Can hair really change colour all by itself?
Hair really can change colour seemingly on its own. As your hair grows, it may become lighter in tone or change entirely to a different colour, such as red or golden.
Typically, these colour changes occur at your hair's ends, especially when you have long hair. Colour changes also appear on your hair located on the crown of your head and can involve long sections of hair (not just the tips). We will explain why in more detail below.
Colour changes at the ends of your hair
Colour changes at the ends of your hair mainly occur because the ends of your hair are older. Older sections of hair will have had greater time for your natural colour pigments (eumelanin and pheomelanin) to degrade. The ends of your hair also typically possess the highest porosity (damage specific to your fibres cortex), resulting in lighter colour tones.
What can happen is that the older ends of our hair fibres can possess reduced active melanin either through oxidisation from the sun or other chemical sources such as free chlorine from the swimming pool etc., lightening your hair's colour tone. This reduction in hair active melanin can also make your hair sensitive to metal ions ingress from copper ions and other metals into your hair. Copper ions can change hair to a red or golden colour. Copper and other metals occur in greater concentrations in water piped to our houses and within swimming pools. Some of these colour changes occurred with Olympic swimmers and families living in high water metal-containing areas which on occasion even makes the news.
Colour changes at the top of our hair
The hair found at the top of your head can be susceptible to changes in colour tone. These tone changes happen because the UV (Ultra Violet) light from the sun disrupts the melanin molecules within your hair, making your hair appear lighter in tone. Changes in colour tone are common in summer within the high latitudes or year-round if you live near the equator.
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