Hair Coloring - Hair Dyeing

The hair on the head is most striking feature for every person. For a long time, hair has been considered more than just a biological feature, and is more often center of beautification. For women, hair is an ornament that has transformed their beauty at higher level. Black hair symbolizes the younger age, youthfulness, energy and active life. As we grow older, hair turns to gray and silver white. Hence gray hair and white hair symbolizes the old age, sluggish and inactive life. Today everyone wants to look younger, energetic, enthusiast and visually appealing to other people. Hence they hide gray hair by applying color to hair and this process is called “Hair coloring – Hair dyeing”. Hair coloring is more of cosmetic reason and is to hide their gray hairs by old age people. Younger people color their hair as a fashion.

Hair coloring was done earlier by hair dressers at saloon. Today hair coloring is very simple, user-friendly and can be done at their house in 30-40 minutes.

History of Hair coloring –

The extraordinary history of hair color can be traced back to Sumerians 2000 BC. Nobel Sumerians used to color their gray hairs with golden dye, using silver or gold combs. Ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks began to use hair color which was made from plant and animal extracts regularly. Egyptian women in 1500 BC, colored their hair using henna plant extracts. The Romans believed that hair dyeing and coloring was a symbol of woman’s eroticism, and highlighted her gracefulness and elegancy. By 27 BC, hair dye became a much accepted trend, and both men and women in Rome used hair color as a way of enhancing their looks and appearance. Roman Empire insisted prostitutes to color their hair with yellow color or to wear yellow color wig to indicate their profession. Prostitutes were coloring their hair with ashes of burned plants, flowers and nuts to achieve the yellow hue.

Hair dyes were made using henna, crushed nut shells, berries, and vinegar. Red hair dye was prepared by fermenting leeches in vinegar for two months. This mixture was applied on the hair, which was then exposed to the sun for hours to get red hue.

In the 1860s, hydrogen peroxide was a common option for hair bleaching. With time, this came to be known as blond dye, until the 1930s. Hydrogen peroxide was used along with other ingredients like ammonia and soap powder. This combination damaged the hair, and burned the scalp. Soon this combination became less popular.