Bleached hair can sometimes turn green, and this could be quite a stressful situation when you wanted to end up with cool, light blonde hair, and instead, your hair holds more of a slime green tone.
A reason your bleached hair might turn green is that you got into a swimming pool within 24 hours of having your hair bleached. You may also have bleached your hair incorrectly, or something else went wrong along the way.
Whatever the reason, you would want the green out of your hair as quickly as possible!
So, what do you do when your bleached hair turns green? This depends on how it turned green. Hair that has turned green after a swim in the pool can be fixed with some baking soda. ketchup, or lemon juice. Hair that has turned green from blue hair dye needs to be bleached and toned again.
Below, we’ve covered all the reasons why your hair might turn green and how you can fix it to ensure you have the hair color you want instead of the one you’re stuck with!
Hair Turned Green From Swimming
You are not supposed to get into a swimming pool within 24 hours after bleaching your hair. Bleached hair does not turn green in a swimming pool from the chlorine, but rather because the hard metals in the water oxidize and bind to your hair, creating a green hue.
As alarming as it might be to get out of the pool to see your beautiful blond hair looking like it’s been dipped in toxic waste, there are some simple ways to fix it!
1. Baking Soda
Baking soda fixes just about anything, and it can be used to fix green hair too!
What you need to do is mix some baking soda with some water, in a ratio that forms a paste. Take this paste and massage it into your hair, especially where the green is the worst.
Leave the baking soda to sit for a few minutes, and then rinse it out with shampoo and conditioner. You might have to do this a few times if the green is really bad, but it will work to remove the green color from your hair. Just make sure to condition your hair after.
2. Ketchup
Now it might seem a little weird placing ketchup in your hair, but the red helps to cancel out the green, and it is a fairly safe product to use in your hair.
Massage the ketchup into your hair, focusing on the green areas, and then wrap your hair in aluminum foil. Leave it to sit for 30 minutes, and then wash it out with shampoo and nourish your hair with conditioner.
3. Lemon Juice
Lemon juice works similarly to baking soda in this regard. Just be careful of placing lemon juice on your scalp if you have recently bleached your hair, as your skin might still be sensitive and the lemon juice could sting.
Saturate your hair with lemon juice and leave it on for around 5 minutes. Wash it out completely with shampoo and use conditioner. You might have to do this twice to remove all of the green.
Hair Turned Green From Toner
Sometimes, toner can turn your hair green. Ash toners can contain green tones mixed in with the blue, and when this is placed over the yellow tones in your bleached hair, it could stick and turn your hair green.
This happens fairly often, and is something that can be fixed! Here is what to do:
1. Change Toners
The last thing you should do is use the same toner again to try and cancel out the green. It will just make it worse. Instead, you should opt for a warm toner, something that will work towards a golden color, and which does not contain green undertones!
However, if you do not want warmer tones and are looking for something cooler and ashier, look for a purple toner and do a strand test first to see what the result might be.
Remember that red works to cancel out green, and purple works to cancel out yellow. Keep this in mind when deciding on the toner to use!
2. Use A Color Corrector
If you are having a hard time getting the toner green out of your hair, you could use a color corrector to strip the green. These can be fairly damaging to your hair, so only use them if you think your hair will be fine after the process.
Once you have stripped the color from your hair and the green has been removed, do not go back and use the same toner again, as the process will then have to be repeated. Look for a toner that does not contain any green or blue tones.
If all else fails, you could place a darker dye over your hair to try and cancel or cover it all!
Hair Turned Green From Blue Dye
Many blue hair dyes have green bases, and sometimes, instead of your bleached hair turning blue after dyeing it with blue hair dyes, it instead turns a very strange green.
This isn’t always a pleasant green either – mixed in with the blue as well, it looks moldy and swampy, which isn’t a look many people go for.
When bleaching your hair before dyeing it blue, your hair needs to be very light or even white, if it is going to turn light or medium blue. If some orange or yellow is left in your hair, it will mix with the blue and turn your hair brown and green.
This isn’t necessarily an easy fix, and a salon would be able to help you best, but if you are intent on doing it on your own, here is what you could do:
1. Re-Bleach and Tone Hair
Chances are that you did not bleach your hair light enough before placing blue dye over it. If you think your hair can handle it, you can try and bleach it again. Use a volume 10 developer to lighten your hair. You might have to do this twice to remove the color and lighten your hair more.
You should then use a purple or violet toner to remove yellow and orange tones. This process should remove the green tones and lighten your hair, and you should then be able to place the blue dye on top and have the blue that you were after in the first place.
2. Go With Green
If you do not want to risk any more damage to your hair by bleaching it again, you could just change your plans and instead go with green hair and not blue. You would need to purchase a darker green hair dye to place over the color you have already.
This might not be the look you were after, but with some good green hair dye, it could be a great new look!
Final Thoughts
There are a few reasons why your hair might turn green after bleaching, and as unfortunate and disappointing as this might be, stress not, as there are ways to fix it!
The method you should use to fix your green hair will depend on why it turned green in the first place. It is either because you went swimming too soon, you used a blue dye, or you used the wrong toner. Each way can be fixed!
The best advice we can give is to chat with your hairdresser or visit a salon if you are not comfortable fixing your green hair at home on your own. You don’t want to be in a position where not only is your hair still green, but you have damaged it more than you needed to!
Related Questions
Why Does My Bleached Hair Turn Green When Swimming?
Copper is found in most pools, and this metal is oxidized by chlorine, and it then binds to the proteins in your hair strands, and this is where the green color comes from. It is advised to avoid swimming for 24-48 hours after bleaching your hair, to prevent this from happening.
Will A Purple Shampoo Fix Green Hair From The Pool?
Purple shampoo will not help to fix hair that has turned green from the swimming pool. This is because purple does not cancel green out. The right color to cancel green out would be red, which is why some people choose to use ketchup on their hair when it has turned green from the pool!
This brand on Amazon is salon quality and has a huge variety of colors, including red. It’s definitely worth checking out!
Can You Dye Over Green Hair?
You can dye over green hair, but the best color to use would be red, as this will cancel the green tones. Pink and purple also help to cover green, but make sure that these dyes do not contain hydrogen peroxide or ammonia, as this could actually make things worse.
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