Hair Dye can be hazardous to your hair, here's a side effect you should be aware of, when using hair dye products.
Anyone who uses hair dye products in their hair, have all read the disclaimer on the box. We have all seen it. Do a patch test, by applying some of the hair dye application on a small patch of your hair, some products suggest the inside of your wrist, and all say 24 hours before putting the application over your entire head.
What they don't tell you is why?
I am about to fill you in the gory details of why, with graphic photos, and details of what can happen to anyone who choses to have their hair dyed, whether it's from a box of dye from the store, or at your local salon.
As people get older, and the grey starts to set in, or whether you're in your early 20's and want to have a new look, at one point or another you will consider dying your hair. Here are some of the dangers and warning signs you should be aware of prior to putting the highly concentrated chemicals in your hair, and on your scalp.
First off the top, I am not a Doctor, and I don't always presume to be right. This article is not intended in anyway as a means to give medical advice. If you are hurt, always seek medical advice from a Doctor. Getting burn cream for a chemical burn is very important, when you have been burnt by hair-dye, and you should contact your Doctor immediately if you have suffered a chemical burn.
I always go by my gut feelings, and judge by what I see. And I have seen something so heart-breaking, and scary, that can happen to anyone, that I, after getting the permission from the victim, am going to share her story with you, in the hopes that it may save you from suffering her fate.
For her own privacy and protection, and I am going to give her a nickname, and let's call her Daisy. Now Daisy is a sweet girl, a beautiful girl actually, she had always dyed her hair, for years, and never dreamed for one moment that a single application of dye would seal her fate for the next four years of her life.
She had put an application of home dye in her hair, she told me which product it was, and all that I am going to tell you, is that it's a popular brand who claims to cover grey hair. She had read the warnings signs, and followed the instructions on the box, which told her to put a patch of the application on a spot on her head, and she chose the top of her head, in the back.
She waited for a half and hour, and felt as though she had 1000 ants crawling on her head and biting her. It was burning, and felt really horrible, so she rinsed her hair out as quickly as she could. And the sink filled with clumps of hair. She had been losing her hair bit over time, as her hair had been damaged on the ends from dying her hair before hand, and she thought it was strange, and swept up all the hair, and threw out with the box. Having long hair way down her back, and it was very thick and full, she didn't think too much about it, and went on about her daily routine.
The next morning she kept feeling tingly, itchy, and the top of her head kept feeling a burning sensation. She reached up and felt the spot where her head was burning, and there was nothing there. Literally nothing. No hair strands tangling in her fingertips, nothing at all. Thinking it strange, she went into her bathroom, got a mirror to take a look at her head, and the mirror crashed on the bathroom floor, as Daisy went into a screaming fit, that brought the whole house into an uproar with everyone running to see what was the matter with Daisy.
The entire top of her head, in the back was bald. And there was even a strip of baldness right down the center of her head. It was bright red, and huge.
The large clumps of hair she found in the sink, was because her scalp literally threw up her hair. The toxic chemicals had literally stripped her scalp of ALL of her hair.
After she finally stopped crying, Daisy gathered herself up and went to the Doctor. The Doctor was appalled when he saw her head, and told her he had never heard of anyone losing their hair like that from a box of dye. He gave a prescription for her burn, and sent her on her way. The cream didn't work, and during the course of a year, she had tried about 4 different creams, which all didn't work.
She called the company and complained that their product had made her hair fall out, and she wanted to know what they suggest to people that this happens to, because nothing her Doctor has prescribed her worked. They were very defensive with Daisy, and they asked if she did the patch test, and she said lucky it was only a patch, or else my entire head would be bald. They told her that if she didn't do the patch test at all, she would be completely responsible for the incident.
The hair-dye company told her, that even though she did do the patch test, it was still her fault that her hair fell out, if she did the patch test correctly, than she would have known that she was allergic to the chemical and her body wouldn't have rejected the hair-dye. They offered to repay her the sum of $4.95 for the box of dye, and warned her that if she tried to sue them, that she would lose, because it's not their fault she was allergic. They told her they are not obligated to give her any advice on what she should do about the ALLERGY, not BURN, that was up to her to follow her Doctors suggestions, and that proved that she was incapable of following instructions. They sent her the cheque for $4.95, and Daisy still has it, and never cashed it, because it was such an insult.
Thinking how typical that sounded, the company denying liability, she and I, did a little research and found out that people have won cases for as high as $150,000 for toxic hair loss, and that Bad Boxes of Hair-Dye can be sold. A warning to anyone thinking of pursuing a lawsuit, there is what they call a shelf-life on suing a company for liability, so if you are planning on suing them for toxic hairloss from hair-dye, you have to do it right away.
Daisy however, didn't pursue the lawsuit, only because she felt that she suffered enough, and couldn't be bothered to deal with a company that has more money to fight her, than she had in strength or resources to fight them.
Daisy struggled horribly with the loss of her hair. Her self-esteem dropped so low, she dropped out of her society circles, for shame and embarrassment she wouldn't date, she kept her hair tied up, wore plenty of hats, and after one year she had only one tiny ring of hair grow around the outer circle of her bald spot, that was four fingers wide, and four fingers high.
The only product that seemed to help promote her hair growth was cortisone. Cortisone was developed I believe in 1949, and in interviewing a local Doctor, I was told that back in the 1960s, cortisone was used for just about everything, that was until people started to have side-effects, the skin started to thin. Thinning as in turning a bluish opaque color, and being dry and flaky. He told me that was due to the fact the doses were between 60-90%. Now a-days, they prescribe cortisone in 0.5 or 1.0%, and you would have to use it four or five times a day, for 7 years consecutive for anything like that to happen, and that would be at 30%, and the thinning of the skin is an old wives tale. So ask you Doctor about cortisone. Some countries it's an over the counter cream, in other's you have to get it prescribed.
Anyway, the cortisone helped her hair growth, it did help with the redness, and terrible soreness. But it was minimal, and it didn't help the other problem she was having. An uncontrollable itchy scalp. Poor Daisy, her scalp was irritated, itchy and drove her up the wall morning, noon, and night. She couldn't for the life of her, and for her Doctor either figure out why her hair was so irritated, but it was a constant struggle for Daisy, every day, with every moment that passed that she felt the pain, and the urge to just want to pull her hair, anything to get the burning to stop.
Another year went by, and Daisy's hair hadn't grown in much. Her Doctor told her that it can take a long, long time for hair to grow, and she just had to be patient.
I gave Daisy a bottle of this shampoo, the same one that's mentioned in my other article, and for the same reason, I am not writing this article to sell products, I won't mention which product it is, but if you message me, I'll send you the info. I might even do an article on the ingredients, and the product, so keep an eye out on my next issues.
Daisy tried the product, and it helped relieve some of the irritation, but she still had the sensations of burning, and the spots where the hair-dye touched were still irritating her. After another year went by, she had minimal hair growth in the spots, was in dire need of a hair-cut, and explained to the stylist what happened to her but when the hair-stylist saw the bald circle on her head, she jumped back and refused to work on Daisy's hair. Which made Daisy feel all the worse. It was a burn, and the stylist tried to tell Daisy she had alopecia. Daisy knew damned well that it was no alopecia, which is a toxic hair loss apparently due from stress. Daisy had toxic hair loss from using a bad box of hair-dye, and even when people tell her that there is no such thing as a bad box of chemicals she had an allergy, Daisy to this day will not believe one word. It is true that you can one day not be allergic, and one day, bam, you're allergic to something, but Daisy has died her hair since, mostly because she couldn't stand the dark roots growing in, and her once beautiful hair looked like a mess, she braved another box, and her hair didn't fall out.
A year prior to the box of dye making Daisy's hair fall out, she was in a salon, and was getting her hair dyed. She felt like ants were crawling and biting her on the head, and when she told the color technician, he went into a panicked frenzy and rinsed it out of her hair, but he didn't tell her why. He didn't tell her that her hair was about to all fall out, and she would have lost every hair on her head. All he told her was, that he made a mistake, and made the mixture too strong for her, and he was sorry, BUT still demanded payment. If he had explained to her what was happening, maybe Daisy wouldn't have gone through soo much torture, and lost her hair the following year.
After four years, Daisy's hair has grown back, and her bald spot is now the size of the tip of your finger, but the soreness is the size of a penny. Her hair still irritates her, even in that small space, and a few other spots around where she had been burnt four years prior. When she ran her fingers through her hair, it felt like porcupine needles along her scalp, and finally she decided she was going to do something about it.
She asked me if I could do some research, or figure out why after four years her hair still hurt. It didn't sound normal to me, and I kept thinking about the situation. Daisy couldn't keep her hands from rising to the top of her head, she was always touching her sore spots, they were sensitive and very tender in just a few areas.
She had a bad condition, and the shampoo I got for her did help in stopping the irritations, she was to the point that she was literally putting the shampoo on the spots, and leaving it there to dry. The only relief she had in years.
Poor Daisy, I asked her if she ever thought of just going to a dermatologist, or a local electrolisis, they usually run hand and hand, and they know hair, and ask them to check her skin. It sounded like a bad skin irritation, and nobody deserves to suffer for as long as she did. Those porcupine quills that stubbled on the top of her head weren't growing, and were making red spots on her head, they were driving her up the walls, and I told her they simply had to go, and the local electrolisis could probably be able to remove them with laser surgery.
Daisy decided to do it herself first. She got a pointy pair of tweezers, and a good hearted friend, and sat on a chair and said,
"Pull them out. Pull out all the needles on my head, and make them gone."
What does all this mean?
What this means, is that the burn can be so severe on your scalp, that your hair can become stuck in the folicles, and can either become ingrown, or simple can't penetrate the skin, so therefore, it grows thicker, not outwardly. Think of it like a man's beard, when they have ingrown, or dead hairs that become stuck and stop growing.
If your hair isn't growing back after a long period after you've been burned by chemicals.
You can check for the quill like hairs.
If you feel your hair, and it feels like needles pricking your fingers when you run your fingers along your scalp, you could have the dead roots.
For Daisy, this is what she did.
The harsh hairs, were short, and stubby, and very black and very thick. What Daisy figured out on her own, was that she had scar tissue from the bad burn, and her hairs were growing in oddly. They were stuck in her scalp. Every time a new hair tried to grow in, she would get itchy, and irritated, and it would be like a burning sensation. It kept her up most nights, driving her mad, until she started using this wonderful shampoo and conditioner I gave her.
But, the hairs that were stuck, that felt like needles, were like splinters caught in her head. Like big dark thick painful splinters. She had her friend pull all of the splinters from her head, about four, and they were long, and thick, and the best way to describe them is porcupine quills. They must have gotten stuck, and not able to penetrate the scar tissue, so they just got thicker and thicker until she couldn't' take the pain anymore.
So guess what?
It worked, removing the dead rooted hair.
Daisy's hair, for the first time in four years, is soft at the base, and for the first time she said she felt like everybody else. Normal, and she prays it is finally healed.
Don't try that at home.
Please don't go pulling out the splinters on your own, have your hair checked by a professional. Never touch the roots. I know Daisy did, but she's stubborn, and I am telling her story, the good and the bad. The bad thing is, you could give yourself a new bald spot and spend another year waiting for it to grow back.
A Qutoe from Daisy.
"Living your life, looking at everyone with normal shiny, healthy hair, people who don't feel the itch, the burn, or need to hide the burns are sooo lucky. You never know what you have until it's gone." Daisy said.
A good tip on healing your hair and scalp.
Keeping the air from touching the bald spots will also minimize the irritation, you can use elastics to keep your hair up, or cover the spots until they grow in. Unfortunately you need a lot of patience, and you'll have to learn to live with it, until it grows back. The good news is, that no matter how hopeless it seems, eventually it should all grow back. It's just a very, very, slow process. So hang in there. If you are one of the ones who suffer from extreme cases and your folicles are too badly damaged to grow back, don't despair, you can go to a hair specialist and have something done. Maybe even a hair transplant. So don't give up. Know there are other's out there going through what you are. And no one will judge you, it's a terrible thing to happen, and you will get through it.
Protect yourself from the dangers of toxic hair loss.
Please when you use hair-dye products, from a box or salon, have a check done first. Test the chemicals before you trust them. And, if you feel a burning sensation on your scalp, or it feels like ants biting you, get that stuff out of your hair as fast as humanly possible. It will take years and years of suffering to get back to normal, after only moments of a toxic incident.
Ways to find an attorney who specializes in Toxic Hair Loss from Hair Dye Products.
And if it happens to you, you can run a Google check on toxic hair loss by hair-dye, and type in lawsuits, with your city, and state name in the title. All the legal beavers who will take care of you will pop up on the search. Apparently you can sue the store where it came from, on the grounds of product liability, you can sue the salon, or the company that it came from. You do have those rights. You can also starting calling law firms and asking for referrals, but check to see what their ratio is on successful cases, and their experience. Most lawyers specialize in one aspect of the law, and are not knowlegable in another.
Daisy's take on suing the hair dye company.
As for Daisy, she said to tell everyone, that suing them won't bring your hair back, it won't stop the suffering, it won't help you with the sleepless nights, it won't bring you back your dignity, your self-esteem, and it won't make it any easier to live with. All it will do, is make your life a whole lot more stressful, because you have a long, long, long road to recovery ahead of you.
Daisy's progress.
Daisy's hair still bothers her today, it still burns in the spots, and she thinks maybe a few more of those quills are still there, or are maybe growing back in. She isn't sure if it will ever go away.
I will keep you posted on Daisy's recovery, as I always update my articles. I also posted the pictures of Daisy's hair in another article, as this one is long enough, so check down at the bottom of this article, if you want the link, and see for yourself what hair-dye is capable of.
Useful advice on dealing with the healing process when you've been burned by hair dye.
My advice to you, if this has happened to you, is don't be stubborn like Daisy, go to a dermatologist, and have your quills removed as they grow in, they may even have some type of treatment to help with the burning irritation. And good luck.
I have another article on Why Do I Pull My Hair, Betty's story. And it is a fact, that I had both of these ladies go through simular things, for the same amount of years, and both had different results. But both suffered as badly as the other. And I was with both of them through every step. If you want to read Betty's Story, here's the link.
Here's the link to my article with pictures of Daisy's Toxic Hair Loss from a hair-dye treatment.
Want to learn more on the subject?
Peace be with you, today and always.
Sacreeta
This article is written with the sole intention of informational purposes. It is not INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. The author nor publisher take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. Any information on the links provided is not the responsibility of, or is influenced by the author of this article, or publisher. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or other health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other health care provider.
