Many people will encounter the same problem after dyeing their hair: their hair will fade and turn yellow soon. Why is this? How to solve it? Before answering this question, we need to know how hair color is formed.
How Hair Color Is Formed
The genes that control hair color in our bodies are very complex, and the occurrence of a series of biochemical reactions will also affect hair color. In the process of hair color generation, genes can directly affect pigmentation or indirectly regulate the cells that produce pigments. Apoptosis and cell movement can also control protein transcription processes. These factors interact with each other to ultimately form the color of our hair.
Don't be fooled by the myriad of hair colors you see now. In reality, humans have only five natural hair colors: black, brown, blonde, red, and white.
- Black hair accounts for the largest proportion; 75-85% of the population has black hair. It is widely distributed in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Americas (in some places in Western Europe), representing maturity and stability.
- The number of brown hair is second only to black, accounting for about 11% of the world's population, mainly distributed in Europe, America, and Australia; brown hair represents intelligence and rigor.
- There are relatively few people with blond hair, only about 3% in the world, mainly distributed in Western Europe, Northern Europe, and Latin America. The blond gene also exists in the Uighurs in Asia. Blond has long been associated with beautiful women.
- Red is a very rare hair color, with only about 1-2% of people, mainly in Western and Northern Europe. Represents various complex meanings, temperament, discrimination, admiration, belief, derogation...
- White hair generally appears with age. Sometimes, when people are under excessive stress for a long time, their hair will turn white.
Among the five natural hair colors we mentioned, except for white, the rest are formed through the cooperation of eumelanin and pheomelanin. Although there are only five basic natural hair colors for humans, depending on the color depth, There are so many hair colors, not to mention dyeing, making the variety of hair colors countless.
*Game of Thrones stills featuring characters with all 5 hair colors.
Why Does My Hair Turn Yellow After Dyeing It
Why does your hair turn yellow after dyeing? This involves the dyeing process.
- If you are dying your hair from light to dark. This dyed hair will not turn yellow but only fade and reveal the original hair color.
- If you are dyeing dark hair to light hair. In this case, Hair dyeing can be divided into two steps: bleaching and dyeing. This kind of dyed hair will show bleached hair after fading, which is yellow.
Let's talk in detail about the dyeing process for light-colored hair. If you want to dye your dark hair into a lighter color, you need to bleach the melanin in your hair.
The degree of bleaching is generally divided into 10 levels. In some places, the levels are less or more, but they have something in common: The smaller the number, the darker the color; The larger the number, the lighter the color; The largest number is closer to white.
Take hair lightening levels of 10 points as an example
- LEVEL 1: Black
- LEVEL 2: Black Brown
- LEVEL 3: Eeep Brown
- LEVEL 4: Dark Brown
- LEVEL 5: Brown
- LEVEL 6: Light Brown
- LEVEL 7: Dark Blonde
- LEVEL 8: Blonde
- LEVEL 9: Light Blonde
- LEVEL 10: Platinum
If your hair color is between LEVEL 1-LEVEL 4, you want to dye it gray or pink. Then, the hairstylist needs to first fade your hair to LEVEL 6-LEVEL 9 (usually, it will not fade to LEVEL 10 because it is easy to cause damage to the hair if not handled properly). Then, the hairstylist will dye your hair on this basis. s color.
Now, the base color of your hair is LEVEL 6-LEVEL 9, which itself has a lot of yellow in it. As time goes by, when the artificial pigments in the hair dye gradually fade away, these base colors will be exposed, which will give people a yellowish look. Moreover, if there is a lack of maintenance, the hair will be dry, and such hair will look like dead grass in autumn.
How to Care for Dyed Hair
After dyeing, you should maintain your hair properly so that the color fades more slowly and remains healthy.
Remember to wash your hair 48 hours after dyeing it. Hair dyeing does not cover the surface with color like painting a wall, but the color needs to penetrate into the hair so that the color can be firm and not fade, which takes time. So don't wash your hair right away, and don't wash your hair frequently.
The first hair wash should be 3 days later. After a week, the color is basically stable, and you can resume normal hair washing. When washing your hair, please do not rub it with your hands, and use warm water (as long as your scalp does not feel cold). Too much heat can easily increase the solubility of hair dye in water, leading to color fading. Of course, don't soak it in water for too long because when your hair is exposed to water, it will open the hair cuticles and cause the loss of pigment.
Shampoos and conditioners should also be made with special products for perming and coloring whenever possible. This should not be used for a short period of time but should be used continuously so that our hair can fade slowly and not lose hair.
There will still be some color fading after washing your hair the first few times, so it is best to wash your hair in a basin instead of showering; otherwise, the hair dye will come into contact with other parts of the skin.
You should also pay attention to cleaning your scalp. The scalp is often stained with a lot of hair dye. Hair dye can irritate the skin to some extent, so the scalp should also be cleaned.
In addition, you should avoid daily contact with ultraviolet rays and chlorine water. Ultraviolet rays and chlorine water can increase the decomposition of pigments and cause fading.
How to Recover from Yellow Hair After Dyeing
If your hair has faded and turned yellow, don't worry; here is a life hack that can help you restore your hair color quickly.
Use the hair dye you used to dye your hair before, plus conditioner in a ratio of 1:2, smear it on wet hair after washing, and wait for 20 minutes. After washing, your hair color can be restored to what it looks like when it's just dyed.