Are dye and highlights totally different chemicals? My highlights never t
This thread is NOT making me feel good. When I get my hair colored, it’s always itchy the first 24 hours…then I wash it a few times…and it’s “fine”. Makes me wonder…
@kelsmom, I’m sorry this happened to you and I’m glad you shared the experience with us here. I have a severe allergy to contrast dye (in medical imaging ). And it never occurred to me that I could have a similar reaction from hair color. Have only had highlights in the past, but I had been thinking about color. Now, I’m just going to leave my hair alone… (we don’t go gray in my family, we go white! )
I am going to be the contrarian here. Go gray, it is a beautiful color and you are all beautiful women. Do not be afraid that it show your real age, your real age is beautiful. You have achieved great things in your life, be proud. As my grandmother always “Never lie about your age. It is hard work getting out of bed each morning, take credit for all the work you have done.”
I had a reaction to a Brazilian blowout, but it wasn’t as severe, just itchy, leathery skin on my face, neck and scalp. I used Benadryl as a moisturizer for about a week, but didn’t go to the doctor. I had not previous had a reaction to any hair product, and since that was the first time I’d had a blowout done, I can only assume that it was something in the relaxer. I still color my hair with no problem, but will never have any kind of straightening done ever again.
My sister had the same sort of reaction as @kelsmom from hair dye. She no longer dyes her hair . However, since I get my hair cut every two weeks and keep it short, I thought it would be a waste to by dying my hair. Now that my gray is coming in, I look at it from a standpoint of in 2 weeks it will be gone
Some grays are beautiful–others are not :).
Contrast dyes in medical imaging often have iodine in them which is the allergy culprit. Two different animals.
Yeah, not everybody looks good when they’re going gray. I let mine grow out last year just to see what it would look like, and it was dishwater brown (my original color) mixed with silver-which is actually pretty on its own, but not when mixed with dishwater brown. So back to champagne blonde with honey lowlights .
I’ll give it another decade of highlighting my hair to let more of the silver come in. Then I’m going TURQUOISE (manic panic is vegan and ppo free).
FWIW, the foil highlighting that I get doesn’t touch my scalp. Also one of my friends has her hair balyaged, and that doesn’t touch the scalp either. It’s not super good if you want to cover grays at the root, though.
I have no intention of going gray. Age discrimination is alive and well. I will continue my double-process color–overall color and balayage–as long as I can get to my hair place.
I was going gray in my 20s. I dyed it to look my real age.
But once you start dying it, it’s difficult to go back. I have shoulder length hair. It would take a long time to grow it out and it would really look awful for a long time unless I cut it really short (not going to happen). Maybe I’ll start getting highlights and gradually go more natural.
Mine is a two step process…overall color…and then the highlights. Ack…I’m getting this done Thursday. If you don’t see me here…it’s because I’m getting IV benedryl.
I’ll be dying my hair this Thursday too thumper1. Maybe we’ll meet at the IV station!
Seriously, my head started to itch and feel hot reading this thread. I have never had a reaction but have developed adult onset allergies to just about everything. So I’m nervous this is going to happen to me.
At my last appointment I was talking to my hairdresser about going from dark brown to my, I believe mostly, grey hair color now. You obviously cannot just stop coloring because you will look like a skunk as the grey grows in. She told me that she does this gradual process that involves highlighting more and more over time. She told me she just finished the process with someone who works in the same building I do. She suggested I talk to her. I do not know her and asked people I work with if they know her. The ones that did all said something about her looking so much older lately.
That’s it! I don’t go to grey until I retire and move or spend a lot of time in the winter where people don’t know me!
So here’s a question…have any of you ventured into the colorful hair scene? I have, and have never looked back - 18 months ago as I was getting my hair (traditionally) dyed I was sitting in the salon and a woman walked by with the most beautiful shade of lavender hair, and I commented that I had wanted to try something like that - I was immediately talked into doing it before leaving to the Caribbean for a week, a month later. I have never looked back. I am currently sporting some dark violet low lights and pale blue highlights sprinkled throughout my (dyed), collar-length, curly, blonde hair. I have found the violets and lavenders work best for me (I tried turquoise, but it faded to green, and was pretty bad looking and took forever to go away!). I’m 58, and I do work in a creative industry (urban design) and I am a creative type, so it wasn’t a huge shock to my employer the first time…he did ask about the “psychedelic” hair, and I simply answered “I lost the bet” - he’s never asked or said anything since.
Well, that explains your avatar, JustaMom! Seriously, though, that sounds pretty cool (and brave!). 
@patsmom - a thousand years ago I heard my mom say “the difference between a good hair cut and a bad one is 6 weeks” …and I figured if it was awful I’d either cut it all off or just wait it out! Not thrilled with the light blue right now, and would much rather stick with the purples, but my hair morphs (color wise) as the days go by! I also find that depending on what I wear the colors are more or less intense. Yep, for certain, I am the “rainbow sheep” among my friends!
I work at an art school, and more than a couple students suggested their non-toxic non-permanent, brightly colored dyes as an option to me yesterday when they saw my swollen face! I can’t pull that off, but I really don’t feel quite ready to be gray. I had planned to make the transition after my D’s wedding next year, but it may have to happen sooner (and thank goodness this all happened now and not a year from now!). I have nothing against gray hair, but I just haven’t felt ready for that quite yet. I do not have salt-and-pepper gray … it’s full-on silver.
I touched base with my PCP yesterday. I had received a referral for an allergist from the urgent care, but I asked her if she had anyone she recommends. She said that she always refers her patients to a particular allergist she trusts very much. When I asked for the name, I almost fell out of my chair … it’s the doctor my mom worked for (more than 30 years!). He came to my wedding, for heaven’s sake!! I had no clue he was still in practice - he is 75. What a wonderful surprise!! I have to be off Prednisone for 10 days before I can come in for a chemical patch test, but he is going on vacation for 2 weeks then. I declined an appointment with his partner, because there is no way I am going to miss out on seeing Dr. R. I had just been missing my now-deceased mom’s allergy-expertise, and this link to her made my day.
By the way, my conversation with the allergist’s office made me feel like it’s not all that uncommon to develop an allergy to hair dye chemicals. What is interesting is that I have had bouts of hives on and off since the summer. I talked with my PCP about it in October, and I told her that I was trying to link it to diet. She suggested a visit to an allergist at that time, but it wasn’t an all-the-time thing, it wasn’t any sort of life-threatening reaction & I wanted to try to figure it out myself (I love puzzles …). If I had gone in, I would have most likely been tested for food allergies, and I really don’t think I have any. I have been reflecting on my bouts of hives, and I can link them to within 10 days of getting my hair dyed. I think this was building up for some time now. I honestly never connected the two, because it just didn’t occur to me. It’s not like it happened right away, and the hives were on my chest - or sometimes my arms - or sometimes my legs - and once on my back … there is a condition where people get hives for no real reason, and I sort of thought that must be my issue. Guess I was wrong.
It’s great that CC is so useful beyond just college-related topics. I consider myself prematurely grey so while I hate the maintenance of dyeing my roots every 3 weeks, I also can’t imagine not doing it. I don’t think I have a particularly pretty color of grey hair coming in so not sure what I’m going to do long-term. Fortunately I have not had the type of reaction that kelsmom did but will definitely be more vigilant after each application (I usually do it myself at home for 2 cycles and then have my stylist do it the 3rd cycle).
For,those pesky roots…get Style Edit. The powdered version is VERY easy to use. You just dab it on with the sponge applicator it comes with. I’m getting my hair done tomorrow for the first time since December. Really…you would NOT know.
I had a severe reaction to hair dye about 10 years ago. Within about an hour of leaving the salon, I got blisters at the base of my skull and on the tops of my ears. As I had never colored my hair before, it took me about 3 times to link the blistering with the coloring. My stylist suggested I try a different type of color and I had a patch test. I got cellulitis so bad that I had to go to the emergency room. I never colored my hair again; it wasn’t worth the risk. 10 years later, my scalp is still itchy in the original spots. It took about 9 months to grow out- regular haircuts and I used a stick coverup on the “racing stripe.” I’m lucky my gray hair looks good. I found a great stylist who cuts my hair well and positivity accentuates the gray hair. I wish I could color it as my face looks young for my age, but its not safe for me.
I developed an allergy to hair dye about 4 years ago and so far Aveda is the only product I have found that doesn’t cause a reaction. Spendy!