As a youth, I had chestnut hair. But now as I lose my melanin, it had faded to gray/khaki/white, with the majority being the hideous khaki. I’d like to find an easy way to fade the remaining color out until it’s white and gray (without dyes or harsh chemicals), but my Google-fu is weak. I know one can spray lemon juice on blond hair and lighter highlights show up, but I can’t find any indication that it would turn my yakky khaki to a more pleasant white. Are there any natural things I can put on my hair to get it to a less blah color?
Depending on your definition of natural:
How to Bleach Your Hair With Hydrogen Peroxide
Or turn yourself orange with a natural plant product:
How to Apply Henna to Hair
Bleach=harsh chemical
Henna=not white
Thanks for playing.
You can rinse it with a laundry additive called bluing, though I’m not sure exactly what it’s made of so can’t say how natural it is. Found some here . From the OP I am not sure if your gray/khaki is allover or mixed with chestnut.
I have not tried bluing myself yet because I’d estimate that my gray accounts for 30% to 40% of my hair and I don’t know what affect the bluing would have on the rest of my hair, which is by coincidence chestnut.
My grandfather’s sister used it. Her mother had used it. From that I can conclude it isn’t difficult to do.
Uh, wow, if dilute hydrogen peroxide is too harsh a chemical for you, then A) I can’t imagine why you’re considering smearing citric acid on your head, B) you’re likely going to have to live with your yellowy hair and c) I had a couple of suggestions but, hmm, I guess not.
A mix of gray and white and some color: it’s officially time for you to go blue.
Does all gray hair eventually turn white? I know my brother and sister both have lovely white hair and I don’t. My maternal grandmother’s hair always stayed that yellowish-khaki, and I’m afraid I’m destined to be like her rather than my paternal grandmother who had thick, thick, white hair.
–verb (used with object)
to make whiter or lighter in color, as by exposure to sunlight or a chemical agent; remove the color from.
Bluing is a pigment in solution, usually some synthetic ultramarine or prussian blue.
I’d recommend against using it on hair.
I have a bottle I use for the whites in my laundry - the idea is that whites tend to yellow with age. Blue is opposite the spectrum. So give yellowing whites a very faint blue tint and they’ll look whiter.
That said - the dye is extremely strong. The name is not joking, this stuff is like the bluest thing ever. I’ve messed up more than once and had to throw away a few white undershirts that got blue spots from insufficiently diluted bluing (I’m talking a few drops for a full load of laundry)
And also - it’s not entirely a joke that some older women are called “blue hairs”. Women with white hair can have a “blue rinse” at the salon that they think will make their hair whiter. It’s also not a joke (again from Wiki) that:
The ability to see blue decreases with age, so an older woman perceives her uncolored hair to have a yellow-tinge, and the blue rinse brings the color back to a perceived normal color in their eyes. In a manner similar to laundry bluing, the blue rinse can make yellow-white hair appear blue-white, but an inexpertly applied blue rinse will leave a distinctly unnatural tinge behind.
In other words, it looks silly. Skip the blue on your hair.
Spend the night in a haunted house.
Thank you, GameHat - I was a little concerned at the idea of bluing, and you’ve pointed out my hunch was right. Fascinating about the ability to see blue decreasing with age, though - I’d never heard that. I wonder what age that happens at? I’m 57, and my eyes have been going downhill since 40, but I don’t think I’ve lost any color spectrum. I’m thinking that’s way older than me.