Dye or not to Dye

Hair dye products sold in market are made of chemicals. Three quick points to ponder.

1) What happens to our hair and scalp, when the hair dye is used either at home or in the salon ? Different points of view on how harmful the hair dye can be and counter arguments that claim there is no evidence to prove that hair dye is harmful to the users.

2) What is effect on health of workers in Salon, who perform multiple hair dying sessions in a day. Apparently there are more exposed the chemicals used in hair dye.

3) Disposal of used or excess hair dye products. It cant be through regular garbage or flushed down the drain. In my opinion, it must be treated as hazardous waste and disposed accordingly.

Before you buy a hair dye product, check if ingredients are listed on the label of the product. If you are salon, do a similar sanity check as well.  

Chemical based  Hairdye products use ammonia (or ethanolamines in the case of some ammonia-free products), hydrogen peroxide, and p-phenylenediamine. 

The ammonia separates layers of the hair’s proteins, so that the dye can access the hair shaft. Subsequently, hydrogen peroxide bleaches the hair and helps p-phenylenediamine, one of the primary coloring agents, to become trapped in the hair.

Ammonia is suspected to be respiratory and asthma irritant, a potential endocrine disruptor, and is one of the major environment hazards.

P-phenylenediamine is suspected to cause birth defects, skin irritation, liver and blood poisoning, and allergic reaction. European countries have imposed restriction on its use.

P-phenylenediamine is one of many coal-tar colors, which are derived from petroleum. Coal-tar dyes are suspected to cause eye injury and allergic reactions. Coal tars and coal tar dyes are suspected to cause several types of cancer. 

Hair dyes products may also contain toluene. This is a suspected neurotoxin, linked to birth defects, pregnancy miscarriage, and allergic reaction. 

Hair dye products may also contain resorcinol. This is a chemical suspected to cause to  impact our endocrine system. 

Lead acetate, is another common ingredient in Hair dye products. This is suspected to cause neurotoxicity. 

Conventional hair dye products can also contain several other chemicals like DMDM hydantoin, methylisothiazolinone, etc;.

Suggestions to consider

1) Avoid use of cheap products and products without detail of ingredients and possible side effects caused by use of the product.  

2) Explore use of Alternative hair colorants, which are based on green chemistry. Green chemistry is a discipline which employs nontoxic molecules to achieve better results than synthetic chemicals.

3) Explore use of natural ingredients based natural hair colorants which are lab certified.

4) Do sanity check on ingredients used in "natural” and “organic” hair dye products. Some of them are found to contain ingredients like p-phenylenediamine, ethanolamine, resorcinol, etc;

5) Instead of using less known or hair dye products without information of ingredients in a salon, check if they allow you to bring the hair dye product of your choice to the salon.

6) If you are using hair dye product at home, make sure to use nitrile gloves and apply the dye in a well-ventilated area.

My personal choice is to age gracefully. Worldwide many women and men are embracing this au naturel look.