STEP #22

Avoid Toxic Hair Dyes

Despite the lack of consumer warnings, many hair dye products have been proven harmful to our health. Yet, neither the industry nor the watchdog agency that regulates hair dyes mentions these risks. Indeed, the hair dye industry cites studies they say demonstrate the safety of their products.

With some 40 percent of American women—about 50 million—age 18 to 60 using hair dyes monthly or bimonthly, and hair dyes accounting for $2.5 billion dollars in worldwide sales annually, spreading the word about the dangers of hair dyes can make a big impact in our lives.

As the coloring agents used in permanent and semipermanent hair colors belong to a family of petroleum-derived chemicals known generally as coal tar dyes, switching to natural henna-based hair coloring will protect our health while reducing the need for oil to make these petrochemical poisons.

HAIR DYES: A CLOSER LOOK

When all the hype is removed from hair dye products, a typical permanent and semipermanent hair color product contains some 15 different dyes combined in a detergent or ammonia solution that also contains hydrogen peroxide; solvents such as polyethylene glycol; sudsing alcohols such as ceteareth and laureth compounds, diethanolamine (DEA) and triethanolamine (TEA) that contain or produce carcinogenic contaminants; and preservatives that release small amounts of carcinogenic formaldehyde.

Phenylenediamines and aminophenols are the two families of petroleum-derived coal tar dyes used in hair coloring and shown to be harmful to our health. Two of the most widely used phenylenediamine dyes, 2,4-diamino-toluene (2,4-DAT) and 2,4-diaminoanisole (2,4-DAA), were removed from hair dye products in 1971 and 1978, respectively, after it was discovered they were carcinogenic in rodents, but many other phenylenediamine dyes are still used in permanent and semipermanent hair-coloring products.

Five of nine major studies claimed to have found an association between hair dye and breast cancer. The first study in 1976 looking at breast cancer and hair dye use reported that of 100 consecutive breast cancer patients seen in a clinical practice in New York, 87 had been long-term users of hair coloring agents, as reported in the New York State Journal of Medicine (Shafer & Shafer, 1976) and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (Shore et al., 1979).

A 1977 United Kingdom study, based on 191 breast cancer subjects, found an increased risk among hair dye users over age 50, compared to nonusers, whose first pregnancy had occurred at 30 years of age or older (International Agency for Research on Cancer, 1993), while a 1979 U.S. study, published in The Lancet and based on 129 breast cancer patients, found a significant relationship between cumulative hair-dye use (number ofyears times frequency per year) and breast cancer. The risk was greater for women with a “low, natural risk for breast cancer.” Women most vulnerable were in the 50-to-79-year-old age group, suggesting that the latency period between the damage begun by hair dyes and the result can be lengthy (Hennekens et al., 1979).

The association between hair dye use and breast cancer is supported by evidence of excess breast cancers among cosmetologists and hairdressers. Most recently, a joint American Cancer Society (ACS)/Food and Drug Administration (FDA) study, which examined the relationship of permanent hair dye use and a wide range of cancers, found a fourfold increase in several rare cancers. Although alleging that hair dyes pose no breast cancer risk, it did recommend “removal of carcinogens from hair dyes and appropriate labeling of hair coloring products.” All of these carcinogens are based entirely on petroleum-derived molecules.

In a 2005 study in The Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers examined the results of some 79 epidemiological studies from 1966 through January 2005 (Takkouche et al., 2005). The breast cancer risk for hair dye users was increased by 6 percent. The risk for bladder cancer was barely above normal; the risk for hematopoietic (blood) cancers was increased by 15 percent. Other cancers were examined by only one or two studies, “of which the pooled or single relative risk was elevated for brain cancer, ovarian cancer, and cancer of the salivary glands.”

Hair dye use has been clearly incriminated as a cause of relatively commoner cancers, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (the cancer from which Jacqueline Kennedy died), multiple myeloma, and leukemia. There is also strong evidence that hairdressers have higher rates of bladder cancer.

In the January-February 2005 issue of Public Health Reports, researchers at Marshfield Clinic Cancer Center in Marshfield, Wisconsin, pooled data from epidemiological studies and examined the influence of hair dye type, color, and study design. They found that “personal use of hair dye products increases bladder cancer risk by 22 percent to 50 percent vs. non-use,” (Huncharek & Kupelnick, 2005). They concluded, “The available epidemiological data suggest an association between personal use of hair dye products and increased risk of bladder cancer.”

WHAT TO DO

Put off using permanent and semipermanent hair coloring products as long as possible. Avoid the extremely dark and darker shades of hair dye products—brunettes, blacks, and blues seem to pose the highest risk. Use hair dyes as infrequently as possible, and if you must use a product with coal-tar dyes, try to choose one with the least dyes and low concentrations.

FDA Consumer magazine says, “Consumers might also want to consider using henna, which is largely plant-derived.…These colorings don’t fall into the coal-tar dye category, and therefore any additive ingredients they contain have been tested for safety before marketing, in accordance with FDA requirements.”

THE HENNA CONNECTION

For women and men who are seeking alternatives to petrochemical hair dyes especially to cover gray, one company has nearly perfected the henna process for covering gray. Light Mountain Natural Hair Color and Color the Gray comes in a wide range of color variations and to our knowledge is the only henna product available today that can entirely cover gray.

The Light Mountain line not only adds great color shading to hair, but it conditions too, as henna is a terrific hair conditioner! Light Mountain comes to consumers from Twin Lakes, Wisconsin-based Lotus Brands, Inc.

Easy to use: simply add water, mix, apply and rinse; the Light Mountain Natural Hair Color Kit is the perfect alternative to modern, chemically derived hair products. Free of peroxides and chemicals, Light Mountain’s hair color produces “gorgeous reds, rich auburns, deep browns and ebony blacks.” The plant-based, cruelty-free complete henna kit also comes with plastic gloves to give you a helping hand during application, plus a plastic hat to hold everything in place while the henna works its magic.

Carried in almost every health food store and natural market, Light Mountain Natural Hair Color and Color the Gray can also be found at www.lotusbrands.com, or call Lotus Brands at 800-824-6396.