hair dye

Image credits by Orin Zebest via Flikr

Hair dyes are a multi-billion dollar industry here in the United States. The cosmetic industry say up to 75 percent of us dye our hair in one form or another.

Considering that women make up 51% of the population of over 300 million, that’s a lot of dyed hair walking the streets!

I am starting to notice a crop of grey in my hair. The vain part of me worries that I would be completely grey by the time I turn fifty. The cautious part of me worries about the slightly increased chance of developing bladder cancer from sustained exposure to synthetic dyes.

Combed through some research and found out that the FDA actually has a consumer guideline issued for using hair dyes and I will paraphrase the report here:

Here is what the FDA says you should look for before you dye your hair

1.      You may consider delaying dying your hair until you start to grey.

2.      Use the plant based product -Henna rather than synthetic dyes as much as possible.

3.      Follow the application instructions on the hair dye package.

4.      Wear gloves when applying hair dye.

5.      Don’t mix different hair dye products together.

6.      Stay away from dying your brows or eyelashes –too close to the eyes.

It turns out that my hubby has a thing for grey hair so I will hold off dyeing my hair. Maybe this greying this is working in my favor after all.

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6 Comments

  • Good Job on grabbing a guy who loves grey hair! I go for my natural hair color – and worry about all these young girls dyeing their hair so early!

    • Sylvia,

      I certainly lucked out on getting the grey hair loving guy. He actually wished I had more grey for a salt and pepper look- weird right?

      Like you alluded to- henna-based/plant-based dyes are the way to go.

  • I didn’t start until I had a ton of white (it was never grey!) and I was glad I waited that long. Now, I’m almost white all over and I’m only 41. I’m not ready to go “natural” until at least 50 🙂

    • I hear you Gina.

      A lot of women tell me that their spouses prefer (cough- insist) that they keep their hair grey-free.

      If your partner feels the same way, please keep your color treatment appointments- just try to use henna-based hair dyes as much as possible.

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