When grey hairs start to make an appearance many of us reach for a box of hair dye to cover the problem. And even those lucky enough not to be tackling the effects of getting older like to experiment with different hair colours. But have you ever stopped to think about the chemicals in hair dyes and the damage they could be doing to both your body and the environment?
Take a look at any commercial hair dye product and you’ll find that it comes with a weighty list of warnings about the importance of doing a strand test before using the product. In fact, some warnings state that in extreme cases an allergic reaction could even cause death. It’s fairly obvious then that commercial hair dyes contain a lot of powerful chemicals.
When we use hair dyes, the chemicals contained within them can be inhaled or absorbed by the scalp, before passing into our bloodstream. And of course, when you rinse off the hair dye, it goes down the plug hole and into the water system which some think could be harmful to the environment.
Put off by the potential harm that these chemical cocktails could cause, many people are turning to more natural alternatives to commercial hair dyes. There are many products available online that contain far fewer chemicals than many of the brands available on the high street. And if you want to go one step further, you could even start experimenting with natural ingredients that can be used to colour hair – such as lemon juice, henna or plant-based hair dyes.
You can find a wide range of websites selling natural hair dyes online.