Pregnancy is a time when your body undergoes tremendous changes. It's not just your belly that grows out at the time of pregnancy but it brings changes to your whole system starting off from the hormones to the mood swings. Pregnancy is a time where a woman needs to take utmost care of herself, not just because she is carrying a life inside of her womb, but also because a woman’s body becomes way too sensitive and there are a lot many changes going on. Where various lifestyle and food habits change during pregnancy, hormonal changes also impact our hair and skin. Here we are going to learn about a few changes that our hair goes through at the time of pregnancy and 5 tips that a woman needs to follow in order to keep herself and her baby safe while colouring hair.
Is Hair Colouring During Pregnancy Safe?
One of the frequently asked and thought about questions that women around the globe have in their minds is: is it safe to colour hair during pregnancy? As hair dyes and hair colours are loaded with chemicals such as ammonia, using hair dyes can be risky to an extent. According to some research done by researchers around the world, the chemicals present in permanent and semi permanent dyes are not highly toxic and are safe for use. Although hair dyes and colours consist of chemicals, the chances of getting exposed to them is very low. Although the risk factor is very low, a pregnant woman can still avoid using these colours and dyes in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy as in this time period the risk of these chemicals harming the baby is very high. It is so because the baby develops its major organs in these inicial 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Tips to Follow While Colouring Hair during Pregnancy
As said, pregnancy brings a long tremendous change in a woman;s body and the other factors do not just harm the pregnant woman but the life of the baby inside her womb as well. It is important to take utmost care of a woman during the time of pregnancy as exposure to a little risk factor can lead to a lot of future complications. Here are 5 tips that can be followed by a woman in order to dye her hair during pregnancy while staying safe.
#1 Wear Gloves
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Gloves come as an essential part of any standardized hair colouring kit. These gloves not just help you in protecting your hands from the colour of dye getting transferred onto them but from the chemicals present in it as well. Gloves protect the skin of your hands from the chemical permeation caused due to permanent or semi-permanent hair dyes. Hair dyes can be bad for your skin and can lead to pigmentation, skin discoloration, irritation and rashes on your skin. As para phenylenediamine or PPD is a chemical found in these hair colouring dyes, it tends to cause an allergic reaction on your hands that can take the shape of dermatitis as well which results in an irritating and itchy skin rash.
#2. Leave it on for minimum duration
Leaving the hair dye on for more time than suggested has to be the worst at home hair colouring mistake out of all. Leaving that chemical based hair dye into your scalp for longer durations than suggested can have many downsides of its own. Not just that they would stain your scalp and make your hair brittle and dry, but doing so can lead to these chemical based dyes into your scalp and from there to your body. Once these chemical rich hair colours and dyes either semi-permanent or permanent, seep into your body through the scalp, can cause a lot of harm to your and your baby’s health as well. Not just this but if hair dyes penetrate into a person’s skin in large quantities then it can result into fatal condition like cancer.
#3. Sit in a well ventilated room
Certain smells can cause your head to ache and you might be allergic to the others. Pregnant or not, it is always advised to sit in a well ventilated room when coloring your hair using thode chemical based dyes. As these hair colours and dyes are loaded with chemicals such as ammonia and persulfates, they tend to create toxic fumes. Breathing in these toxic hair dye fumes can lead to breathing issues. It is not just the asthematic patients that might face breathing difficulty due to inhaling the toxic hair dye fumes but others as well.
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Sitting in a well ventilated room can help in letting those fumes out and will reduce your chances of inhaling them and hence will protect you from its harmful effects.
#4. Rinse your scalp
A very important step that needs to be followed after every hair colouring treatment is rinsing off the scalp. When hair dyes are applied on hair roots they tend to get transferred on the scalp as well. Not rinsing the scalp can cause these harmful chemical based dyes to build up on the scalp. As these dyes stay on the scalp for a long period of time, they would noy just stain the scalp or make your hair dry and brittle but will also result in conditions like cancer. As this chemical buildup stays on the scalp for long hours, it seeps into the body through the scalp and can have some serious consequences.
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It is advised to rinse off your scalp with your regular shampoo and follow it by a conditioner in order to prevent this chemical build up on your scalp and its aftermath.
#5. Take a patch test
A very important step that one should follow not just with hair colours but any beauty product that is loaded with chemicals. No matter if you have been using the same hair colour since ages, taking a patch test is a must. As with pregnancy a lot many changes occur in a woman’s body. Due to these changes the body tends to react differently to even the most common and used products.
