Why is my hair turning green when I dye it purple

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Published on 27th September 2018

It’s happened to the best of us. Tired of having purple hair, you decided to move on. What you didn’t expect: your faded purple turned bright green when you bleached it. And even worse – bleaching hasn’t lightened the green.

Purple can be a difficult colour to remove and its surprising reaction to bleach can leave you wondering how you ended up with green hair. Many violet shades oxidise to green and it can happen if you bleach your hair, use a colour remover, bleach bathe or put a permanent colour on top of purple hair. Unfortunately, that green staining can take a long time to wash out.

I’m going to share with you a quick method to get rid of the green staining with just a few ingredients that you probably already have.

Many violet shades oxidise to green and it can happen if you bleach your hair, use a colour remover or put a permanent colour on top of purple hair. Unfortunately, that green staining can take a long time to wash out.

You will need:

  • Bleach powder
  • Shampoo
  • Gloves
  • Tint bowl or other non-metallic bowl
  • Tint brush

Purple Hair Turned Green

To demonstrate the problem, I’ve dyed this piece of hair with Manic Panic’s Deep Purple Dream and then bleached the lower half. It’s a beautiful dark violet colour, and like many purples, it goes green/blue when you bleach it. You can see the original purple at the top, and the colour change after bleaching.

Manic Panic's Deep Purple Dream turned blue-green by bleach

Manic Panic’s Deep Purple Dream turned blue-green by bleach

This is really typical of what happens when you try getting rid of purple and we get many questions on the forum from people desperate to fix their green hair. It doesn’t just happen with dark purples; unexpected green staining can occur when you’ve been toning your hair with a violet toner or it can even happen a long time after having your hair purple.

Watch the video

No time to read? Watch the video to see how it’s done. It includes a timelapse video of the green lifting to blonde!

Easy Way to Remove Green Staining: Getting Back to Blonde

This method is so simple, you’ll wonder why you never tried it before!

Mix one part bleach powder with 2 parts shampoo in a tint bowl. I’ve used L’Oreal Studio powder bleach, which contains ammonia. The ammonia gives this an extra kick, so for the best results I recommend using something similar. A quick check of the package ingredients will show you whether your bleach powder has ammonia. Any old shampoo will do for this method. In fact, very simple, cheap shampoo is probably best.

Why is my hair turning green when I dye it purple

Manic Panic Deep Purple Dream

Take the usual precautions that you would when bleaching: avoid getting the mixture in your eyes, wear old clothing, use protective gloves, do sensitivity and strand tests.

Apply the mixture to any green areas of your hair, taking care not to get it on your natural regrowth. You’ll be able to see the colour change occur. It only takes around 5-15 minutes to remove the green staining. Now rinse, shampoo and condition.

Left: Before removing the stain. Right: Green/blue area is returned to blonde.

Left: Before removing the stain. Right: Green/blue area is returned to blonde.

Easy!

Tips

  1. The key to getting rid of green staining is to apply the mixture thoroughly. If you find some areas that are still green it’s likely that they weren’t saturated enough with the mixture. You’ll need to repeat it on these areas.
  2. This isn’t as damaging as bleaching your hair, but expect your hair to feel a little dry afterwards.
  3. Don’t attempt this on hair that’s already badly damaged.

Check out this video to see this technique in action:

Has this method worked for you? Tell me in the comments!

  • I used Punky color violet, and i bleached it today..and it turned green. like an aqua green. I wanted to go back blond, and now i'm either going to go back to violet or deal with this :/ I faded it as much as I could and it immediately turned green. Help :(

  • Do you have any photos of it currently?

    Never let your fear decide your fate.

  • I do, how do i insert an image into a post?

  • Upload it to an image site like imgur and just post the link here with [ img ] [ /img] tags around it (no spaces.)

    Without a photo, I'm guessing it's because your base was too yellow. Punky Violet is a very blue-ish purple and when you bleached it, the bit of blue left over with your yellow base goes green.

  • http://imgur.com/w5tv0

    heres the link to it. my camera makes it look more blueish, but I have noo idea how to get rid of this -.-

  • you could do a bleach bath, vitamin C treatment, or wash with dishsoap/shaving cream to lighten it. or you could go purple again. if you do decide to re-purple, try a different brand so it won't go green on you again.

    the day i get through the whole 24 hours with no mistakes will be the day that pigs fly.

  • If you're saying you are trying to get the purple out and tried that by bleaching, hair can fade in unpredictable ways if your base color isn't light enough or you layered colors oddly. It's usually difficult to go blonde after dying bright colors. You should try fading it but if you really can't imagine walking around with the color it is now I would consider dying it a medium brown. If not, use some fading tricks mentioned above and be patient. I personally think it looks kinda cool the way it is now. A lot of people would kill to have pastel mint hair 8)

  • Yea, I tried to bleach the purple out..But I waited 2 weeks washing with dish soap and dandruff shampoo, it faded to grey..But anyway, I was thinking- If I used either red manic panic or red toner, wouldn't my hair turn a brownish color, that would easily bleach to blond, since everything was semi permanent?

  • Honestly I don't think that would work at all. The bleach would probably just bleach out the red and leave you with green again. I definitely wouldn't add any more color to it if you're still set on bleaching it out. Plus, mixing colors could give you really weird results especially if you don't dilute it correctly and red would be really difficult to get out of your hair if you messed it up. I would see if you can fade it any more with vitamin c treatments and then bleach again.

  • i'd say not to bleach again, try fading as much as you can with vitamin c treatments (check the beginners' guides if you don't know how to) and if your colour doesn't fade too much try bleach bathing (again, check the beginners' guides). things that can fade your colour: bathing in chlorinated water/swimming pool, washing your hair with hot water, dandruff/clarifying shampoo, sulphates (maybe in your shampoo, last time i bleached my roots - i had pastel blue hair - i applied some hair mask on my hair and after 30 minutes i noticed i had no dye left in my hair, so i guess it contains sulphates), washing with baking soda + shampoo, leaving shampoo on a long time (like 30 minutes), soaking your hair in bath salts or salt water (sea, lake). i personally think your hair is cool like that, i'd keep it as it is.

    Why is my hair turning green when I dye it purple
    but if you totally can't stand it...
    Why is my hair turning green when I dye it purple

    because fuck you, that's why!

  • It happened to me too

    Why is my hair turning green when I dye it purple
    I was just nicely highlighted as always blonde as all my life decided to put semi permanent purple tried to wash it out today with dandruff shampoo n vinegar and its gone green blue well parts of it there's also still purple left and my blond plus my natural brown colours wtf?? Help I never done it at home and now I know why !!! I'm literally got tears running down my face my hair its me its very very long n blond I get a lot of attention and compliments (well probably that's the end of that) lol dunno what to do don't want to damage my hair either:((((

  • It depends on which colour you've used, but if you haven't bleached over the purple, this could just part of the fading process. Sometimes, some tones just take longer to wash out than others. Have a look at the article linked below for the sequence of fading techniques to do the least damage. It can be a long process if you've use a very pigmented dye that can take months to totally wash out. However, I'd definitely wait until absolutely no colour comes out before trying regular bleach or a bleach bath (bleach/oils/shampoo is okay), since you risk it going green and becoming very stubborn to remove.

    I'm going to lock this topic as it's quite old, but feel free to start your own if you have more questions. In general, please don't reply to topics where it's been more than a month since the last reply unless you're updating your own thread.

    https://www.haircrazy.com/articles/misc-articles/heathers-helpful-hints-for-changing-hair-color/

  • This topic is locked. Replies are disabled.

    How do you keep purple hair from turning green?

    Many violet shades oxidise to green and it can happen if you bleach your hair, use a colour remover, bleach bathe or put a permanent colour on top of purple hair..
    Bleach powder..
    Shampoo..
    Gloves..
    Tint bowl or other non-metallic bowl..
    Tint brush..

    What to do if hair turns green after dying?

    A simple way to get rid of the greenish pigment is to get rid of all the color altogether. Then, you can consider bleaching your locks to get the desired results. Even though this method can help you 99% of the time, it means you have to damage your locks and forget about dying your hair brown for a while.

    Why did my purple hair fade green?

    Purple Hair Dye Fades Quickly Just like red hair dye, purple hair dye fades in a flash. The reason for this is that purple hair dye molecules aren't able to penetrate the hair shaft deeply, leaving them vulnerable to external influences.

    Can you put purple hair dye over green hair?

    No. Purple shampoo will not fix green hair. Purple shampoo is made to get rid of unwanted yellow tones and brassiness in blonde hair. You're better off using purple hair dye or blue dye over green hair to really counteract the green and give you a new purple hue.