With the popularity of hair coloring and an ever-increasing vast array of hair color options, some wonder about the toxicity of these types of products. And right they are to wonder and worry. There are plenty of chemicals in hair colors – this is usually how the pigments force themselves into the hair shaft and deposit color. If your hair is grey, these hairs are unfortunately more stubborn and don’t take color as well. Related: How to Remedy Porous Hair

So dark hair colors that promise to cover grey hair really have to use certain chemicals to achieve that to varying degrees. If you’ve ever had the burning sensation that so many hair chemicals can have on your scalp, then you have had a glimpse of their potential toxicity. Generally, the more a hair dye burns or stings your scalp (and similarly burns the eyes and nose with fumes), the more toxic it may be. The same rule applies if it irritates the nasal passages when inhaled.

Why Dark Hair Dye is More Toxic

Blonde colors or colors that are lighter on the color spectrum, use various forms of bleach to achieve their lightening affect. This usually means peroxide in some form or another. Peroxide can be damaging to the hair, true. However, it is not as toxic to the human body as some of the chemicals that are needed to deposit deeper, darker colors.

Resorcinol

Resorcinol is a chemical that is often used in hair coloring products, especially of the darker kind. It is a complimentary ingredient to others in hair dyes, and acts as a sort of activator or developer when it interacts with other ingredients. Related: Natural Hair Color Product Alternatives

What’s interesting about this ingredient is that it can be used as a topical treatment for things like acne and other skin irritations and rashes. But it can be very toxic at higher levels, and if you don’t have to use something like this on your hair (and more importantly, your scalp), then why bother?

The toxicity of this ingredient is tied to hormonal interference. This is otherwise known as endocrine disruption. This type of effect is often a concern with some of the stronger chemicals that are applied topically to the skin.

Remember your scalp is skin, so anything that comes into contact with it, especially something that is sitting on your head for several minutes at a time to develop, is going to get into your blood stream.

In higher concentrations, or perhaps from repeated or prolonged exposure, the other concern with resorcinol is that it can cause damage to the central nervous system. For all of these reasons, you will often see natural-minded hair coloring products justifiably advertise that their products are resorcinol free.

Lead Acetate

Lead acetate was one of the big ones that really you shouldn’t have to worry about too much any more since it was banned by the FDA here in the states for use in hair coloring products. It was commonly used in the ‘progressive’ hair dyes targeted at men that made the hair darker over time.

As you can imagine, even the name of this ingredient sounds pretty bad. Anything that is named after a heavy metal should be avoided. These types of ingredients can leach into the blood stream and as we all know, metals are generally toxic to the human body.

Even though it was banned in the US, you should still look for this ingredient on any prospective purchases, as it’s not necessarily banned everywhere. So if your product is manufactured outside the US in other words, you could potentially still see this on the ingredient list.

Anecdotal Evidence – Highlighting or Lightening Versus Going Darker

I can tell you from personal experience, the different observations I’ve had between going darker and going lighter both at the salon and at home. The ‘going darker’ experience is definitely the one where I notice there is a stinging or burning sensation on my scalp. Related: Natural Hair Highlighting Alternatives

I’ve used natural products that don’t have the harshest of these chemicals when I was dying my hair darker, and I’ve used the out of the box store bought stuff too that doesn’t make any promises of being less toxic. I can tell you that, whether I’m in the stylist’s chair or at home, I can definitely tell when I’m going darker that the chemicals are noxious to breathe as well as irritating to my scalp.

When I’m going lighter, like getting highlights, there is way less of a toxic smell in the air as well as noticeably less irritation on my scalp. The interesting part about the difference between light and dark hair coloring agents, is that lightening agents are more damaging to the hair itself. Conversely, darkening agents tend to actually make the hair look healthier.

So there’s definitely a dichotomy there. All I’m saying is the darker hair dyes really do tend to be the more irritating of the two. To me, that’s enough evidence there is a distinct difference in safety levels between them.

For the record, I’ve stopped using darker dyes and hair have since converted to getting occasional highlights. I’m too old to keep trying to avoid the greys by continuous dying darker – they pop out within a week anyway. Going lighter is a great camouflage, and hopefully a less overall toxic way to avoid greys, if that’s the goal.