Lifestyle

Harmful Ingredients In Home Hair Dyes That You Should Look Out For

Wayne Loh

2020-01-04 , 6:00 am

Last Updated on 2020-11-22 , 4:33 pm

Isn’t it sad?

Being Asian, we’re all pretty much stuck with black hair. (Except for a rare minority blessed with brown hair)

To most people, it’s too plain and not ‘pretty’ enough.

Different hair colours surely mean you’ll be better looking, right?

Yes, correct.

As a result, many people like to get their hair dyed.

You know, to spice things up a bit and take a short break from the mundane black hair.

Brown, blonde, green, purple, or basically ash anything, just to look a bit prettier than normal for a while before it fades.

While hair dyeing is fun and all, there are things to look out for.

How Could Hair Dye Harm Your Body?

Firstly, hair dyes and hair bleaches are pretty toxic chemicals.

Think about it, they’re destroying the original colour from your hair and adding a whole new one. How safe could it get?

However, there are some specially toxic ones you need to look out for and avoid if at all possible.

Some of the worst ones are carcinogenic. That means they can cause cancer.

Don’t play play.

Harmful Ingredients To Avoid

Ammonia

This is a chemical that most people should know about, at least from secondary school chemistry lessons. The strong pungent smell given off is unmistakable.

Ammonia can be highly toxic and caustic, resulting in severe burns at higher concentrations.

In fact, companies are starting to try and remove ammonia from hair products.

PPD (p-Phenylenediamine)

An ingredient derived from ammonia, it is typically used to help the pigment to ‘stick’ to the hair better. For dark-haired people like us, this ingredient is probably especially prominent.

PPD is known to trigger allergies, and even if you’re not allergic, there’s a chance you can develop an allergic reaction over repeated exposures.

Resorcinol

Resorcinol is a dihydroxy benzene. I have no idea what that is. Nobody does, except for chemistry students.

But what we understand is, benzene increases the risk of cancer.

Also, resorcinol is linked with hormone disruption and skin irritation. And just like PPD, you’re more likely to be affected over repeated exposures.

This one really no joke.

Hydrogen Peroxide

This is used mainly to remove our hair’s pigment so that it can absorb new colours.

However, it’s pretty dangerous too. If you ever ingest or inhale by accident, it’s highly toxic, and it can also cause tissue damage if it comes into contact with skin or eyes.

Even with regular usage, repeated exposure can deteriorate hair health.

Best to avoid la.

Lead Acetate

When you hear the word ‘lead’, you should already be able to guess how poisonous it is.

Well, it is.

Even in small amounts, it’s still pretty harmful and can be absorbed into your bodies.

You can read up on it here if you want to know how toxic lead can be.

Parabens

This is a preservative commonly used in personal care as they stop bacteria and fungi from infecting your products.

However, they can mimic estrogen and also affect your endocrine system if absorbed by your skin.

Once again, to put it simply for us non-science people, exposure to parabens has been linked to breast cancer.

But more research is needed and nothing is proven as of yet.

But best to avoid to be safe la hor.

So what to do now?

If you’re like me, you were probably like this reading through all the science jargons: What!?

But the biggest takeaway is that you really shouldn’t dye your hair so often.

But if you must, try to avoid these ingredients stated.

Especially lead acetate and resorcinol. Those two look really jialat.

Featured Image: Vladimka production / Shutterstock.com