Grey Hair: Discolouration
Managing Grey Hair Discolouration
You’ve decided you like your grey hair and you’re going with it. Either you’re one of the lucky ones with a lovely consistent colour or you’ve lived long enough to go white. You’ve successfully transitioned out the artificial colour and now you have a beautiful natural snowy white, shimmering silver or gorgeous steel blue… but now you begin to notice yellowing in places.
Why does grey hair yellow and what can you do about it?
There are a lot of potential contributors to grey hair discolouration, most of them beyond your control, but it is almost always manageable.
WHY DOES GREY HAIR GO YELLOW?
The core reason is that your hair is very light and so it shows anything it picks up. In the absence of colour, particles from your environment can easily lodge and show in your hair. The good news is that it’s very easy to remove the discolouration.
Reasons grey hair takes on a yellow tinge include:
HAIR PRODUCTS AND SHAMPOO RESIDUE:
All hair products have colouring and some have molecules designed to bond with your hair, for example to make your hair smooth. Some may protect your hair from substances and reactions that may discolour your hair but eventually they will build up and may cause their own problems.
The active ingredient in antidandruff shampoos selenium sulphide can discolour your hair. If you have persistent dandruff we suggest talking to your doctor about trying Nizoral shampoo, which has ketoconazole, as the active ingredient. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases if you purchase Nizoral from this link.
AIR POLLUTION AND DUST:
Fine dirt particles.
NATURAL OIL PRODUCTION:
Luck of the DNA draw.
SMOKING:
Obviously. How fast do you get smoking stains on your fingers if you hold your cigarette the wrong way? Minutes.
HEAT STYLING:
Are you burning your hair? This can discolour your hair. Many people have their straighteners and curlers at temperatures too high. Your hairdresser straightens or curls very differently to how you do it at home, admit it, so don’t just eye her straightener temperature or take some youtube advice and use that. Please ask for advice on heat styling from someone who can physically assess your hair.
POOL WATER:
Chlorine is added to standard pools and created in the chlorinator in salt water pools, we need it to keep our pools clean enough to swim in so it’s unavoidable. Swimming is a fantastic exercise as you get older but if you swim in pools your grey hair may yellow.
TAP WATER:
Hopefully there is also some chlorine in your shower water, an absence of it indicates contamination, but there will also be trace minerals and salts depending on the geology of your location and these may discolour your hair - unless your local water comes from a reverse osmosis plant (in which case you should probably take an occasional course of multivitamin and minerals supplements).
MEDICATION:
Some medications can discolour your hair and this is one of the few scenarios where colour techniques might be required to keep you looking snowy and bright. Read the information included with your prescription drugs and talk to your doctor - then talk to your hairdresser.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT YELLOW IN GREY HAIR.
Managing grey hair discolouration is straightforward, you can start from the simple solutions and escalate if needed or you can jump straight into the toners and rinses if you want to give your hair a subtle edge.
WASH YOUR HAIR AND RINSE WELL.
By the time your hair goes grey you are probably quite set in your ways about how often you wash your hair, having figured out what works for your hair type and lifestyle. You may have to revise that hair routine now you're going au naturelle, it’s no reflection on your hygiene, but consider how often you dry clean your little black dress compared to your lighter dresses.
SWAP OUT YOUR USUAL SHAMPOOS AND CONDITIONERS ONCE IN A WHILE TO AVOID RESIDUE BUILD UP.
Do not use the same shampoo and conditioner all the time, no matter how much you love it, occasionally buy a bottle of something else.
Urban Fringe Hair recommends investing in two sorts of shampoos apart from your regular shampoo.
A CLEANSING OR CLARIFYING SHAMPOO.
If you regularly go for blow drys your hair salon should already be cleansing your hair, however we never use these shampoos stand alone because . they can be quite harsh on your hair. Use it once a week at most and make sure you condition afterwards.
A PURPLE OR BLUE SHAMPOO.
The logic is simple and is at the heart of all hair colouring. Take a look at the colour wheel. Purple is opposite yellow and purple will cancel out yellow tones. Use it about once a week or a couple of times a month, unless you want a purple tinge - in that case you can better achieve an all over tone by asking your hair stylist. If it ‘grabs’ and you end up with areas that look too purple, you either have damaged or porous hair or you need a different purple shampoo, again talk to your hairdresser to find the optimal solution.
LEAVE-IN CONDITIONERS.
Leave in conditioners are designed to protect your hair, they effectively provide a physical barrier for your hair. They will build up over time however so you still need to occasionally cleanse your hair either at home or at the salon.
TONERS AND RINSES.
If you’re still not happy with the colour of your grey hair after trying these suggestions your hair stylist has a number of techniques from treatments, through rinses to toners to remove discolouration of grey hair and brighten you up including some beautiful subtle tones that look superb on grey hair. None of these techniques are harsh, all should fade out gradually leaving no distinctive regrowth and they need not be expensive.
If you are looking to manage your grey hair give Urban Fringe Hair a call or drop in at 3 Lavelle St, Nerang just off the M1, central Gold Coast, so we can find the best solution for you.
