I loved dying my hair. The first time I did it, I was maybe 13, and I always had loud, proud hair through high school. Bright hair wasn’t as standard in the late 80s and early 90s as it is today, so I stood out. Just getting the hair dyes was hard enough. Not like today, where you can walk into Wal-Mart and pick up all the neon colors you could want, or go to a salon and get even more options. (Or go to a beauty supply store if you know what you are doing.)
If you read my post on why I quit using nail polish, you might be interested in why I stopped dying my hair a few years ago. I recently angered a few people by saying I prefer natural color now, and they were highly offended. If they want to dye their hair, their decision is their body. But I will continue to question how safe it is and that there are real reasons to stop. And embrace being natural.
If you want rainbow hair, that is your decision. Just know that it doesn’t come without side effects.
One other oddity to mention? The darker the color, the higher the apparent risk.
Hair dye, in general, is barely regulated in the United States. Only rarely is it forced to be removed from the shelves or its ingredients shaken up. For example, lead acetate was only banned in 2023. Lead. Let that sink in! It took years for the FDA ban to be fully enacted, and manufacturers fought back hard.
So, in true Wild West fashion, you have no idea if anything you use is safe for your skin—this is true for ALL cosmetics.
I was 16 in this photo, and I was wearing orange hair. I had pink, orange, blue, green, white, and many other colors.
In my 20s, I went to reds and was often auburn. In my 30s, I kept my hair brown or deep red, sometimes burgundy.
But during those times, I often ignored the warning signs I was seeing and feeling. Whether I dyed my hair or went to a salon didn’t matter.
The scariest encounter was my roommate when I was maybe 19 or 20. She would often dye her hair jet black. One day, she dyed her hair and started having an allergic reaction. She was having anaphylaxis, but we didn’t know what that was back then. She ended up in the ER on steroids. Her entire face swelled up, her eyebrow area was so swollen that it drooped over her eyes! She had to sleep sitting up, and it took a week before she looked somewhat normal. She was told not to come to work (she was a waitress) because “you will scare customers.” Good times, then.
A few years later, at 24, when I was pregnant with my oldest, I dyed my hair. My entire scalp felt on fire, and I had hives there. It itched for days, and I’d think now I had a chemical reaction, and my scalp got a good chemical burn. My skin was weeping even.
After that, I stopped dying my hair for a few years, but I started again once my son was about 3. I did the “allergic reaction” test on my arm and passed it, so I decided I was okay.
Usually, it didn’t bother me too much. The most common side effects were eye-watering ammonia and similar, which made you feel like your lungs were on fire. If I were doing my hair, I’d often go outside to apply the dyes so I could breathe.
You might think that would be a wake-up call, but I have to think that, like most people, I was — it was the cost of beauty in our minds. Somehow, people used to flock in to get perms, which were horrible compared to hair dye!
As a teen, I remember bleaching my hair and then coloring it. The bleach stung and choked my lungs. But then dyeing my hair after? My scalp just ached. And my hair would feel like plastic after. While the color would pop, it wasn’t worth the feeling. But in 1989, no one really talked about wether these chemicals were safe.
I mean…I loved burgundy shades in 2017.
But homesteading started to change me. As with my nails, I started noticing a trend. My head started feeling off every time I had my hair done. My scalp would be tender to the touch – even brushing was painful to do, for a few days every dye session. I would get miagraines after. The smell of the dyes got stronger, no matter the brand I used. My hair is thick and absorbs like a sponge. I often have had to use 2 boxes to get full coverage. Salons would ignore when I’d tell them this, then halfway through, would run back to make more.
I was soaking my skin in strong chemicals and feeling the effects.
Somewhere around the start of the pandemic, I quit dying my hair. I had no idea if I had grey or silver hair. I just let it grow, trimming it here and there, until one day, it was nothing but my natural color.
Which, honestly? I like my natural color, varying shades of brown (it’s lighter now than it was as a child when it was almost black).
Do I have grey? Yes. And I am OK with that. I don’t feel the need to dye my hair anymore.
Once I stopped doing it, my scalp felt so much better. My hair is strong and often vibrant on its own. I am not exposing my skin to strong chemicals through my scalp or inhaling them.
I have had to adjust my perception of what is cool, pretty, and such, but now I prefer natural-colored hair to others. When I look at brightly colored hair, I can only think, “What damage are they doing to their bodies?” And that is something we cannot say is safe. Hair dye isn’t safe by any means.
But, it is your decision to make. You might want to still pop with color.
~Sarah