But sadly, not many consumers acknowledge about, or they like to turn a blind eye to the damage that hair dye could bring to their health as well as hair. “Can hair dye cause cancer?” is the most common question people worried. Until this very moment, the safety of hair coloring products is still being argued.

Read more: Hair Extensions Cause Bald Spots: Is That A Nightmare Or Just A Mere Myth?

Some studies have shown a higher rate of specific types of cancers among hairdressers as well as barbers using these hair products in the workplace, and between people who use them in their house. Other researches have observed no relevant.

Does Hair Dye Cause Cancer?

Since long time ago, hair dying has been a typical thing added in the beauty routines of both women and men to glam up their look. It can be used for concealing grey hair strands or just merely experience new hair look. It’s typical for people to re-dye their hair as often as one time per month and this becomes a routine that follows them for decades.

In the current market, there are numerous hair products offering to color your hair. We will name some few popular options:

Temporary tints are the products stay for a short time, and they are effortlessly gone after washing the hair. The product not absorbed by the outward coating, or cuticle, of your hair strand.

Semi-permanent colors stay longer as it would last in maximum ten washes, but the product does enter and dye the cuticle.

The most typical one being used by everyone is Permanent dyes, formed almost 80% of the market. They stay the longest on the hair by staining colored molecules inside the hair strand itself.

Recent studies on the matter

In the 1970s some studies indicated that ingredients of permanent hair color products, containing some aromatic amines, which led to cancer in animals. As a result, almost every manufacturer at that time replaced those components by 1908.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Therefore the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) together with National Cancer Institute’s conclusions of a health study on hair coloring products often specify harm related to before or after that year.

Unluckily, there still have been rare investigates since then that have surely confirmed whether there is harm or not for hair dye cause cancer. Moreover, the existed study not always make a distinction between different types of colour (temporary, semi-permanent, permanent) applied by its subjects or the regularity of usage.

A person who does his/her root once after a short time like few weeks has a much more significant amount of chemical exposure than someone using it occasionally every few months. The core topics of study include bladder cancer, marrow as well as blood cancers such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma also leukemia, and breast cancer.

Some researches have revealed a connection between permanent dyes and bladder cancer, in particular, home users who have been used hair color products for a long time (at least 15 years). On the other hand, large-scale Swedish research conducted in 2013 with the subjects were 45,000 hairdressers in both genders found no growth in bladder cancers.

Other examination between hair dye and blood and bone marrow cancers, such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma and leukemia, has revealed contrasting results as well. A 2007 summary consisted of four study projects, engaging a sum of over 10,000 women, announced that the rise in one kind of non-Hodgkin lymphoma was spotted among some women.

They who started using color products before 1980, apart from the upward trend in follicular lymphoma in women using dark-colored hair dye. It all started after 1980.

Darker tint consists a much higher number of aromatic amines, which form the colorless “intermediate” ingredient of the hair dye. More important, according to all the research, there is no connection between hair color products with breast cancer at least to this every moment.

What About Birth Defects?

Women care a lot about the question of whether coloring hair would cause congenital disabilities. No matter it is either through using at home or exposure in outside. Some animal-testing research has concluded that teratogenic— which causing congenital disability—carry out at massive doses.

There isn’t any congenital disability have been related to human use. Perhaps the chance that chemicals would absorb through the skin is little.

Even so, there are several ways to prevent from the side effect. Experts suggest that pregnant women should limit using hair dye to a maximum three times during their pregnancy. For the hairdressers during her pregnancy, the doctors recommend using gloves. They should also work in a well-ventilated space for not longer than 35 hours each week.

To sum up, there is no direct suggestion that hair dye cause cancer.

How to Use Hair Dye Safely

Until now, there is still no official conclusion showing that hair dye cause cancer. However, to prevent any unwanted damage, we suggest you follow these safety guidelines:

• Keep track on time. Leave the dye on for precisely the recommended duration. Avoid letting it on your hair for any longer than required.
• Use gloves when dyeing your hair instead of interacting with bare hands.
• Wash the hair especially your scalp throughout after coloring.
• Follow correctly the instructions printed on the hair coloring package.
• Do not mix several types of hair dye products. If you want to avoid the more prominent problems such as allergic reactions, just don’t

You should do a test for any allergic responses before using the hair color product.

You should do a test for any allergic responses before using the hair color product on your hair. Most of hair dye products these days always include the manual for conducting a sample test. You should carry out this test each time you color your hair.

Notice your hairdresser to do the same and make sure they do that before applying hair dye on your hair. You just put a small amount of product behind the ear and leave it on for two days. If you have no sign of allergic response like itching, redness on and also around the test spot, you can assure. You don’t have allergic to the hair dye product and can be certain when using it.

If you have, even just a little reaction to the sample test, we suggest you avoid using that product. You should try a similar experiment on several brands. You can also test the same types until you find the most suitable one that won’t make you allergic with.

The bottom line

In conclusion, there is no official research that shows that hair dye cause cancer. However, it is worth for you to keep in mind how to avoid creating hair problem from hair dye. After reading our article, you can apply the tips which we have suggested to color the hair correctly.

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