I am sure you must have dyed your hair once in your life. Hair colors are firmly included in our lives, and it is difficult to imagine how to change the image without changing the shade of the hair. I wonder how our ancestors dealt with it? Ancient man experimented with a variety of plant- and animal-based products. At the time of dyeing, one’s hair served many purposes other than looking aesthetically pleasing. Nowadays, dying your hair isn’t just about covering up imperfections, it’s about upping the ideals and making a bold statement. Let’s know all about hair colors and shades.
History Of Hair Color And Dyes: From Antiquity To The Present
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Hair Dye In Ancient Egypt
For centuries Egyptians have preferred blue-black or bright red hair. As early as in the 4th millennium B.C., this was promoted by the known and to this day henna. To diversify the palette, Egyptian beauties diluted henna powder with various ingredients that could cause an attack of panic in their contemporaries. Thus, cow blood or shredded tadpoles were used. Hair, frightened by such inappropriate treatment, at once changed color. By the way, the Egyptians sat early, a genetic predisposition that they fought with the blood of buffalo or black cats boiled in oil, or raven eggs. And to get the black color, it was enough to mix henna with the indigo plant. This recipe is still used by natural dyeing enthusiasts.
Hair Dye In Ancient Rome
It’s a very fashionable place to have a Titian shade of hair. To get it, local girls wiped the hair with a sponge soaked in goat milk and beech ash soap then sat in the sun for hours.
By the way, the recipes for dyeing mixes were over a hundred Roman chariots! Sometimes, the modern fashionistas were accustomed to, and sometimes even incredible ingredients: ashes, shells and walnut leaves, lime, talcum powder, beech ash, husk onions, and leeches. And the lucky ladies, who have countless wealth, sprinkled their heads with gold to create the illusion of blond hair.
It was in Rome that the first chemical method of hair dyeing was invented. To become noticeably darker, the girls moistened a lead comb in vinegar and combed their hair. Lead salts settled on the curls and had a darker shade.
Hair Dye For Celts and Gauls
Back in 1000 B.C., men were crazy about blondes. That’s why the girls tried to “whiten out” their curls with the help of lime water, which made dazzling white hair.
Hair Dye In Ancient Greece
Here everyone was equal to golden-haired Aphrodite and painted curls with a mixture of potash (a solution of carbon dioxide potassium) with yellow flowers (the name did not come to us). Those who could not access potash were satisfied with cow urine.
Hair Dye In Tunisia
The Tunisian brides, before the most important event of their lives, “brought beauty” with a mixture called “Marda”. It included ink nuts, carnations, and copper sulfate.
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Renaissance Hair Dye
Despite the church’s prohibition, the girls continued to experiment with hair color and, accordingly, with dyes. The same henna, bustard flowers, sulfur powder, soda, rhubarb, saffron, eggs, and calf buds were used.
Leader in the development of new dyeing formulas, as usual, France. So, Margot Valois has thought up the recipe for hair clarification which, unfortunately, has not reached us. And for dyeing curls in black French women used the old and proven way of the Romans – lead comb in vinegar.
The 19th Century Is A Time Of Discovery
In 1863, the substance known as paraphenylenediamine was synthesized and used for dyeing tissues. Based on this chemical component, modern color formulas were developed.
In 1867, a chemist from London (E.H. Tilley), combined with a barber from Paris (Leon Yugo), opened up new horizons for women worldwide, demonstrating a new way of hair clarification with hydrogen peroxide.
Hair Dye In The 20th Century
Who knows what we’d be wearing now if Eugene Schueller’s wife went to the hairdresser’s. The look of the lifeless strands of his beloved wife inspired a brilliant experimenter to create a synthetic dye-containing salt of copper, iron, and sodium sulfate. After testing the paint on a grateful wife, Eugene began selling the dye to hairdressers under the name “L’Aureale”. The paint suddenly gained popularity, which gave Eugene the opportunity to expand her production, open a company called L’Oreal and continue to experiment with the colors. That’s what love does to people.
Hair Dye In The ’20s
The already sensational L’Oreal dye had a competitor, the Mury company, which produces dyes that penetrate deep into the hair, which prolonged the color stability and dyed the gray.
The 1930s
“L’Oreal expands its horizons and produces Imedia-based natural paint with a range of natural shades.
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Hair dye in the 30s In Germany, too, did not sit on the spot: the son of the founder of the company “Wella” came to mind to combine the dyeing pigment with a caregiver. The paint became more gentle, which caused a storm of enthusiasm among women.
Hair Dye In The ’40s And ’50s
The Second World War didn’t affect the girls’ de.
Hair Dye In The 60s
The development of the cosmetics market is a giant step, large companies, whose specialization had nothing to do with hair dyes, decide to join the general madness. Thus, the company “Schwarzkopf” created the color “Igora Royal”, which has become a real classic.
At the same time, chemists all over the world are working on the formula without hydrogen peroxide, capable of dyeing gray hair. More and more new shades are appearing, the beauties all over the globe boldly use hair dyes.
Hair Dye In The Modern World
Now we have a great variety of formulas and dyes from different brands. Science does not stand still, so there are mousses, foams, balms, shampoos, and tonics. Girls dye their hair to cheer themselves up, not afraid of the state of their hair. New formulas are enriched with useful components, amino acids, proteins, keratin, and bio-additives.
Although, despite the extensive selection of modern paints and gentle formulas, many girls prefer natural dyes and return to the ancient ways of dyeing, using henna and Basma, onion husks, and even beets.
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