High Tech Hair Straighteners To ‘Dye’ For

Hair color without ammonia, peroxide, PTP… or even hair dye? That’s the promise from scientists in New Mexico, who have discovered a novel method of changing the color of human hair. It works like this: a pair of hair irons etch microscopic patterns onto individual strands of hair which – as soon as the light hits them – refract as a different color to that of the natural pigment. This amazing process utilizes ion beam technology.

Dyes without ammonia or peroxide do exist, although there hasn’t yet been a truly organic method of achieving multicolored locks. It’s well known that repeated hair coloring can be destructive to the health of human hair, not to mention time consuming and expensive. But with the help of this new targeted ion beam technology together with an interconnected computer system, it will be possible for people to select the color of their choice and create colorful designs on their hair too.

The venture commenced a few years back and as it stands, the biggest barrier to commercial success is cost. Although the development of ceramic irons connected to a special computer promises to be the next big thing in the future of hairdressing, having a million dollar machine on standby in your salon isn’t the most economical way of taking care of a few greys. Scientists also found that the method worked better on darker rather than lighter hair colors, meaning that computer generated hair dye for blondes and ‘silver foxes’ may require a few more years of research to bring about.