Dying your hair is a great way to refresh your look, but have you thought about the damage that it does to your hair?
Many colouring products contain harsh chemicals which can dry your hair out and cause it to become brittle over time. In order to change the colour of your hair, the dye needs to break down your natural pigment. This is often done with peroxide, which dries your hair a lot. Ammonia is also used to lift the cuticle so the peroxide can get into the shaft of the hair in the first place, and that causes permanent damage too.
If you only dye your hair occasionally, you should be fine, as long as you use a good quality hair dye. Semi-permanent dyes are much kinder to your hair too, so consider using them instead of long-lasting options.
However, if you dye your hair a lot, you should be careful because you could still do a lot of damage, even if you use the best products. Most people have already heard this advice but unfortunately, they carry on as normal because they don’t realise just how much damage hair dye can do.
In some cases, hair dye could even lead to hair loss if you aren’t careful. Some hair loss is perfectly natural, but if you notice big clumps coming out in the shower and you are starting to develop thinning or bald patches, you may have done some serious damage to your hair.
How Does Dying Your Hair Lead To Hair Loss?
There are a number of different ways that dying your hair can lead to hair loss. Although it is rare, studies show that an allergic reaction to the dye can lead to telogen effluvium, a common cause of hair loss. Most people that have a reaction to their hair dye experience itching and redness or hives, but some people will have severe hair loss. That’s why it’s so important that you follow all of the instructions in the packet about patch tests, even if you have used the product before. The formulation may have been changed since the last time you used it, so you need to do the patch test every time.
Even if you are not allergic to any of the ingredients in the dye, it could still cause your hair to fall out. Although it doesn’t limit hair growth, it does a lot of damage to the hair, ultimately causing it to break and fall out. The act of dying your hair itself will pull some hair out because it involves a lot of pulling and tugging at the hair.
As we know the peroxide and ammonia in the hair dye can weaken the hair shaft and eventually cause it to break, so your hair begins falling out. If you dye your hair occasionally, you will just notice a bit more shedding than usual. But if you dye it regularly, you may notice big clumps start to come out. Hair loss will be worse with lighter shades of dye because they contain more peroxide. If you have dark hair and you dye it a light blonde on a regular basis, you’re likely to experience a lot of hair loss.
What Can You Do To Prevent Hair Loss?
If you have been careless with your hair dye routine in the past and you are already noticing a lot of damage to your hair, you may need to seek professional help. If you have big bald spots, you should visit a hair transplant clinic for treatments to help the hair grow back. But hopefully, things aren’t that severe yet and you can still rescue your hair.
The first thing you should do if you notice a lot of hair loss is stop dying it. Colouring it again will only do more damage, so you should let your natural colour grow out. A deep conditioning treatment will restore some of the moisture that is stripped away by the peroxide too.
You want to avoid doing any more damage, so be careful with heat treatments too. Lay off the straighteners and let your hair dry naturally instead of using a hairdryer. The combination of hair dye and lots of heat treatments is a disaster for your hair.
In the future, if you do decide that you want to dye your hair again, only do it occasionally and make sure you follow a good care routine afterwards to keep your hair healthy.
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