So you’ve got platinum hair and you’re getting that yellow tint to it that everybody hates?
By the end of this article you’re going to know some of the reasons that that happens and some ways to keep it from happening, and more importantly, some ways to deal with it when it unfortunately happens.
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Why Does Grey Hair Turn Yellow?
Before we can jump into how to address this concern or how to prevent it from happening, we first have to understand some reasons that it does happen.
Some of the main reasons that happen are in categories of either environmental categories or product usage.
Environmental causes are stuff like if you live in an area where you’re on well water. I see it all the time in the salon. Well water because of the mineral content can absolutely make hair yellow.
Another thing is copper piping in your house. It can definitely do it as well.
Another issue is if you either smoke or live around somebody that does smoke.
I would say that those are the three major causes that I see from an environmental standpoint.
Keep in mind when I go through these, there are other reasons that your hair will yellow. I honestly don’t even know all of them, but I’m basically sharing what I find to be the most common.
Moving into product usage.
This is more about stuff that you’re obviously either using to style your hair, to shampoo your hair or to condition your hair.
One thing is if you’re using a shampoo or conditioner that has a lot of color dye in it.
What I mean color dyes?
I’m not talking about the blue or purple shampoos. I’m talking about shampoo that you look at and when you squeeze it out it literally is like bright red or bright yellow or some crazy color.
I’ve seen that actually create yellow in hair.
That is definitely something you want to pay attention to.
Another thing that I see that causes it are protein treatments.
If you go to the salon, you go get a protein treatment, you’re thinking I’m doing this great thing for my hair, that actually can cause yellowness.
Heat can also cause discoloration concern.
The reason for the heat concern is because your hair has something called a cuticle. You have to think of the cuticle as basically armor for your hair. It’s these plates that lay down over your hair.
When your hair experiences heat or chemical processing, it can lift up that cuticle and that’s part of the reason that it becomes damaging. But that also is lifting up that linkage in your armor and that means it’s more susceptible to that discoloration.
That is something that you definitely want to pay attention to.
Those are the main reasons that I see it happen.
As I said, there’s probably more, but let’s move on to talking about how we can avoid some of these circumstances.
How to Stop Grey Hair From Yellowing
Let’s talk about some ways that you can help yourself avoid this yellow tint.
Keep in mind I use that terminology very specifically. I said help avoid. I didn’t say completely avoid. You may still work through some of these processes and find that it still happens and wonder what is going on.
But it definitely will help you eliminate as much of this concern as you possibly can.
One way if you’re around somebody who’s smoking or you yourself smoke, would be to get yourself out of that situation to begin with.
If you’re around somebody that smokes inside, try to get them to start smoking outside. A lot of times if you’re in a car with somebody that smokes, especially with the windows up, or you’re in a house, or you smoke, this is almost without question gonna happen.
You just try to mitigate that as much as you possibly can.
When we’re talking about shampoos, looking for a shampoo that’s with a pH balance closer to five, that’s gonna be less aggressive. Therefore it will help to keep from opening the cuticle too much and that can help mitigate the concern a lot.
Speaking of showering, you can go as far as getting a water filter that will help filter out some of the minerals, if you find that you are either on well water or if your water is just harder for whatever reason.
What you’re going to look for is something called a water softener. I don’t have one specific one that I prefer or that I recommend but I would look up which ones are working best. Try to find some reviews and pick one accordingly.
Another way would be to be mindful about how you’re using heat. Pay attention to what salon services you’re getting. Pay attention to essentially how you’re taking care of your hair.
The next tip is extreme. It’s really extreme.
But with that said, it can work for you.
What if you’re in a situation where you have copper pipes or maybe the water softener just doesn’t seem to be working for you?
In those scenarios you can try using distilled water when you shampoo your hair, which would mean that you don’t use it every single time you get in the shower. On those days that you don’t shampoo, you try to keep your hair dry. But on the other days when you’re actually using shampoo, you would rinse it with bottled water.
I know that may absolutely sound crazy to you. but if it’s that much of a concern, that is an option that you have.
Those are some ways that you can help mitigate the concern.
How to Remove Yellow From Grey Hair
Let’s talk about some ways that you can address the concern when it unfortunately, inevitably happens.
Even if you use all the steps to keep it away, it’s still likely to happen on some level.
So here are some ways that you can address it once it does happen.
The first way and probably the most common way that you’re going to be aware of is using blue shampoo.
Blue shampoo can work incredibly, but we just have to understand that blue shampoo doesn’t remove the yellow, it just kind of counteracts the yellow. It hides it if you will.
While it does work, just be aware that we’re just putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.
Another way, and I would actually use this in conjunction with the blue shampoo, not necessarily on the same day, would be a clarifying shampoo.
The thing about clarifying shampoos is you don’t want to use a clarifying shampoo every single time you shampoo because that can be too strong for your hair.
While on one hand you’ve addressed maybe some of the yellow issue, you’re drying your hair out, and who wants that.
We want to balance it. I typically say once a week if you’re shampooing your hair a couple times a week. On the days that you do use a clarifying shampoo, you’re going to want to make sure to use a little bit deeper of a conditioner so that you can put back into your hair all the important vitamins that that shampoo is stripping out.
If you want to get a little bit more aggressive with it, you can always actually tone it.
Think of a toner like a color. It’s a bit like a blue shampoo on steroids.
You can go to the salon and you can have them tone it or you can tone it yourself at home.
You definitely can use a toner at home. It would be like putting on a color blend on your hair and then that’s going to help to again cancel out that yellow.
Another option would be going to the salon and actually having them do a clarifying treatment.
Not all salons offer this, but it is something that salons can do.
Those are the main ways that you can address it once it happens.
I personally have a tendency, depending on how bad it is, to lean more towards simply using blue shampoo, using a clarifying shampoo once a week and then worst case scenario, toning it if it’s absolutely necessary.
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Samantha is a hairstylist with over 12 years of color and stylist experience. She enjoys using her knowledge to create what her clients really want when they sit down in her chair. Her passion is creating unique looks that her clients feel great in.