"...[T]here are still many researchers who believe that there was no Ancient Egyptians whose natural hair wasn’t dark brown or black. Some of these skeptics argue that mummies found with light-colored strands of hair can be explained by the effects of the mummification process itself. And so, to find a definitive answer to this intriguing question about the effects of the mummification process on human hair, Dr. Janet Davey from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Australia decided to conduct experiments on 16 hair samples from men and women aged between 4 and 92 years old. Most of the hair samples were dark-colored, but for comparison, one of the sample strands was gray, while another one was fair. There was also one strand with henna on it. Davey and her colleague, retired industrial chemist Alan Elliot, also prepared some powder of synthetic natron for their experiment. Natron was a type of salt that was applied on the bodies during the process of mummification to dry them out. It has also been linked to the supposed change in the hair color of the human remains. Davey and Elliot covered the hair samples in synthetic natron for 40 days – the same amount of time believed to be required back in ancient times to dry out human bodies. When the 40-day period had passed, the samples were removed from the salty powder, and after undergoing microscopic analysis, it was determined that there was no change in the color of the hair samples at all. For Dr. Davey, the result of her experiment is convincing enough to say that fair-haired Egyptians did exist in Ancient Egypt;[...]" Thanks. But i have to say... Well, that was the worst Mythbusters episode I ever read. Embalming material is hypothesized to include a plant oil - possibly sesame oil; a "balsam-type" plant or root extract that may have come from bullrushes; a plant-based gum - a natural sugar that may have been extracted from acacia; crucially, a conifer tree resin, which was probably pine resin In this paper, they describe how the recipe changed over centuries: "Chemical treatments were an essential element of ancient Egyptian mummification. Although the inorganic salt natron is recognized as having a central role as a desiccant, without the application of organic preservatives the bodies would have decomposed in the humid environment of the tombs. The nature of the organic treatments remains obscure, because the ancient Egyptians left no written record of the process. Secondary textual evidence for mummification is provided by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo and Pliny. The most important account is that of Herodotus (about 450 yr bc), although archaeological evidence shows that by this time the process had declined significantly and the best results had been achieved centuries before. His account mentions myrrh, cassia, palm wine, 'cedar oil' (still widely disputed) and 'gum'; however, it is vague with respect to the specific natural products used. Here we report the results of chemical investigations of a substantial collection of samples of tissues, wrappings and 'resinous/bituminous' materials from provenanced and dated Egyptian mummies. We focused on examples of the 'classic' mummy-making culture of the Pharaonic or dynastic period, from which we can begin to track the development of mummification chronologically." Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11674471_Organic_chemistry_of_embalming_agents_in_Pharaonic_and_Greco-Roman_mummies I'm not a skeptic so much as I'm realistic. I've seen, first hand, how easy it is to bleach ones hair. The test mentioned in the article, using only salts for 40 days is, frankly, ridiculous.