This pandemic has certainly changed our priorities. For those who normally get their hair dyed professionally, gray roots are starting to show. Panic buying of home hair coloring kits has emptied store shelves. Per Alicia Wallace in CNN Business, hair coloring product sales increased 23% from the same period a year earlier, according to Nielsen. On the Today Show, Walmart Inc. President and CEO Doug McMillon said, “You can definitely see that as people have stayed home, their focus shifted. People are starting to need a haircut. You see more beard trimmers and hair color and things like that. It's interesting to watch the dynamic play out." Kelly Ripa,"Live with Kelly and Ryan" host, posted a photo on Instagram where she wrote "Root watch, week one." You will notice a peek of gray hair growth at the roots of her bright blonde hair.
The history of hair color is really quite extraordinary, according to shoppable online and mobile content platform Byrdie. In 1500 B.C., Egyptians used henna to camouflage gray hair (yes, the preoccupation with grays dates way back). Years later, the Greeks and Romans used plant extracts to color their strands. They also created a permanent black hair dye. However, when they discovered it was too toxic to use, they switched to a formula made with leeches that had been fermented in a lead vessel for two months. It took a few hundred years to expand the color choices beyond black.
In 300 B.C., during the Roman Empire, prostitutes were required to have yellow hair to indicate their profession. Most wore wigs, but some used a mixture made from the ashes of burned plants or nuts to achieve the hue. Much later, circa 1700 A.D., Venetian Italians brought blondes into the mainstream by laying in the sun with their hair saturated in a lightening solution activated by UV rays and heat. Meanwhile, other ancient civilizations like the Gauls and the Saxons were dyeing their hair a variety of vibrant colors to show their rank and as a means of intimidating opponents on the battlefield.
Red hair first appeared as the result of a genetic mutation in the Dark Ages between 500 and 1500 A.D., with the first documented case of a natural-born redhead occurring in Scotland. For many years, people with natural red hair were subjected to suspicions of witchcraft. It wasn’t until Queen Elizabeth I took the throne that red hair become more acceptable.
Not much changed until the 1800s, when English chemist William Henry Perkin made an accidental discovery that changed hair dye forever. Trying to generate a cure for malaria, Perkins created the first synthesized dye in 1863. The color was a purply pink mauve and appropriately named Mauveine. Soon after, his chemistry professor August Hoffman derived a color-changing molecule from Mauveine called para-phenylenediamine or PPD, and it remains the foundation for most permanent hair dyes today.
In 1907, Eugene Schueller created the first chemical dye for commercial purposes. He called it Aureole. It would later be called L’Oréal, as would the company he founded. In 1947, the German cosmetics company Schwarzkopf launched the first home color product, “Poly Color.”
Ever wonder where the term platinum blonde comes from? You can thank Howard Hughes (and Jean Harlow) for that. In 1931, in what might just be the most successful public relations strategy ever, Hughes released a film called Platinum Blonde, titled to promote and capitalize on the hair color of the young star, Jean Harlow. Many fans quickly followed suit, dyeing their hair to match Harlow’s. Hughes’s team even organized a chain of Platinum Blonde clubs across the country, with a $10,000 prize that would go to any hairdresser who could copy Harlow’s shade. Ironically, Harlow never admitted to dyeing her hair.
Prior to 1950, going blond involved bleach and a lot of damage. Lawrence Gelb advanced formulas in the 1930s, but the truly revolutionary discovery came in 1950. That year, Clairol — the company Gelb founded with wife Jane Clair — introduced the first one-step hair dye product that lightened hair without bleaching it. Miss Clairol Hair Color Bath, which allowed women to color their hair at home discreetly — this was important, as women preferred not to publicize the fact that they colored their hair at this time — became a huge hit with the masses.
By the late 1960s, coloring your hair was commonplace, and 1968 was the last year Americans were asked to state hair color on passports — the prevalence of hair dye made this information pointless. And by the 1970s, public sentiments toward dyeing your hair began to change. Slogans like L’Oréal’s “Because You’re Worth It” — created by Ilon Specht, a 23-year-old copywriter at ad agency McCann Erickson — encouraged acceptance of openly using hair color products. Clearly, the shift in viewpoint was a lasting one.
Today, you can’t turn on the television without seeing some gorgeous celebrity trying to sell you hair color. Well, all that began in the ’80s, the decade of celebrity endorsements. Brands started securing the biggest names in Hollywood like Cybill Shepherd and Heather Locklear to endorse their products — a natural progression, given Hollywood starlets had been serving as hair color inspiration since the ’30s.
In May 2014, while most of the population was embracing sombré and other, more natural-looking hair color techniques, Kylie Jenner took the opposite approach and made her first major hair color transformation. The youngest Jenner sister set herself apart with the now-iconic teal blue tips. Little did we know this would be the first of many vibrant hair colors for Jenner.
Nearly 85% of women color their hair at least once every eight weeks compared to just 7% in 1950, according to the September 21, 2019, article “27 Hair Color Statistics, Facts & Industry Trends (That Will Blow Your Mind)” in Holleewood Hair. And these days, hair colors ran the gamut. From believable looks like lived-in color to buzzy techniques like tortoiseshell hair to pastel creations like opal hair, it’s clear the future of hair color is going to be as rich as its past.
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