Green Hair - Is It Caused By Chlorine?

We have all seen previously blonde haired people walking around during the summer with a nice green tint to their hair. This is a very common occurrence during swimming season for people who spend a lot of time in the swimming pool. Most people think the reason the hair is turning green is because of the chlorine in the swimming pool. But it is simply not true that chlorine causes blonde hair to turn green.

What Turns the Hair Green? - The culprit is copper. Yes, a high concentration of copper in the swimming pool water is what causes blonde hair to turn green. When the copper is oxidized, it attaches itself to the protein in the hair shaft of the swimmer and deposits the color on the hair. By the way, the color gets deposited on all colors of hair, but is just more visible in blonde or lighter color hair.

How Does Copper Get Into The Swimming Pool - There are a few different ways copper can end up in pool water. First, the fill water can sometimes have naturally high levels of copper. Secondly, using a copper based algaecide will add copper to the water. Lastly, unbalanced pool water that is corrosive can dissolve metal plumbing, heaters parts, and other metal pool equipment, leaving the metals in the water.

Managing Copper In The Pool - even if there is some copper in the swimming pool, if the water is properly balanced it will not precipitate out of the water and onto the hair. Therefore, keeping all the parameters of the pool water in balance should eliminate this problem. In order to remove the copper from the pool water, a chelating agent can be used to neutralize or remove the metals from the water. See a local pool store or pool professional for help removing metals from pool water.

Avoiding Green Hair After Swimming - Of course, the best solution is to have a swimming pool that has balanced pool water and contains no copper. Other considerations are to rinse thoroughly immediately after swimming and using a special shampoo made specifically for swimmers. If the hair is already green, it might be too late, but the green color should disappear after only a few days of routine shampooing.

The next time green hair on blonde haired people becomes the topic of conversation, remember that it's not the chlorine in the pool water that causes the hair to turn green, it's the copper. Keeping the swimming pool water balanced and copper free should solve the problem. If swimming in someone else's swimming pool that might not be perfectly balanced, some basic hair care precautions should help minimize the green hair discussion.

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