drinking has a lower concentration.

An "after swim" shampoo would take care of green from chlorine, and a chelating shampoo or treatment would help remove copper.

Kirin
March 15th, 2008, 06:58 PM
its copper in the water, (even in swimming) chlorine bleaches, copper turns things green, copper is in swimming pool water from the filtration.

Lemon juice gets rid of it, but it can be VERY drying. I used to sport bleach blonde kermit the frog green hair (we're talking like mint green), and lemon was teh only thing that worked. I never tried citric acid rinses though, that might work.

chloeishere
March 15th, 2008, 08:12 PM
Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) removed chlorine from water. Citric acid acts as a chelator and removes metal ions, such as copper.

You could try washing your hair with miracle water (this is not my idea or recipe, but I can't remember the poster's name, off the top of my head). I'm not sure if it's been reposted yet, but I believe it's 1/4 teaspoon citric acid, and 1/8th (maybe less) teaspoon ascorbic acid, in 1 gallon of water. The original poster of the idea used just this mix to wash her hair (with shampoo bars) and had great success with it.
I've never had the energy to try miracle water (though I'm sure it's nice) so I do a more concentrated citric acid rinse. I'm not nearly as blonde as you, but basically, it's about 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per two cups of water (I tend to use a lot more than 2 cups, though). I also add the tiniest dab of ascorbic acid (as small as I can get it, it's a fine powder), and use that to rinse. It makes my hair very slippery feeling, and it does help prevent mineral buildup in hair, in my opinion.

You can get both of these at health food stores I think-- look for their bulk powders. I got mine online-- I have 8 ounces of citric acid and 2 ounces of ascorbic acid, and expect these quantities to last at least 10 years, at a minimum. You don't use much.

I'm not sure if or why your filter would make your hair greener-- what kind of filter is it (like, how does it filter)?

florenonite
March 16th, 2008, 05:02 AM
Apparently ketchup works. There's something in the tomatoes that ionises the copper or something like that (I haven't taken chem in about two years, so my knowledge is a bit dodgy, but my point is that it's not the red colour, but the actual tomatoes).

GlassEyes
March 16th, 2008, 05:45 AM
Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) removed chlorine from water. Citric acid acts as a chelator and removes metal ions, such as copper.

You could try washing your hair with miracle water (this is not my idea or recipe, but I can't remember the poster's name, off the top of my head). I'm not sure if it's been reposted yet, but I believe it's 1/4 teaspoon citric acid, and 1/8th (maybe less) teaspoon ascorbic acid, in 1 gallon of water. The original poster of the idea used just this mix to wash her hair (with shampoo bars) and had great success with it.
I've never had the energy to try miracle water (though I'm sure it's nice) so I do a more concentrated citric acid rinse. I'm not nearly as blonde as you, but basically, it's about 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per two cups of water (I tend to use a lot more than 2 cups, though). I also add the tiniest dab of ascorbic acid (as small as I can get it, it's a fine powder), and use that to rinse. It makes my hair very slippery feeling, and it does help prevent mineral buildup in hair, in my opinion.

You can get both of these at health food stores I think-- look for their bulk powders. I got mine online-- I have 8 ounces of citric acid and 2 ounces of ascorbic acid, and expect these quantities to last at least 10 years, at a minimum. You don't use much.

I'm not sure if or why your filter would make your hair greener-- what kind of filter is it (like, how does it filter)?
I was just about to recommend this. It's how justgreen keeps her hair from turning green, among others.

sibylla
March 16th, 2008, 06:30 AM
I second the ketchup!!!!!
Good luck!
(if you are using cassia-it can give blond hair a greenish tone)

jojo
March 16th, 2008, 08:25 AM
Apparently ketchup works. There's something in the tomatoes that ionises the copper or something like that (I haven't taken chem in about two years, so my knowledge is a bit dodgy, but my point is that it's not the red colour, but the actual tomatoes).

this works great, a hairdresser told me this years ago, when my daughters hair turned green. sounds crazy and I dont know the chemistry behind it but yep a winner!!

Pegasus Marsters
March 16th, 2008, 09:47 AM
Ketchup is the advice I always here. And if you get hungry you can dunk your fries in it ;)

walkinglady
March 16th, 2008, 10:29 AM
I saved part of the miracle water thread on my computer so I'll share what I have with you. I wish I could remember who started this thread so I could give credit where the credit is due .........

I make my water in a gallon water jug right before I get in the shower, I use warm water and add 1/32 of a teaspoon of vitamin c L-ascorbic acid and 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid. I think the key to this is less is more, I didn't want a strongly acidic solution like the standard after-shampoo citric acid rinse (1/4 teaspoon to 2 cups of water). I just wanted enough to chelate the minerals and through trial and error found that 1/4 teaspoon was plenty. I was also worried that if it was too acidic, shampoo and conditioner wouldn't work correctly and that it would dry out my hair.

I based my amount of vitamin c on the information given by the Vitashower company but am actually using more than necessary just because it's too hard to measure anything smaller, lol (and the little extra doesn't seem to matter). They say that 1 gram of vitamin c will dechlorinate 100 gallons of water (but they don't say how much chlorine/chloramine that water contains), meaning 10 milligrams would dechlorinate 1 gallon. My bottle of ascorbic acid says that 1/2 teaspoon contains 2.25 grams so 1/32 of a teaspoon is more than enough. I did test my water with strips I got from the pet store to make sure the chlorine/chloramine was gone

pele
March 16th, 2008, 07:01 PM
Well, thanks for all your responses. I asked my Dad, and he said that it's possible the filter could be causing more green as it's filtering out some minerals, but keeping the rest, and sometimes all of them need to work together. Interesting.

Anyways, I'm going to take off the shower filter. It's called "Aquasmart".

Also, I might try the ketchup on my hair. I was researching and I think tomato paste might work too.

I am not a swimmer AT ALL. I think there is just a lot of chlorine in my water at home. I can even smell it through the tap water, and even after filtering my drinking water with a Brita Filter, my mom said she could still smell the chlorine in the filtered water.

So...solution is to take off the filter and do a tomato rinse. I'll let you know what happens!

~Pele~ :)

justgreen
March 16th, 2008, 10:17 PM
I sometimes use Nexxus Aloe Rid, a mild chelating shampoo, removes all that stuff. I dilute it , I've never used it full strength,and it still works great. It's good to have in the bathroom cabinet.

Avaya
October 30th, 2011, 11:16 AM
Do you use ketchup on wet or dry hair and for how long? :confused: