A quick guide for a common problem.

Malibu Swimmers Shampoo

All you blondes out there are probably dealing with similar struggles this summer. If your hair turns green after taking a splash in the pool, you’re certainly not alone. Green hair can be an irritating setback during a season expected to be fun and free, so we are here to explain the mystery and solve the problem!

At some point in time, you’ve probably heard that blonde hair turns green after a swim-session because of the chlorine in pool water. You most likely believed chlorine to be the culprit from that point on. You’re not completely wrong, but the truth is, copper is actually the main factor at fault. Copper is a metal found in water. Even tap water with a high copper content can give your hair a green tint! However, the green color is more likely to show up after swimming in the pool because pool water contains chlorine. Chlorine and copper bond together to form a film that sticks to the proteins in each strand of hair, causing the hair to turn green.

HOW TO PREVENT AND/OR FIX GREEN HAIR

We know this is an annoyance, even while knowing it isn’t permanent. Whether you’re hoping to prevent green hair before it appears or trying to wash the green out of your hair after a swim, here are a few solutions to test.

1. Leave-in conditioner – If you apply a leave-in conditioner before swimming, the pool water won’t stick to your hair as easily.
2. Wet hair – Don’t get in the pool with dry hair. If you start with wet hair, chlorine and copper won’t hang onto your hair as tightly.
3. Always, always, always wash your hair as soon as you are done swimming for the day.
4. V8/Tomato Juice – Coat your hair with tomato juice or V8 and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Wash and condition as normal when you are finished.
5. Ketchup – Coat your hair in ketchup. Either wrap it in up tinfoil or put on a swim cap and let it sit for about 30 minutes before shampooing and conditioning.
6. Aspirin – Crush 6-8 aspirin tablets inside a bowl, add warm water to it, and let it dissolve. Put the aspirin-water mixture into your hair and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes. Rinse it out with clean water, then shampoo and condition normally.
7. Baking soda – Use ¼ – ½ a cup of baking soda and mix water with it in order to make a paste. Massage the paste into green hair and rinse it out with clean water, then wash and condition normally. The amount of times this needs to be done will depend on the intensity of the green color.
8. Lemon juice – Saturate your hair with lemon juice and let it sit for 5-10 minutes before shampooing and conditioning as normal.
9. Lemon Kool-Aid – Mix the Kool-Aid with water and apply it to the green areas in the hair and let it sit for several minutes. Shampoo and condition normally.

Try these tricks on yourself or your kids. You’ll finally be able to enjoy a pool day without having to worry about losing those gorgeous golden locks! Good luck!

August 14, 2017
By Bridget Rawls

This is a video of a ZeroChlor Pool System installed on a pool in Marietta GA in 2019.