Sonia says: I have natural black hair and for years I had dyed it light brown. Then one day went back to black. Now my question is how do I get it back to brown? I’ve tried several dyes and nothing has changed but my roots.

The Right Brain responds:
How do you get your hair from black back to brown? You need to bleach out the dark color before you can add the lighter brown shade. You should probably have this done in a salon, but if you do decide to do it at home, make sure you buy the right kind of hair dye. In case you didn’t know, there are 3 different types of hair colors. Here’s a quick description along with the pros and cons of each:

The 3 Types of Hair Colors

Temporary Color

This is basically a colorful gel or cream that coats your hair. It lasts 1, maybe 2, shampoos at best. Sometimes less if you’re sweaty! Manic Panic is a good example of this kind of product. And if you’re really feeling frisky, Betty Beauty even makes a temporary color for hair *ahem* down there.

Pros: You can go crazy and make your hair day-glo red, blue, yellow or orange!

Cons: You run the risk of looking like a clown, which is bad. But only for a day or so, which is good. Unless the circus is in town that day, which is bad.

Semi or Demi Permanent Color

These colors use ingredients known as “direct dyes.” They stain the hair and take several shampoos to wash out. The new Sunsilk Color Boost products use this type of dye.

Pros: Let’s you experiment with a touch of color without much commitment.

Cons: The colors usually aren’t very good and you can’t add lighter shades on top of darker hair.

Permanent (or Oxidative) Color

This is the most serious type of hair color. It typically involves bleaching your hair to remove your natural color, then adds in color molecules that are locked inside the hair shaft. It should last until your roots grow out but some fading from washing will occur. Examples include Garnier Nutrisse, Revlon Colorist, and pretty much any coloring treatment you get in a salon. Highlights are a version of oxidative color but may only involve the bleaching step.

Pros: When done properly, this kind of color looks fabulous and lasts for weeks even months.

Cons: The chemical process is damaging to your hair, you’re stuck with the color for weeks (even months), and you have to recolor when your roots grow out.

Statistics say that more than 60% of women color their hair. But that Betty Beauty product has got me wondering…how many women color their hair “down there?” Is that too scandalous? Leave a comment and let the rest of the Beauty Brains community know what you think!

Mandy asks:  Whenever I dye my hair either at home or at a salon, my roots never catch the colour.  Do you have any ideas why?

Left Brain says:

This is an interesting question Mandy. I’m assuming you’ve considered and rejected the obvious answer that you are not putting enough coloring paste on the hair at the roots.  This is understandable because you are encouraged not to get any chemicals on your scalp.  But beyond this, the most likely reason your roots aren’t taking up color is that they are just too “healthy” or undamaged.  Let me explain.

How hair grows

First, you have to know a little about hair growth.  Hair grows by pushing its way out of the hair follicle onto your head.  It’s a bit like one of those Play-Doh factory sets where you squeeze the putty through a small hole.  So, the newest hair is closest to the scalp.  When hair is exposed to things like UV, heat, combing, shampooing, wind, etc. it becomes damaged.  And while damaged hair doesn’t look or feel as good as less damaged hair, it does have one significant advantage.  It is easier to color.  Why?  Read on.

Damaged hair colors easier

When you color hair, part of the process involves chemically loosening the outer layer (cuticle) so the color chemicals can get inside.  It turns out to be much easier to loosen damaged cuticle layers.  New, undamaged hair, such as the kind found at your roots, has a much stronger outer layer and does not loosen up enough to let as many color molecules in.  When the color molecules can’t get into the hair, they can’t change the hair color.

**Warning:  Try the following tips at your own risk.  You could end up with a hair color you did not want.

Tips for coloring the roots

If the warning didn’t scare you, then feel free to try either of these 2 things to get more color on your roots.

1.  Leave it on longer.
Leave the color solution on the roots for a longer period of time before rinsing it out. So, if the time on the box says 20 minutes, leave it on your roots for 30 minutes. This will give the chemicals more time to get into the hair.

2.  Color the roots twice.
If the first method isn’t successful, try this. The first time you do the coloring process, just follow the directions as normal, but save a small part of the solution (don’t even mix it together) to use for later. After you’ve finished coloring, combine the remaining solution and color the roots a second time. This double process should damage the hair enough to get it to absorb enough color. Everyone’s hair is different so you’ll have to experiment with how long to leave the color on.

Beauty Brains Bottom Line:

Coloring your roots is harder but it is possible.  You just need to do things a little different and be prepared for some unexpected results.

Carrie’s curious: First, I must say your site is amazing. I’ve been looking for years for an evidence- and research-based beauty site. Brilliant. I’d like to know more about henna. You mention it very briefly in the
article about “organic” hair dyes but you don’t go much further than that. Can one of “The Brains” do a feature on henna, and any other plant-derived dyes (if there are any) out there?

The Right Brain’s response:
Ask, Carrie, and you shall receive. We found a great resource for henna information, and it’s heavily annotated with references. We’ll paraphrase some of the key information here to answer your question, but we recommend checking out the site for more details.

What is henna

Henna is a shrub (Lawsonia Inermis ) whose leaves contain a tannin dye molecule known as Lawsone. Lawsone is released when the leaves are pulverized, acidified and made into a paste. This paste can be applied to hair or skin to give it a deep, reddish brown stain.

What colors does henna come in?

Despite what you might have heard there is no such thing as black or blonde henna. True henna ONLY comes in reddish brown. Any black or blonde hair dyes that claim to be henna are mixing henna with other materials that could be either other plant dyes or synthetic chemicals.

Can I use henna instead of permanent hair colors?

Using real henna creates a dark stain will provide long lasting color. However, as noted above, you’re limited to a single color pallet. Also, it won’t bleach color out of your hair.

Is henna bad for my hair?

No, real henna is not damaging, since it only stains the keratin protein in your hair. But some of the compounded hair dyes use oxidative and metallic compounds which can be damaging to your hair.

Are there other natural hair dyes that give different colors?

There are other natural dyes that can stain hair but remember these won’t lift color. (Again, they won’t bleach your hair lighter.) Here are the colors of ten natural plant hair dyes listed by hair color. Click the reference links at the bottom for a full description of each.

1. Red/Brown

• Henna: Lawsonia Inermis
• Walnut: Juglans regia
• Catechu: Acacia catechu

2. Blondes/Yellows

• Cassia obovata: also called “neutral henna”
• Catechu: Ourouparia gambir
• Saffron: Crocus sativus L.
• Chamomile: Anthemis nobilis
• Rhubarb Root: Rheum rhapoticum

3. Blacks

• Vashma: partially fermented indigo
• Karchak: castor bean

4. Blues

• Indigo: Indigofera tinctoria
• Woad: Isatis tinctoria

The Beauty Brains bottom line

It’s cool how many natural hair dyes there are, even though they don’t work as well as the oxidative colors.

References:
http://www.uga.edu/fruit/walnut.htm
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/
http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/
http://www.botanical.com/
http://www.allfiberarts.com/
http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/
http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/

After reading the Left Brain’s post on the link between hair dye and cancer, I felt pretty good about coloring my hair. But then I saw this article from Cosmetics Design that says a new study shows hair dyes CAN cause cancer.

New data on hair dye?

According to Cosmetics Design:

A small but consistent risk of bladder cancer was reported in male hairdressers and barbers.

While the panel was agreed that regular occupational exposure to hair dye increased cancer risk they found data on personal use inconclusive.

The evidence was adjudged to be insufficient to make a definitive conclusion on the carcinogenicity of hair dye when exposure is limited to personal use.

Clarification or confusion?

I was anxious to find out if this study contradicted the Left’s earlier assessment, so I downloaded the full report. (You can find the hair dye report here.)

Now I’m no medical researcher, but I’m even more confused after reading this. Basically it says the panel evaluated 17 different chemicals and rated them by the following criteria:

• Exposure data (where/how used)
• Human carcinogenicity data (any proof it causes cancer in humans)
• Animal carcinogenicity data (any proof it causes cancer in animals)
• Other relevant data

The study evaluates whether or not there is sufficient data to indicate the chemical poses a risk of human or animal carcinogenicity. It also provides an overall assessment that states whether the chemical can be classified as not carcinogenic, possibly carcinogenic, or probably carcinogenic.

What does this all mean?

Of the 17 chemical reviewed:

• 10 were not classifiable as to their carcinogenicity
• 6 where possibly carcinogenic
• 1 was probably carcinogenic.

The one chemical that had any clear indication of human carcinogenicity was 4, 4′-Methylenebis (2-chlorobenzenamine) or MOCA for short. But based on the report, MOCA is not used in hair dyes (and in a quick web search, I couldn’t find any evidence of hair dyes that used MOCA either.)

Of the six chemicals that were rated as “possibly carcinogenic” none are listed as being used in hair dyes. (One of them HC Blue 1, was banned from hair dye use in the 1980s. The rest are used in textiles, leather, or wool and one was used in manufacture of pesticides and similar compounds.) So to summarize:

• The report says there’s no evidence of cancer risk for consumers who color their hair.
• The report says there is a risk for professional hairdressers and barbers.
• But looking at the details in the report, I only see risks associated with chemicals that are not used in hair dyes anymore.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

I’m not trying to come across as a defender of dangerous chemicals but based on this report it doesn’t seem to me that they’ve shown any link real between the dyes used in hair dyes and cancer. If anyone else has another take on this report (are there any medical research technicians reading this?) please leave a comment for the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

–Mid Brain

Jessica’s colorful question: What makes hair color “organic” and how does it compare to regular box dye and professional haircolor? If organic color is still able to lighten natural hair color, would it need to have ammonia and/or peroxide in it?

The Right Brain’s black and white response:
As we’ve blogged before, right now there is no specific industry-wide definition of what makes a cosmetic “organic.” Different companies approach organic in different ways: some add organic extracts, others try to limit “harsh” chemicals. So when we saw Jessica’s question about organic hair color we were intrigued. It sounded too good to be true, so we asked her to let us know some specific brands that she had seen. Two of the names she came up were EcoColors and Organic Color Systems. Let’s take a closer look at each.

EcoColors

Jessica, even though you cited this brand as being organic, we can’t find anything on their website that actually states that.  But they do claim their products are designed for people who are worried about the chemicals used in “regular” hair dyes. They also claim that EcoColors are based on soy-derived ingredients. The impression their website gives is that their colors don’t use the same harsh chemicals that “regular” dyes do. Is this true? Not exactly.

It is true that one of the key ingredients, dihydroxyethyl soyamine dioleate, is soy-based. But the rest of the formula is a pretty standard combination of ammonium hydroxide and oxidative dyes with a hydrogen peroxide developer. So basically it looks like they’ve formulated their soy ingredient into a standard hair dye base.

Organic Color Systems

From what we’ve seen on their website, this brand never says that their product is organic. But the name of the product is says “Organic.” Sounds like a mixed message to us!

Ok, so they don’t claim to be organic, but they do claim to be ammonia free. In most coloring products ammonia comes from ammonium hydroxide (even Ecocolors as noted above.) Organic Color Systems is also an oxidative hair color system but they don’t use ammonia to raise the pH, they use a lower pH base in combination with heat. While this can still be damaging to your hair, if you’re sensitive to ammonia, this could be a good option for you.

The Beauty Brains bottom line:

These two hair coloring lines are trying to appeal to your fear of chemicals by being “Eco” and “Organic.” They may be perfectly fine hair colors, but don’t be fooled into thinking they’re better because they’re organic. To our knowledge it’s impossible to formulate a hair dye that is truly organic. (Henna dyes are about the closest you’ll ever get and those don’t lighten color.)

Do you color your hair? At home or in the salon? And what’s your favorite brand? Leave a colorful comment for the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Kylie’s question: What would ammonium laureth sulfate do to color treated hair?

The Left Brain’s colorful reply:

Ammonium laureth sulfate is a detergent commonly used in both salon and store brand shampoos. You might even find it in some body washes.

It will remove color from your hair about the same amount as other shampoo detergents such as Ammonium lauryl sulfate, Sodium lauryl sulfate and Sodium laureth sulfate. Even baby shampoo detergents like PEG 80 Sorbitan Laurate or Cocamidopropyl Betaine will strip color from hair.

But even worse than these detergents is water. In fact, if you just soaked your head in pure spring water, much of your color will be drawn right out of your hair (artificial color that is).

If you want to protect your hair color from fading, reduce the number of times that you wash it. Also, reduce the length of time you rinse it by using less shampoo when you do wash.

If you want more advice consider joining the Beauty Brains Forum and posting your question there. That way you can see what has worked for other people.

Finally, if you’re really worried about the effects of sulfates on your hair, here’s a link to Icon’s Sulfate Free Conditioner. The strange thing is, most conditioners don’t even USE sulfates - so this product doesn’t seem like much of a breakthough!

Here’s a fun survey for all you Beauty Brainiacs out there - take a look at the back of your favorite bottle of shampoo and tell us if you’re using sulfates or not.

Did you know that 94% of women who color their hair say they recolor for the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza season?

At least that’s what Ingenuity Products, the company that makes +Repelle Hair Color Stain Shield says. They conducted a study that also revealed one of the worst side effects of hair color is stained skin.

I must be hanging around the Left Brain too much because I’m becoming very skeptical about these press releases that come across The Beauty Brains desk. According to Ingenuity Products, over half of the women surveyed said that “hair color can stain skin.” And that even though over 90 percent of the women say they avoid getting hair color on their skin, almost half said they still experience skin staining when they color their hair.

I just have to wonder: is this really an issue? A lot of us color our hair but I’ve never heard that skin staining is a huge problem. What do you think? Is this a big deal? Would you buy a product to protect your skin from staining?

–Mid Brain

Hey Braniacs, Sarah Bellum here with another intriguing product review.

Did you see the Left Brain’s post about Five Beauty Gadgets That Really Work? Well, here’s another type of beauty gadget that lets you see when a product is working on someone ELSE. It’s called Gray-dar and it’s a computerized gizmo that reveals a person’s true hair color.

Revolutionary device reveals real hair color

Gray-dar is the creation of writer/graphic artist/ visionary/inventor Scott Duran. Scott’s device is a helmet equipped with special goggles that that screen out wavelengths of light given off by artificial dyes. When you look through the goggles you can see the guy’s true hair color.

How does Gray-dar work

Okay, it doesn’t really work. This is a gag device that I saw on inventorspot.com and just couldn’t resist freaking you guys out. If you want a laugh, you can read Scott’s imaginative and entertaining description of Gray-dar. Inventorspot.com is always an interesting read for me and the other Beauty Brains.

Show your true colors

You have to admit it’s an intriguing idea. It makes me wonder: if such a device really did exist, would you use it? Who would you use it on? A potential date? Some guy at work or at school? A female friend? Would you not care at all? Or, would you be worried that someone would be using Gray-dar on you? (If you’re really that worried about being caught with a bad dye job you can get rid of the evidence with Color Oops Extra Strength Hair Color Remover.) Or maybe Scott should invent a Gray-dar jammer!

Leave a comment and let the Beauty Brains community know what YOU think about seeing someone’s true colors.

Cindi says…My stylist keeps pushing “color-protecting” shampoo and conditioners at me. I was under the impression that no products like these could really help keep color lasting longer. Are there any kinds of shampoos and/or conditioners that really work better for color-treated hair?

Left Brain’s colorful reply.
You are right to be skeptical. The fact is most “color-protecting” products are really not much different than the regular products. You can see this by simply taking a look at the list of ingredients (LOI).

Let’s do a comparison of a salon brand, their color SKU versus a non-color one…

Paul Mitchell Color Protecting Shampoo

Water (Aqua), Sodium Myreth Sulfate, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamidoproply Betaine, Cocamide MEA, , Polyquaterium-44, Pathenol, Hydrolyzed Wheat Starch Protein, Cinnamidopropyltrimonium Chloride, Glycerine Stearate, Helianthus Annus (Sunflower) Extract, Dimethicone Bisamino Hydroxypropyl Copolyol/Hedychium Coronarium (White Ginger)/PEG-12 Dimethicone, Dimethicone Bisamino Hydroxypropyl Copolyol/Algae/Aloe Barbadensis Leaf/Athemis Nobilis/Lawsonia Inermis (Henna)/Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba)/Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary)/PEG-12 Dimethicone, Hydroxypropyl Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Glycol Distearate, Steareth-4, Fragrance(Perfum), Citric Acid, Tetrasodium EDTA, Sodium Chloride, DMDM, Hydantoin, Iodpropynyl Butylcarbarmate

Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Shampoo

Water (Aqua), Sodium Myreth Sulfate, Cocamide MEA, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate. Isoceteth-20, Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, PEG-150 Distearate, PEG-3 Dioleoylamidoethylmonium Methosulfate, Trimethylsiloxyamodimethicone, C11-15 Pareth-7, C12-16 Pareth-9, Glycerin, Trideceth-12, Polyquaternium-10, Triethyl Citrate, Bisamino PEG/PPG-41/3 Aminoethyl PG-Propyl Dimethicone/Algae/Aloe Barbadensis Leaf/Anthemis Noblis/Lawsonia Inemis (Henna)/Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba)/Rosmarnus Officinalis (Rosemary)/PEG-12 Dimethicone, Fragrance (Parfume), Citric Acid, Sodium Chloride, Tetrasodium EDTA, DMDM Hydantoin, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate

But if we remove things like fragrance, preservatives, claims ingredients and adjusting ingredients we’re left with…

Paul Mitchell Color Protecting Shampoo

Water (Aqua), Sodium Myreth Sulfate, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamidoproply Betaine, Cocamide MEA, , Polyquaterium-44, Glycol Distearate, Steareth-4

Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Shampoo

Water (Aqua), Sodium Myreth Sulfate, Cocamide MEA, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate. Isoceteth-20, Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, PEG-150 Distearate, PEG-3 Dioleoylamidoethylmonium Methosulfate, Trimethylsiloxyamodimethicone, Polyquaternium-10

They are still a bit different but not much. The most important thing is that the first 2 ingredients are the same (water & sodium myreth sulfate) and so is the secondary surfactant, Cocamidopropyl Betaine.

Unfortunately, neither of these products will protect your hair color much. Actually, the Super Skinny shampoo would probably work better for protecting color because it has silicone and conditioning agents in it. The only shampoo products that have shown some color protection are Tresemme and L’Oreal Colorvive shampoos. And even these products aren’t great because you still lose most of your color.

From a conditioner standpoint, there are no standard rinse conditioners that help protect your color. Your best bet is to use a leave-in conditioner spray. This will allow you to get the benefit from the conditioning agents without the negative effects of rinse water.

Beauty Brains bottom line

Protecting color from the damage caused by washing, heat and the environment is one of the hottest areas of research in the cosmetic industry. It seems there are papers published every month about the subject and no one has figured it out just yet. The shampoos and conditioners out there now won’t live up to their promise. Right now, your best bet for keeping your color is to wash less often and use a leave-in conditioner.

Every so often you hear about how chemicals in your cosmetics are responsible for cancer, birth defects or even autism. Unfortunately, the sources for these conclusions are rarely cited and when they are, they are typically a biased political committee or marketing group.

This article about hair dye and cancer caught my eye. Reading the title is downright scary “Can dyeing your hair really give you cancer?” The article continues to discuss a major conference that is being held in Belfast in which they’ll discuss the long-term link between bladder cancer and people with dyed hair. It even states

Evidence exists to indicate regular and long term use of hair dyes can be associated with the development of the cancer which kills more than 4,000 in the UK each year.

Now, if this article was all you read on the subject, you might conclude that hair dye causes bladder cancer. You might also get the impression that experts are in agreement. After all, they did get their information from Questor a European Environmental Research Centre.

Being the skeptical Beauty Brain that I am, I went to see what the medical journals had to say on the subject. A search of ‘hair dye’ resulted in 649 hits. The most current research is most useful and for answering questions like these, review articles are best. Review articles are designed to summarize all the work that has been published before.

Does hair dye cause cancer?

This article about hair dye and cancer published in late 2006 in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health concludes

“Results for bladder cancer studies suggest that subsets of the population may be genetically susceptible to hair dye exposures, but these findings are based on small subgroups in one well-designed case-control study. Replication of these findings is needed to determine whether the reported associations are real or spurious.”

This is a bit different than the definitive bladder cancer/hair dye link suggested in the newspaper article. Essentially the researchers say certain genetically predisposed people may have issues, but even this isn’t a certainty. A more thorough study is needed. But the important implication is that for most people, this isn’t a problem. Hair dye will not cause cancer.

Beauty Brains’ bottom line

What you read, see or hear in the mainstream media rarely tells the whole story. When it comes to issues about health and safety you would not be wrong to immediately reject their conclusions. If you want to know the real story do a little research from yourself using the least biased sources you can find. Research in this case would find that the majority of research shows no established link between hair dye and cancer. So, feel free to color with abandon. I know I will.

For a more thorough summary of the cancer/hair color research look at this article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.