Originally Posted by
Bonita--
It has also turned green apparently because I live in an apartment building and the water makes it go green.
...
She told me before she dyes my hair she wants me to do a treatment to take out the green tints so my hair doesn't break off.
She said to take 8 or 9 aspirins, mix it with warm water, add baking soda, put it on damp hair, let it sit for 10 minutes, then rinse and wash my hair.
What she is warning you against is the copper in your hair. Copper, and many other metal ions (but not aluminum) can be very bad actors when they come into contact with hydrogen peroxide -- or for that matter any peroxide. Those metal ions
catalyze the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is what they refer to as "developer" in both bleaching and coloring hair.
What she wants to do is, I believe, called a "Malibu treatment", but whatever it's called, the purpose is to rid your hair of the metals that are discoloring it.
If you fail to remove the copper, here is the possible scenario. You or someone else puts bleach on your hair. The copper immediately starts catalyzing the decomposition of the developer. You get a lot of foaming (oxygen being released) on the head and the reaction generates
a lot of heat. You end up with a badly burned scalp, and hair that is a messy mass of garbage. If you get the coloring/bleaching mixture off fast enough to avoid a second or third degree burn to the scalp, your hair will still be ruined and will have to be cut off.
Now, the aspiriins are a substitute for the chemicals that she would treat your hair with. The purpose is to
chelate or bind the metal ions so they can be washed out of the hair. Unfortunately, aspirin is not a great
chelant. There are better ones, but I don't know if they're available in drug stores. The thing about the baking soda is baloney. Unfortunately, a lot of people think baking soda is good for a lot of things. It's actually not very good for most things. What you want is a product that contains
EDTA. That is a terrific chelant and will remove the copper.
As for being able to bleach your hair white, I guess I'll have to defer to your colorist. She does not sound like a dummy!