See the hair irons that can change your hair colour instantly

Women worldwide have dreamt of the moment they can go from blonde to brunette without fiddling with gloves, enduring the stench of ammonia and accidentally staining their ears with hair dye.

Now, thanks to the University of New Mexico, it’s no longer a fantasy as their geniuses have created a flat iron which uses focused ion beam technology to press patterns into every strand of hair.

(University of New Mexico)

The patterns then reflect light different ways to such an extent that your hair appears to change colour – from ebony to mahogany to auburn, even fuchsia if you’d fancy.

Engineers have been working on the device since 2009 and have tested its magic on blonde, brown and black locks, brunette hair proving the most receptive.

(AP)

The flat iron was originally designed as something that would give permanent, lasting colour and creator Professor Leseman explained: “The other idea was, and still is, to actually develop some kind of conditioner. Some kind of polymer coating for your hair, and then when you actually do the patterning with your flat iron that’s specially developed for this polymer coating.

This allowed users a semi-permanent colour-change, allowing them to experiment with daring shades, creating their own bespoke colours and just washing out the hues whenever they wanted.