Mr. Wizard Says...

Just the one question (if we discount Mike's meta-question about the Wizard idea) so far this week. Seriously...if y'all have *any* questions, go to the previous post and ask them. I fear no topics. ;)

Longtime meatworld friend and friend of the blog 2old4this asks...

My oldest daughter has colored hair. Not much, a touch of pink here, a bit of blue there, a raccoon tail effect.

As a likely expert in these matters, please tell me if Trader Joe's Tea Tree shampoo is safe for colored hair.

Based on those colors, I'm going to take a stab and guess it's Manic Panic. Nice stuff. Vegetable-based dyes. Used one or two of them back in my hair days. It's less damaging to the hair, stripping it less on application. The drawback I found was that it didn't adhere and last as well as harsher dyes.

I'm not familiar with Trader Joe's shampoo (I use face scrub for the bald pate these days,) but tea tree oil is generally very strong and often used to remove dye. If the shampoo has a high concentration of it, it *might* shorten the dye's life. That said, even if the shampoo is especially strong and the dye's adhesion especially weak, I wouldn't expect it to cut down the time between reapplication by more than 5-10%. The gradual lightening of the dye shouldn't keep up with the growth of her hair.