Wish to get a balanced perspective on hair dye allergies

[Rosemary349]

Hi Everyone

I am worried about the latest media reports about hair dye allergies - in particular the sudden death/anaphylactic reactions.....I posted in the dermatology community but decided to repost below.  I am particularly looking for a blanaced perspective.  I was hoping there would be medical professionals that could answer the question but it seems that when i click on the expert's forum I don't actually get to it.

I'm very anxius and already aware of the horror stories and so I am not looking for more reports of what could happen, but rather the likelihood of it happening....

My post is below:  thanks for any thoughts/comments that could be helpful in enabling me to decide to continue to use hair dye.



Hi there

I really need some objective views on this.  I am a young woman who has patches of grey hair already and it really affects my self image so it is always permanently dyed.  If i were older then I would just allow it to remain grey but even then it wouldn't look very good because it is in patches only with very dark brown hair everywhere else.

In the UK there have been some real horror stories of women dying suddenly after 20 mins of using hair dye and the culprit is believed to be PPD.  The problem is that PPD is in every hair dye that actually works.  I've tried numerous organic versions and they leave the grey orange for a few days before returning to grey.

I mentioned it to my doctor during a recent visit and he said i am just being anxious - that it is highly unlikely for this to happen or even for an allergy to occur in a milder way.

However i'm scared.  It's not an allergic reaction i'm scared of, if it were mild....it's sudden death....fro the descriptions even bystanders couldn't do anything (and I live alone  :-(  )

Anyway i thought the other day that i'm reading all the scare stories etc, but i haven't actually asked anyone with any medical training.  I need to get this in persepctive.  If it is relatively safe then I need to start using the products again - all be it I will always use them far more carefully.

I know all about patch testing - if anyone is going to mention that please note that it's my belief that if you are going to be violently allergic the patch test is useless, it will either cause that (no matter how small the amount applied) or it will fail to show up and the allergy will go ahead with the full application anyway.  I am happy to be corrected on this though.

I would really value anyone who is happy to take the time to comment.

Thanks  :-) .

[margypops]

you may find a lot of information from experts  if you go to the search engine , I havent heard about deaths but I do know PPD's are not good and I get reactions .Sorry I cant help more