Hair Color During Pregnancy – Is It Safe?

Questions related to hair dyeing and bleaching among pregnant women are very common and they should be because hair colors and dyes involve a lot of chemicals and artificial ingredients in their composition that could be a potential threat to the developing fetus inside. But how much of those assumptions hold any value of truth to them? Let’s find out.

• Hair coloring in itself is not as simple a process as one would assume. There are various types and varieties in hair coloring that not many know of. Hair coloring is often generalized with the coloring that people do at home where a particular hair color is mixed and applied to the hair. Yes, for sure, that is hair coloring too, but that is just one method of it.

• Hair coloring as a process can be broadly classified into 3 types- permanent, semi-permanent, and temporary. The only difference between the 3 is the amount of chemicals used in the products for various coloring and the duration for which the same color sticks. Temporary coloring starts fading out after approximately 4 weeks, semi-permanent coloring starts to give away after almost 7 weeks. Permanent colors, however, last for a long time and give an almost natural look to the hair. There is no approximate window, after which one can say that permanent colors start to fade, but their application and usage is very low as compared to temporary and semi-permanent colors.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTION

The sole purpose of this article was to answer the question of whether the hair coloring during pregnancy is safe or not and so to address this question, let me just come out and say that hair dyes are perfectly safe for the usage of pregnant women without running any risk of harming the fetus in any way. The amount of chemicals found in temporary and semi-permanent dyes is too less and not toxic at all to reach the fetus simply because the skin of the mother shall absorb a major proportion of the same leaving extremely small proportions behind- proportions which under any circumstances cannot be considered harmful.

However, there is not much persistent data about permanent hair colors being used during pregnancy to comment upon its usage. Facts and numbers-wise, it would be fair to say or assume that the high level of toxins and strong chemicals in permanent dyes should be enough to cause some level of harm to the developing kid inside. But like I said, there is not much data to substantiate the claim. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, it would be recommended to stay away from permanent hair colors even if the claim to be the ‘best hair color’ because why take a risk with your child and that too over a little bit of hair?

SOME PRECAUTIONS

If it is really important for you to color your hair, then please, by all means, go ahead ‘cause like I said, temporary and semi-permanent colors cannot do any damage to your hair but even in doing so, make sure that you follow some of the below guidelines before venturing to use black hair color–

• Rinse the scalp thoroughly
• Treat your hair only after the second trimester
• Wear gloves
• Don’t leave the color longer than it says on the packaging

You can learn about parenting tips if you wish