![]() Some of it becomes aerosolized and you could inhale it into your lungs,” Piliang said. “One is you could absorb it in the air during the dyeing process. Melissa Piliang, a dermatologist with the Cleveland Clinic, said there are two main ways these chemicals then could get into our bodies. Hair dyeing involves a complex chemical reaction between multiple ingredients. Once the small molecules get into the hair, an oxidizing agent, typically hydrogen peroxide, triggers a reaction that chemically combines the precursors. “What they do is open up the hair cuticle scales so that these molecules can get inside more quickly,” Huang said. To facilitate this diffusion process, you need another chemical, an alkalinizing agent - often ammonia or an organic amine. “It’s kind of like how you marinate a fish,” Huang said. When you apply dye to your hair, you’re diffusing these precursors through the hair shaft. So chemists came up with the idea of breaking these molecules into tiny subnanometer fragments, or precursors. The coloring molecules in hair dye are usually big - too big to get through the cuticle scales. Your hair shaft is covered in cuticle scales, like the scales on a fish or like the shingles on a roof. “You are basically doing a very sophisticated organic synthesis, right on top of your head,” Jiaxing Huang, a professor of material science and engineering at Northwestern University, said. You might not think of it when you’re in the salon, but hair dyeing is a complex chemical reaction, unfolding within each strand of your hair. What’s happening chemically when you dye? What are the health risks of coloring your hair? To make sense of it, it’s first helpful to understand how hair dye works. There are thousands of chemicals used in hair dyes, and their impact on our health is often unknown, or of concern.īecause personal-care and beauty products are not heavily regulated in the United States, some researchers and advocates fear that hair dyes can be harmful, especially for people like Ortiz, who are exposed all the time. Here’s the thing: Maybe Ortiz wasn’t so crazy. “I kind of felt crazy, like something was wrong with me.” “I was thinking, ‘Well, maybe I’m just having stress and anxiety,’” Ortiz said. She didn’t want to confront the possibility that her job was making her sick, because she loved her work - enjoyed making the formulas for different colors and the craft of applying the dye.īut she was in her 20s, and should have been at the top of her health. “I was just in pain a lot.”įor a while, Ortiz felt really lost. “It was a struggle to walk upstairs,” she said. ![]() She felt sick and light-headed when she was under the sun. Very, very uncomfortable, and definitely caused some depression as well,” she said.īutterfly rashes erupted across her cheeks. “I was experiencing bouts of uncontrollable heat in my body throughout the day and at night. She had trouble with temperature regulation. She started to feel chronic fatigue, nausea and achy joints. “I was getting skin irritations and breakouts all over my hands, itchy eyes,” said Ortiz, who lives in Santa Barbara, California.Īfter beauty school, Ortiz started working as a hair colorist. The symptoms started out as allergy sensations. It was when she first started beauty school, in 1999, that Michele Ortiz first noticed unusual things happening to her body. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. This story is from The Pulse, a weekly health and science podcast.
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