Hair Dye

I have been in a very feminist/anti-materialistic mood lately, so I thought that my next article should be about hair dye. How many women have you noticed who don’t dye their hair? How many men have you noticed that don’t dye their hair? The number of men that do not dye their hair is far greater than women, just because society puts the pressure on women to look perfect. Make-up, high heel shoes, hair dye, sexy clothing, what does it really say about women’s place in society? Men do not have to act like that, although some do, but it is one of those societal norms that women have to be perfect eye candy for the men to stare at or else the women in their lives (including their mothers) will judge them for not fitting into the norm. It is really not fair. Women should be allowed to always wear paints, not wear make-up, or dye their hair just like men.

So what do you do about hair dye when there is an allergy alert on the package? On top of that, I wonder if someone will discover that hair dye causes cancer just as much as sun burns do. People with food allergies should not be expected to dye their hair all of the time.

I really tried not dying my hair for awhile, but my hair went grey earlier than other people. Someone first pointed out to me that I had one grey hair who was sitting behind me in my high school geometry class when I was 15. Do people with food allergies go grey younger than people without? Well, some men started to make fun of me for having grey hair at work when I was in my mid-20s, so one day I decided to give in to the pressure and dye it.

On first examining the packages of hair dye, I noticed that some had nut products in it to be more natural and botanical looking, while others did not. So I stuck with one of the brands that did not have nuts on the label. At first, I just dyed the easy part in the front by my face with dye that I bought at Walgreen’s. I did not get an allergic reaction at all, but hair dye really leaves my scalp feeling very dry and flaky. After a while of trying it on my own, I decided to occasionally go to the salon to have someone else dye my whole head. I hate the burning pain that happens, so I really never do that more than 4 times a year and attempt to cover my roots with a 10 minute dye by my face and a bit on the top the rest of the year. Who really cares about the back of my head? So I ignore that part. A lot of the time I do not mind ignoring my grey hairs coming in for an inch or two, either, and ignore them. I do prefer to not use chemicals. It’s much healthier for the body, especially for someone with sensitive skin and a sensitive immune system.

Another option for allergy friendly dye is henna. If you go to a beauty supply store, you will find henna with peanut oil in it, so do not buy it. However, you can find henna powder online in which you only need to mix water in to it. The problem with this is that it stinks worse than the chemicals in commercial dyes and it takes about 40 minutes to dye your hair instead of 10 minutes. One place to buy this henna is at the Henna Hut website: http://www.hennahut.com/. This dye is truly all natural, chemical free and should not cause an allergic reaction when only mixed with water.