What to Do if Chlorine Has Turned Your Hair Green

Who here has a story of a time where their gorgeous tresses were ruined by a bad decision? I’ll go first. About 100 years ago I decided that bright red foils were a good idea – until they faded into pale orange (and continued to fade after additional dye-jobs). I looked like an odd kind of tiger thing. It wasn’t pleasant.

The point is that hair mistakes are something most of us have dealt with once or twice (hopefully no more than that). They suck, but they’re a reality and so I want to arm you with as much information as I can on what you should do if ever you do experience an unfortunate event like this.

To help me in this endeavour I spoke with a couple of hair experts: Vincent Nobile (colour director) and John Pulitano (creative director), co-founders of Headcase Hair.

Here’s what I learnt:

If chlorine turns your hair green, you have options:

Starting with not so much a “mistake” but a major fear for a lot of blondies out there. With warmer weather very much here, there’s a chance some of you will run into this nasty problem with chlorine.

The good news is, there are products you can use to help.

Vincent Nobile explained via email that:

“If your blonde goes green from chlorine I recommend using Christophe Robin camomile and cornflower shampoo. It can be left in for 20 min to give the hair a deep gentle cleanse. It’s also just great for keeping blondes bright and creamy.”

Sorted.

What about general colouring fails?

Have you tried to tackle a dye job for yourself and absolutely botched it? No shame, it happens.

If that’s the case, Nobile stressed that you really shouldn’t continue to mess with it.

He explained:

“Don’t try to fix it yourself! Find a great colourist and go to a salon and get it fixed. There are so many variables with colour so each situation would require a different solution to solve the problem.”

To be clear, do not try and pop another colour on top of a bad dye job.

Nobile said:

“I don’t recommend it [dying on top] because if the colour needs to be lightened or removed it will worsen the situation…”

He explained that all this will do is make the colour you’ve got “harder to remove”.

“Again, there are so many different variables to correcting colour so you would have to select the correct solution and many times this could be more than one step”. He added that you also need to be sure to “choose the correct formulation of colour”.

It’s complicated stuff, so go to a professional.

What if I did go to a professional?

My biggest fear in hair-life.

On this situation, Nobile simply said:

“Honestly, this shouldn’t happen, if your colourist has gone through the correct procedure of consultation with you; considering what you want but also your skin tone and overall style…”

But if it did happen, he suggests letting them know and seeing how you can address the damage. If you’re no longer confident in their ability, he recommends going to see a different hairdresser.

How about haircuts?

What the hell do you do if you cut your own bangs and they look like a bag of garbage? Or if you tried a new salon and (gasp) they left you with an uneven cut?

John Pulitano shared that your next step really depends on what you’re dealing with.

“If it has been cut too short and it’s also not sitting right, it may be a case of having to cut it into a shape that sits better and then allow the hair to grow out properly,” he said.

“At least then you have a haircut that sits well and grows out better. Sometimes it is just a matter of adjusting the length just a little to be in better harmony with the shape of your face.”

But if it’s a set of bangs that you hate or layers that are far too short, he said there’s no real way around the waiting game.

“You can cut the length a bit to make the shape more proportional…” he said. There’s also the option of using “products like the Bondi boost hair growth range” – they will help your hair to grow faster, but the hard truth is that it will take some time.

In the end, a bad hairdo is not the end of the world, but it certainly isn’t a fun time. So do your best to avoid any nasty surprises by leaving complicated tasks to people you really trust (probs not yourself).