People around me all dye their hair as if they are eating food everyday. The colors are bright, pale, dark, or even sometimes very vivid; neon almost. I find them not attractive and they can also damage your hair.

I have a few of my friends who dye their hair regularly and everytime I see their hair color change, I don’t understand. Why? Why would you want to change your hair color so often? Is it worth it? I completely go against dyeing your hair regularly. I don’t mind if you dye your hair once and then leaving it until the color fades away. But dyeing very often; that’s what’s triggering me a lot. I have a lot of friends. Some of them, or most of them, dyed or still dye their hair in brown, light brown, or other colors. Even my brother dyed his hair years ago and so did my best friend, but didn’t since then. The majority of my friends right now dye their hair at least once in a few months. That’s crazy and a waste of money! However, I do admit that when I was younger, (when my BFF and brother dyed their hair) I had this feeling of wanting to dye my hair too. Because everyone around me all started to dye their hair, I felt like I was left out and was the only one who wasn’t following the trend. However, now, I don’t have any feeling of changing my hair color.

I think dyeing is a waste of money and of time.Because most dyes have strong chemicals that might cause allergic reactions and diseases, I don’t feel that taking dangerous risks is reasonable. They can even harm your health and you could die, eventually, if the chemicals are too strong.

Hair dyes consist of chemicals, unlike the natural dyes from plants, animals, and vegetables. They are called “synthetic dyes” (“Dye”). For some, they even have ammonia, peroxide, or other such as para-phenylenediamine, PPD. Para-phenylenediamine is a chemical which is stronger in dark hair dyes than lighter shades (Blomberg). It may not sound as dangerous, but it is one of the causes of which allergic reactions occur.

Dathan Hamann of the University of Arizona College of Medicine claims that “‘PPD is implicated in allergic contacted eruption, but also in critical hypersensitivity reactions and it has been implicated as a possible risk factor for a number of cancers.’” (“Hair Dyes and Cancer”). Hair dyes which include PPD in their compound has a higher chance of you getting cancer than any product.

Over 5,000 different chemicals are used in hair dye products, some of which are reported to be carcinogenic, meaning they can cause cancer. It is estimated that more than one-third of women over age 18 and about 10% of men over age 40 use some type of hair dye (“Hair Dyes and Cancer”). With this research, I don’t understand one bit why so many of my friends dye their hair. One of my friends who’ve dyed their hair about twice, Essie, claims that “I wanted to dye my hair because I wanted a change and because it was a big trend that time.” I understand that some of you are bored of the plain old hair color that you’ve had since you were born and want to have a change. I had a time like that too and that’s totally fine. I don’t want to go against your opinions. But, Essie soon said, “After I dyed my hair, it was really dry, as well as my scalp.”

When you dye your hair, the hair dye soon damages your hair roots and it’ll become really dry. That’s what I’m concerned about; dry scalp and ruined hair roots. Drying out the scalp isn’t the only problem. Other allergies may occur, such as scalp burning. If serious, a red rash can erupt, or the entire face may drastically swell, due to the hair product which may contain very powerful chemicals. In extreme cases, an allergic reaction can trigger Anaphylaxis, which is a severe multi-system reaction that can cause death (Blomberg).

I don’t want all of these to happen when someone dyes their hair because they can even cost your life. I don’t think dyeing your hair should be this risk taking and some people are so unaware of these problems that may happen. Dyeing your hair is not just turning your hair into a different color; it has a lot of chemicals that can damage your scalp, or hair, and you can get cancer from some brands of dyes, too. I know some may want to have a change and dye their hair, just like Essie. However, you always have to be cautious on all these reactions and accidents that may happen to you.