If your black hair is turning gold, your strands are losing pigment rather than picking up color from somewhere else.
In most cases, the cause is sun exposure, the water you wash your hair with, or a chemical service you've already had. The position of the gold on your strands will tell you which one.
Watching your color change can be unsettling, especially when nothing about your routine has changed. Chances are it's one of the six causes below, and most of them are reversible.
Below, we'll cover all six, how to tell them apart, and how to fix each one.
Why Is My Black Hair Turning Gold?
There are six main reasons why your black hair is turning gold: (1) sun exposure, (2) hard water or pool chemicals, (3) a chemical service you have already had, (4) environmental damage from pollution, (5) certain medications, or (6) health conditions and natural aging.
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When your black hair turns gold, you may notice the change happening in a couple of ways, including:
- Random golden strands with no rhyme or reason.
- An entire section of golden hair.
- New growth that has entirely switched from black to gold.
As you can see, there are many reasons why your usually black hair is turning gold. In the next section, we'll discuss the most common reasons in detail.
Gold vs. Gray Hair
Before getting into the causes, it helps to understand why your hair turns gold instead of gray. The two look related, but they happen for completely different reasons.
Gray hair begins at the follicle, which means the pigment-producing cells at the base of your strand stop working. The hair then grows out of your scalp without its original color.
Gold works differently. It happens inside a strand you already have, which is why you'll often see the change partway down a hair strand that grew in black.
For those who aren't sure what your hair color is actually made of, it's two pigments rather than one. The majority is eumelanin, the dark brown to black pigment that gives your strands their depth, along with a trace amount of pheomelanin, which is reddish brown.
Sunlight breaks down both of those pigments while they sit in your hair. Additionally, your pigment absorbs that light to shield the protein inside your strands, and it gets bleached in the process.
As a result, your hair loses its dark color faster than it loses the warm tones underneath. That is what leaves your strand looking gold rather than gray.
Researchers have measured this yellowing in every hair color they've tested. That final step, the reason the remaining color looks warm, is our reading of those findings rather than a single study, so treat it as the best available explanation.
Sun Exposure
Overexposure to sunlight destroys the melanin that gives your strands their deep, dark color. As a result, sunlight has a bleaching effect on your hair.
That is especially true for anyone who swims frequently or spends time exercising outdoors, as water and sweat can magnify the sun's intensity. So, if you spend a lot of time outside, the sun may be sucking the life and natural color from your hair and turning it gold.
Hard Water Buildup
Another potential reason why your hair is turning gold is hard water buildup. Hard water, which is found in most American homes, is rich in dissolved calcium, magnesium, and other minerals.
When you wash your hair with hard water, these minerals build up and leave a stubborn film on your strands (i.e., a mineral deposit). In addition to your hair becoming dry, tangled, and brittle, you might notice it taking on an unnatural green or golden hue.
Previous Chemical Services
If you've ever relaxed, colored, bleached, or highlighted your hair, that is the first place to look. If the gold appeared gradually rather than overnight, this is likely your answer.
Each of those services works by lifting your cuticle, which means the outer layer of your strand opens up so the product can reach the pigment underneath and break it down.
Because your hair is dead, that pigment doesn't return once it's been destroyed. As a result, color that looked jet black leaving the salon can drift warm over the following months as the remaining pigment continues to fade in daylight.
Relaxed hair tends to turn gold faster than virgin hair. A relaxer leaves your cuticle rougher and more porous, which means light and minerals reach the inside of your strands more easily.
Not sure whether this applies to you? Look at where the gold sits.
Processing-related gold appears on your lengths and ends, the parts of your hair that have been through the most. Your new growth stays dark, and that line moves down as your hair grows.
You Have Environmental Damage
Every time you go outside, you're subjecting your strands to potentially harsh environmental conditions. Air pollution and dust can build up on your strands and give them a golden or greenish cast.
Additionally, polluted air causes oxidative stress, meaning toxins build up faster than your body can remove them. Oxidative stress can result in hair loss, graying strands, or the loss of your natural hair color.
Certain Medications
Did your hair color change shortly after you started a new medication? It's worth investigating, though the honest answer is more cautious than most articles suggest.
Medications can change your hair color. However, it's an uncommon side effect, and researchers often don't know the mechanism behind it.
Proving that one particular drug caused your gold strands is difficult, and dermatologists rely on formal scoring systems to weigh whether a drug is responsible at all.
As a result, treat a new prescription as a lead worth raising with your doctor rather than a confirmed answer for your hair.
Color is not the only thing a medication can change, either. Some also affect how your strands behave, including:
- Texture
- Thickness
- Curl pattern
- Length
Medical Conditions
Certain medical conditions can cause changes in your body's pigments that affect the shade of your hair. Some of the leading causes, like aging and hormonal imbalances, are common and can affect anyone.
While hair color loss isn't usually a cause for concern, it can occasionally signal a serious medical issue. Don't hesitate to reach out for help from your primary care physician, especially if you experience pain along with the color change.
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Where the gold sits tells you the cause
Chances are you've been studying the shade of gold, but that doesn't tell you much on its own. What helps is where on your strand the color changed, and whether your new growth is gold too. Find your row below, then read across.
| What you are seeing | Most likely cause | The tell that confirms it | What actually fixes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold on your lengths and ends, but your roots are still dark | Color, relaxer, or bleach you've already had | You'll see the line where the old processing starts, and it moves down as your hair grows. Your new growth stays dark. | Ask your stylist for a demi-permanent gloss or a blue-based toner. A gloss, not a full color service. |
| Brassy all over, and worse after a summer outdoors | Sun exposure | It's worst on your canopy, your part, and anywhere the sun reaches first. The layer underneath stays darker. | Cover up or use a UV protectant from here on. What's already faded won't come back, so tone it. |
| A green or brassy cast that showed up right after swimming | Pool water | It follows your swim schedule. Most articles blame chlorine for the green cast, but that comes from copper in the water. Chlorine on its own lightens your strands toward brass. | Soak your hair with clean water before you get in, so your strands absorb less pool water. Follow up with a chelating shampoo made for swimmers. |
| Dull gold with a green or gray cast, and your hair feels rough | Hard water minerals | It started after you moved or changed showers, and your shampoo doesn't lather the way it used to. | A shower filter stops the minerals before they reach your strands. Add a chelating or clarifying wash once a month, then follow with moisture. |
| Dull gold that partly rinses out, worse between wash days | Pollution and everyday grime | You live somewhere dusty or busy with traffic, and wash day visibly improves things for a few days. | Wash on a regular schedule instead of stretching it, and cover your hair on days when pollution is high. |
| Your new growth is coming in gold, right at your scalp | Your pigment is changing | The change starts at your root instead of partway down your strand. This is the one row where your hair is actually growing out that color. | Worth a visit to your doctor, especially if you've started a new prescription or noticed other changes. Color won't treat the cause. |
| Lighter at your temples first, spreading slowly over years | Natural aging | It starts at your temples and hairline, moves slowly, and shows up alongside any gray you already have. Some hair passes through a warm stage on the way to gray. | Nothing you have to do. Color it if you'd like to, and treat it as cosmetic rather than a symptom. |
| A few scattered gold strands you think have always been there | Normal variation | They're individual strands with no pattern, no line, and no change over months. | Nothing at all. Your hair color was never perfectly even, and a few lighter strands are ordinary. |
Root or length? That's the whole test. Color that changed partway down happened to hair you already had, which means something reached your strand from the outside. Color that shows up at your scalp means your follicle is producing it that way, and that's the only version worth taking to your doctor.
More than one row can be true at the same time, and often is. Luckily, you don't have to solve all of them at once. Start with whichever one matches where most of your gold sits.
How to Prevent Your Black Hair From Turning Gold
You don't necessarily have to deal with your hair going gold. Several methods can help prevent unwanted color changes, and we'll cover them below.
Unless you identify the exact reason behind the color change, you may need to try a few methods to figure out what works. Luckily, most of these are simply part of a healthy hair care regimen, so they are worth doing whether or not they turn out to be your fix.
Protect Your Hair From the Elements
While air pollution is somewhat unavoidable, you can take steps to prevent the environment from damaging your hair.
Golden hair takes time to develop, so wash your hair regularly if you spend a lot of time in a dusty or polluted environment. That will remove toxins before they have a chance to damage your strands.
Another option is to wear a hat, scarf, or hair sunblock to protect against pollution and the sun's harsh UV rays. Not a fan of headgear?
Simply pull your hair into a protective style like a bun or braids before you head outside. While these styles won't protect your hair completely, they limit your hair's exposure to the air and keep damage to a minimum.
Eat a Balanced Diet
Hair that turns gold due to dietary reasons can usually be reversed by addressing the deficiency that caused the change. Whether this means supplements or an improved diet is entirely up to you and your doctor.
Copper is the nutrient most clearly linked to your hair color. Your body builds melanin using an enzyme called tyrosinase, and that enzyme depends on copper to function.
As a result, a genuine copper shortfall can affect the pigment in your strands.
Iron, zinc, and vitamin B12 support your hair and scalp more generally. However, the evidence connecting them specifically to hair pigment is thin.
Treat the rest of this list as ordinary good nutrition rather than a fix for golden strands. If an article promises you a supplement that'll bring your black back, be skeptical.
To make things easier, here are the vitamins and minerals worth knowing about, along with where to find them.
- Copper - Nuts, whole grains, chocolate, and shellfish.
- Iron - Dark leafy greens, meat, dried fruit, legumes, and fortified bread.
- Zinc - Fortified cereal, beans, meat, shellfish, and nuts.
- Vitamin B12 - Dairy, eggs, tuna, beef, and salmon.
Get Rid of Hard Water Buildup
If hard water is causing your hair to turn colors, you can either stop it at the source or treat the mineral buildup. To treat the hard water, install a shower head filter that removes the minerals before they create a film on your strands.
Alternatively, you can remove the buildup by adding a monthly clarifying treatment to your hair care regimen. Clarifying treatments are drying, so give your hair plenty of moisture after you use one.
4 Quick Ways to Fix Gold Hair
Looking for an immediate fix for your golden strands? In this section, we'll cover a few ways to get your black mane back.
Tone Down the Gold
Gold that came from a chemical service is a tone problem, so it responds to a tone treatment.
A demi-permanent gloss or a blue-based toner deposits cool pigment that cancels out the warmth in your strands, without lifting your color a second time.
Luckily, this is the easy one to fix. Ask your stylist for a gloss rather than a full color service if all you're after is the brass gone, and it'll cost your hair considerably less than going back over it with permanent dye.
Color Your Hair
Dyeing your hair is the fastest, most effective way to correct your color, and it's the only way to change the shade of hair that has turned gold due to pigment loss.
Because your hair is dead, pigments don't return after being destroyed. You'll have to either dye your hair black or wait for your hair to grow out.
If you aren't comfortable coloring your own hair, a hairstylist can give you an expert coloring session that leaves your strands richly colored and healthy. They might even be able to help you narrow down the reason why your hair color changed in the first place!
Use Specialized Shampoo
Blue and purple shampoos and conditioners provide a gentle alternative to harsh chemical dyes. They contain pigments that settle on your strands and cancel out the yellow undertones in golden hair.
While it won't result in a dramatic color change, it will tone down the appearance of your golden locks.
Another shampoo that can potentially restore your natural shade is a clarifying shampoo. Unlike regular shampoo, clarifying shampoos are strong enough to cut through stubborn minerals and can help restore your hair to its natural color.
Reach Out to Your Doctor
The only way to treat hair that turns gold due to medical reasons is to address the underlying condition. If you've eliminated all other potential causes, it might be time to get checked out.
Your doctor can help you identify and solve the issue much faster than you could on your own.
What Does It Mean When Your Hair Turns Gold?
Chances are you have searched for the meaning behind a single gold strand rather than the cause, since that is one of the most common questions about golden hair. It deserves a straight answer.
There's no evidence that a gold strand carries any spiritual or medical significance. Some folk traditions treat an unusual hair as a sign of luck, and there's no harm in enjoying that, but no research supports it.
What's actually happening is ordinary. Your hair color was never perfectly uniform to begin with, because every follicle deposits a slightly different amount of pigment into the strand it produces.
As a result, a strand that received less pigment, or one that has caught more sun than the hairs around it, will look gold next to the rest of your hair.
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- Best Hair Dye for Black Hair Without Bleach
- Why Does Blonde Hair Turn Brown?
To sum it up, there are several reasons your natural shade has turned from black to gold. While it can occasionally signify an underlying condition, golden strands are usually nothing to worry about.
We hope this article has helped you narrow down what is behind your color-changing strands and given you the information you need to correct it.
