Why do blondes sometimes get green hair after swimming?
THE PROBLEM: Occasionally blonde swimmers have a problem with hair discoloration after extended swimming. The hair takes on a green deposit, sometimes referred to as a tint. This phenomena is blamed on everything from rusty pipes to hair color preparations to chlorine. The actual culprit, however, is almost always copper. Copper can be introduced to the water in many ways. The primary sources are: Trace copper in the water supply, copper bleed from brass pumps or piping, copper fittings or piping, or gas heater coils (which are solid copper), copper in copper-based algaecides. The green tint is not associated with either rusty pipes or pool sanitizers. The oxidation process is similar to that of any copper object left out in the sun and water… it makes green “copper oxide.” Actually, this problem is not unique to blondes – if the copper is present in the water, it adheres to hair of any color. It is usually only seen on blonde or light red hair because other hair is too dark for the
