9.7 Hair Color

[Rosham Rosebure]

Postpartumshedding usually starts at or around the 6 month mark and continues for 4-6 months, after which the hair enters the regrowth phase. This will all vary depending on how long clients choose to breastfeed or not, if they stay on their prenatal vitamins and their approach to their overall health and hair wellness.

From postpartum to perimenopause and beyond, we pride ourselves here at the atelier to be a safe space space for all, and a place where hard, honest conversations can be had. As always, we are here, and wishing great hair for all, in good health.

Human hair color is the pigmentation of human hair follicles and shafts due to two types of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Generally, the more melanin present, the darker the hair. Its tone depends on the ratio of black or brown eumelanin to yellow or red pheomelanin. Melanin levels can vary over time, causing a person's hair color to change, and one person can have hair follicles of more than one color. Some hair colors are associated with some ethnic groups because of the observed higher frequency of particular hair colors within their geographical region, e.g. straight, dark hair amongst East Asians, Southeast Asians, Polynesians, some Central Asians, and Native Americans; a large variety of dark, fair, curly, straight, wavy or bushy amongst Europeans, West Asians, some Central Asians, and North Africans; and curly, dark, and uniquely helical hair amongst Sub Saharan Africans. Bright red hair is found in some European populations, and hair turns gray, white, or "silver" with age.

The full genetic basis of hair color is complex and not fully understood.[1] Regulatory DNA is believed to be closely involved in pigmentation in humans in general,[2] and a 2011 study by Branicki et al. identified 13 DNA variations across 11 different genes that could be used to predict hair color.[3]

Two types of pigment give hair its color, black-brown eumelanin and reddish-brown/reddish-yellow[4] pheomelanin, synthesized by melanocytes.[5] Inside the melanocytes, tyrosine is converted into L-DOPA and then L-dopaquinone, which in turn is formed into pheomelanin or eumelanin.[6]

Different hair color phenotypes arise primarily as a result of varying ratios of these two pigments in the human population,[5] although Europeans show the greatest range in pigmentation overall.[7] In addition, other genetic and environmental factors can affect hair color in humans; for instance, mutations in the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene can lead to red or auburn hair,[5] and exposure to ultraviolet radiation can damage hair and alter its pigmentation.[8] Ultraviolet radiation (UV radiation) triggers greater synthesis of several compounds, including pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), α-MSH, and ACTH, the result being increased eumelanin production.[6] UV radiation most commonly comes from the sun, and thus populations from places closer to the equator tend to have darker hair,[6] because eumelanin is generally more photoprotective than pheomelanin.[4]

Pheomelanin colors hair orange and red. Eumelanin, which has two subtypes of black or brown, determines the darkness of the hair color;[4] more black eumelanin leads to blacker hair and more brown eumelanin to browner hair.[6] All human hair has some amount of both pigments.[9] Over 95% of melanin content in black and brown hair is eumelanin.[9] Pheomelanin is generally found in elevated concentrations in blond and red hair,[4] representing about one-third of total melanin content.[9] If there is no black eumelanin, the result is strawberry blond.[6] Blond hair results from small amounts of brown eumelanin with no black eumelanin.[6]

Black hair or jet black hair is the darkest hair color. It has large amounts of eumelanin and is denser than other hair colors and is the commonly seen hair color in Asia and Africa due the fact that the people in these regions tend to have lower levels of tyrosinase in their bodies. Black eumelanin secretion causes the hair to turn black, which indicates that the MC1R is in the active state. Jet black hair, the darkest shade will not have a warm, neutral tone but a sheen which can seem almost blue, like the iridescence of a raven's wing; hence, sometimes referred to as raven-black. Jet black hair appears to have reflective silver color in bright sunlight.[12][13]

Brown hair is the second most common human hair color, after black. Brown hair is characterized by higher levels of eumelanin and lower levels of pheomelanin. Of the two types of eumelanin (black and brown), brown-haired people have brown eumelanin; they also usually have medium-thick strands of hair. Brown-haired girls or women of European, West Asian or North African descent are often known as brunettes.

Chestnut hair is a hair color which is a reddish shade of brown hair. In contrast to auburn hair, the reddish shade of chestnut is darker. Chestnut hair is common among the native peoples of Northern, Central, Western, and Eastern Europe and is also found in Asia Minor, West Asia and North Africa.

Auburn hair ranges along a spectrum of light to dark red-brown shades. The chemicals which cause auburn hair are eumelanin (brown) and pheomelanin (red), with a higher proportion of red-causing pheomelanin than is found in average brown hair. It is most commonly found in individuals of Northern and Western European descent, but is extant in West and Central Asia and North Africa also. It can also be the result of a mutation in the melanocortin 1 receptor gene.[5]

Blond (sometimes blonde for women) hair ranges from pale white (platinum blond) to dark gold blond. Strawberry blond, a mixture of blond and red hair, is a much rarer type containing the most pheomelanin.[citation needed] Blond hair can have almost any proportion of pheomelanin and eumelanin, but has only small amounts of both. More pheomelanin creates a more golden or strawberry blond color, and more eumelanin creates an ash or sandy blond color. Blond hair is most commonly found in Northern and Northeastern Europeans and their descendants but can be found spread around most of Europe and also among West Asians and North Africans at lower frequencies. Studies in 2012 showed that naturally blond hair of Melanesians is caused by a recessive mutation in tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TYRP1). In the Solomon Islands, 26% of the population carry the gene; however, it is absent outside of Oceania.[17]

Gray or white hair is not caused by a true gray or white pigment, but is due to a lack of pigmentation and melanin. The clear hairs appear as gray or white because of the way light is reflected from the hairs. Gray hair color typically occurs naturally as people age (see aging or achromotrichia below).

Children born with some hair colors may find it gradually darkens as they grow. Many blond, light brown, or red haired infants experience this. This is caused by genes being turned on and off during early childhood and puberty.[20]

Changes in hair color typically occur naturally as people age, eventually turning the hair gray and then white. This is called achromotrichia. Achromotrichia normally begins in the early to mid-twenties in men and late twenties in women. More than 60 percent of Americans have some gray hair by age 40. The age at which graying begins seems almost entirely due to genetics. Sometimes people are born with gray hair because they inherit the trait.[21]

Permanent hair color means that the hair's structure has been chemically altered until it is eventually cut away. This does not mean that the synthetic color will remain permanently. During the process, the natural color is removed, one or more shades, and synthetic color has been put in its place. All pigments wash out of the cuticle. Natural color stays in much longer and artificial will fade the fastest (depending on the color molecules and the form of the dye pigments).

When texting I want to personalize the two people in an emoji. Both have blonde hair. I want to make one blonde and one dark hair when I hold down the emoji several options come up one side, grayed out the other side the blonde emoji. Then nothing happens.

I had entered my appointment envisioning a dark brown verging on black. Hearing that going dark would require extra upkeep after this first appointment, and thus more money, I opted for a milk chocolate brown that matched my roots.

My bare-bones research from bleaching my hair prepared me for a time-consuming salon trip. (That appointment lasted four hours.) Adding pigment back in is also an hours-long process. I settled in for my session at Spoke & Weal at noon and left just before three. Typically, blonde-to-brunette transitions can last between two and five hours at the salon, including several rounds of color and gloss.

My color appointment started with hand application of brown Aveda dye, brushed on in gradients and blended to line up with where my hair had already grown out. We followed the first dye process with three trips to the shampoo bowl for gloss, or semi-permanent hair color.

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Before I started, I couldn't have imagined how many times I would need to change the color of things in my commercial photography. I thought that I would just get the right model, props, clothes, and so on, and that would be that. This was naive. In actuality, I have often had to shoot without every color in the frame perfect, and then change it in post.

If you'd asked me ten years ago, I would have doubled down my position on not needing to change colors when it comes to hair. Then, I had a brief land in my inbox which wanted a specific type of portrait and I had an image already shot that would be a great fit. There were two issues, however: firstly, they wanted it in the snow and I shot it in high summer. This was easily fixed as the image had a shallow depth of field, so I just made some color tweaks and then added some blurry snowflakes. Secondly, they wanted a redhead and my model was blonde. Again, I fixed it with some color editing and the image was suddenly exactly what they were after.

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