Over time, our curls, kinks, and coils undergo tons of changes. We go through periods of hair growth and costly setbacks as we experiment with countless styles and hair care techniques.
On top of that, a lucky few of us will experience involuntary hair color changes occurring without chemical hair treatments.
And if you've experienced color-changing hair (e.g., black hair turning brown), you can attest to the fact that it can be highly frustrating, especially when you've got no idea what could be causing it.
This article will explore some of the most common reasons why your hair is changing color by itself.
Is Color-Changing Hair Normal?
Yes, color-changing hair is normal. And if you've experienced involuntary hair color changes, there is likely no need to be alarmed. People, both young and old, deal with this issue.
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Your hair is already growing. The problem is keeping it.
On average, hair grows a third to half an inch a month, and curlier hair tends to grow more slowly. If your length looks stuck, that’s your hair breaking off as fast as it grows in. Here are the seven causes of breakage and the weekly routine that stops them.
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Most of the time, the cause is something outside your body, like the sun, your water, or the pool, or it's graying that runs in your family. A few changes are worth a doctor's visit, though, like a white patch or streak, graying that starts in childhood, or a color change that shows up along with other symptoms.
The chart below sorts them for you, and we'll walk you through each cause after that.
Start here
Is your hair color change normal?
Find the row that matches what you see. Most hair color changes are normal, and the bottom rows are the ones worth a doctor’s visit.
| Normal or not? | What you’re seeing | What usually causes it | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | A few gray, silver, or white strands at your roots that slowly spread. | Graying with age. The age at which it starts tends to run in families. | Nothing needs fixing. Color it if you want to. |
| Normal | A lighter, warmer shade on your top layer and ends after time outdoors, while your roots stay your usual color. | Sunlight breaks down the pigment in your strands. | Wear a hat or scarf outside. The lighter part won’t darken again, so let it grow out. |
| Normal | A green tint on blonde, gray, or bleached hair. | Copper from pool water or copper pipes. | Wash with a chelating shampoo. Wear a swim cap, and rinse right after you swim. |
| Normal | Dull hair that feels rough or coated, mostly toward your ends. | Mineral buildup from hard water. | Use a chelating or clarifying shampoo every so often. |
| Normal | Gray or white hair that’s turning yellow. | Heat from styling tools, or the sun. | Turn your flat iron down and use it less often. |
| Ask your doctor | Lighter, darker, or a different shade soon after you started a new medicine. | A side effect of some medicines. | Tell the doctor who prescribed it. Don’t stop the medicine on your own. |
| See a doctor | A white streak or patch, often over a lighter patch of skin, or white eyebrows or eyelashes. | Vitiligo, a condition that takes the color out of patches of skin and hair. | See a dermatologist (a doctor who treats skin and hair). |
| See a doctor | Round bald patches, or hair that seems to turn white within weeks while a lot of it falls out. | Alopecia areata, a condition that makes hair fall out in patches. | See a dermatologist. |
| See a doctor | Graying in childhood or your teens with no family history, or early graying with tiredness, numbness, or weight changes. | Possible causes include low vitamin B12 or a thyroid problem. | Ask your doctor for a blood test. |
| See a doctor | Hair turning lighter or reddish, or light and dark bands, with weight loss or swelling. | Not getting enough protein. | See a doctor. This needs medical care, not a hair product. |
Your new growth is the best clue. If it still grows in your usual color, the change is happening to hair that’s already out, from sun, water, or heat. If the new growth itself has changed, the cause may be coming from inside your body.
But, even after realizing that hair color change is normal, the most pressing question that people have is, "Why Is My Hair Changing Color by Itself?" Keep reading to learn some causes of changing hair color.
Why Is My Hair Changing Color by Itself?
Hair color changes can be caused by one or more of several reasons. Review the list below to learn about some of the most common reasons for hair color change.
1. The Sun
If you've ever noticed that your hair appears lighter or bleached in the summer months, the sun is to blame. This happens because the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays alter your hair's melanin levels, which determine how dark or light it appears naturally.
When the hair is exposed to the sun for an extended time, the ultraviolet rays destroy the melanin pigment in individual strands. Hair lightened by the sun is permanently altered because once the melanin is destroyed, there is no reviving it.
This doesn't only happen to light hair. The sun breaks down both kinds of melanin in your hair (i.e., the brown-black pigment and the red-yellow one), so dark hair can turn a lighter, warmer brown, too. In lab tests, sunlight changed the color of every shade of hair tested, and light hair just showed it the most.
The new hair growing in from your roots still comes in your usual color, so the lighter part grows out over time.
Sun-bleached hair can be a nuisance for some people because it can make hair color appear uneven. But some people welcome this change and even supplement it with chemical dyes to aid in hair lightening.
2. Age
During their later years, people will notice their hair turning shades of gray, silver, or white. This is a normal part of aging and happens to a massive percentage of the population.
Unlike hair color changes caused by the sun, age-related hair color changes occur without any outside influences. To understand the process of hair graying, you need to know a little bit more about the structure of the hair and scalp.
Each strand of hair on our heads is composed of two main parts: the shaft and the root. The shaft is the visible hair strand that we see. The root of each hair strand keeps the hair attached to the scalp.
Tubes of tissue called follicles surround the root of each hair strand and contain a certain level of pigment cells. The pigment cells of each hair follicle produce melanin which gives the hair its natural color.
As we age, the pigment cells in our hair follicles slowly die off. When there are fewer pigment cells in your follicles, melanin production declines. As a result, new hair grows in with less color, so it looks gray, silver, or white.
When graying starts varies a lot from person to person. In a survey of more than 4,000 people around the world, 74% of people between 45 and 65 had some gray hair, but only 6% to 23% had a head that was half gray by age 50.
3. Hard Water
Hard water is the same water we drink, bathe in, and wash our hair with. But did you know that it's also a minor cause of hair color change?
Hard water contains minerals like magnesium and calcium, and water that runs through copper pipes can pick up copper, too. When your hair is exposed to these minerals over and over, they build up on your strands, most of all toward your ends. That buildup can make your hair look dull.
In a study of more than 300 women in nine countries, calcium and magnesium built up more on hair that had been colored. Copper can also leave a green tint on blonde, gray, or bleached hair.
4. Swimming
Swimming exposes your hair to chlorine, which is a bleaching agent. The chemical alters the pigment in the hair, leaving your natural hair lighter in color.
In a study of 67 competitive swimmers, 61% had hair that had turned lighter, compared with none of the people who didn't swim.
And if your hair turns green after swimming, chlorine isn't the cause. Green hair comes from copper, which can come from pool water or from your own pipes, and it shows up mostly on blonde or damaged hair.
Unfortunately, chlorine also damages the outer layer of the hair shaft called the cuticle, affecting the hair's ability to retain new color through dyeing, bleaching, and other coloring procedures.
5. Pregnancy
During pregnancy, your hormones change in big ways, and many women notice changes in their hair. Most of what doctors have documented is about how your hair feels and grows, not its color, though.
Some women say their hair looks a little lighter or darker while they're pregnant, but this hasn't been well studied. If your hair shifts shade a bit while you're pregnant, that on its own isn't a sign that something is wrong.
6. Heat Damage
Heat damage occurs when hair strands are compromised due to using heat styling tools. These tools can reach temperatures as high as 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
As you may be able to imagine, this extreme heat can damage the hair shaft, leaving your hair rough and dull. In lab tests, untreated hair started to break down at about 392 degrees Fahrenheit, and hair that had been chemically straightened started about 45 degrees sooner.
Heat also turns gray and white hair yellow, even at much lower temperatures.
7. Genetics
Not only do genes determine what color our hair will be (e.g. strawberry blonde color), but they also determine when we will lose our hair pigmentation.
This explains why some people grow gray hair when they are relatively young. Some people can begin losing hair pigment as early as their teenage years.
Researchers have found a gene, called IRF4, that's linked to when your hair turns gray. Graying counts as early when it starts before about 20 to 30, depending on your racial or ethnic background.
If your parents grayed early, there's a good chance you will, too, and that kind of early graying is normal.
8. Medications
Some medicines can change your hair color, though it's an uncommon side effect. Your hair can turn lighter, darker, or a different shade. For example, the label for hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), which treats lupus, arthritis, and malaria, lists hair color changes as a side effect.
Some cancer treatments can change your hair color, too, and hair that grows back after chemotherapy can come in a different color than before. Even a dandruff shampoo with selenium sulfide can discolor your hair if you don't rinse it out well.
If your color changed soon after you started a new medicine, tell the doctor who prescribed it. Don't stop taking it on your own.
9. Low Vitamin B12 or a Thyroid Problem
Graying that starts very early has been linked to low vitamin B12 and to thyroid problems. So if you started graying in childhood or your teens and no one in your family did, it's worth asking your doctor for a blood test.
The same goes for early graying that comes with other symptoms. Low B12 can make you tired and pale, and it can cause numbness or tingling in your hands and feet. An underactive thyroid can make you feel cold all the time, gain weight, or feel tired and slowed down.
In many reported cases, treating the problem brought some color back.
10. Vitiligo or Alopecia Areata
Vitiligo is a condition that causes patches of skin to lose their color. It can also turn the hair in those patches white, including on your scalp, eyebrows, and eyelashes. A white streak or patch of hair, especially over a lighter patch of skin, is worth a visit to a dermatologist (i.e., a doctor who treats skin and hair).
Alopecia areata is a condition that causes hair to fall out in round patches. When that hair grows back, it can come in white or gray at first and get its color back over time.
It can also make your hair seem to turn white within weeks, because it makes your colored hairs fall out and leaves your gray ones behind. If you see either one, see a dermatologist.
11. Not Getting Enough Protein
When your body goes a long time without enough protein, your hair can change color. Severe protein deficiency can turn hair lighter or reddish, and it sometimes leaves light and dark bands along each strand.
This is rare, but it can happen with a very limited diet or a health problem that keeps your body from absorbing food. Hair changes like these, along with weight loss or swelling, need a doctor, not a hair product.
12. Stress and Smoking
Stress may play a part in your hair turning gray. In a study on mice, stress used up the cells that make hair color. In people, a small study found that some gray hairs got their color back when stress eased, but only hairs that were just starting to turn gray.
Smoking is linked to early graying, too. In one study, smokers were about two and a half times as likely to start graying before 30.
How To Keep Your Natural Hair From Changing Color
Hair color changes are inevitable in some cases, especially when they are caused by age and genetics. However, you can prevent your hair from changing colors by implementing smart hair maintenance practices. Use the tips below to prevent your hair from changing color by itself.
Limit Heat Styling
If you rely on heat styling as part of your daily hair care regimen, you should try to minimize your sessions to no more than once per week.
And when you do pick up that flat iron or curling wand, try your best to keep it on the lowest heat setting possible. Limiting heat styling will keep hair strands strong and elastic, and it can help keep gray or white hair from turning yellow.
Wear a Swim Cap While Swimming
This seems like an obvious tip, but many people forget or don't bother wearing a swim cap when swimming. This is because most people don't understand how harsh chlorine is.
Covering your curls with a swim cap while swimming can reduce how much chlorine reaches your hair and help you retain your original hair color. For added protection, don't forget to rinse or wash away any chlorine residue after swimming.
If a cap feels too tight, put a hair oil or leave-in conditioner on your hair before you get in the pool. If your hair has already turned green, wash it with a chelating shampoo (i.e., a shampoo made to pull minerals like copper out of your hair).
Use a Head Covering While in the Sun
If you're not riding the sun-bleached hair wave, you'll want to protect your hair whenever you'll be out in the sun for longer than a minute or two.
Hats, scarves, and bonnets are all great ways to protect the hair from the color-damaging effects of the sun. No matter which head covering you choose, be sure to tuck all of your hair up under it.
Keep Your Hair Moisturized
When hair is adequately moisturized, it is less prone to breakage. But it won't stop the sun, chlorine, or bleach from fading the pigment inside your strands, so pair it with the other tips on this list.
Water is one of the best moisturizers for the hair. Combine it with sealants such as oils, butters, creams, and conditioners for super-hydrated curls.
Invest in a Water Softening Treatment
Water softening systems remove the calcium and magnesium that make water hard, so less of them builds up on your hair. They're not a dependable fix for copper, though, and softened water can pull more copper out of copper pipes. If your sink or tub has blue-green stains, have your water tested.
And as an added plus, when using a water-softening treatment, there will be a much lower chance of build-up forming on the hair and scalp, which will also help preserve your hair color.
Related Articles
- Will Coconut Oil Fade Dyed Hair?
- Stages of Bleach on Black Hair
- Why Is My Black Hair Turning Gold?
- Why Is My Hair Turning Red Naturally?
In summary, spontaneous hair color changes can be maddening, but there are ways to prevent them. By guarding your hair against color changes, you will simultaneously improve the overall health of your hair.
We hope that this article has supplied you with the tools you need to shield your hair from unwanted color changes.
