Hair Dyes have to be one of the greatest items in retail sales. Companies get giant vats of industrial chemicals, divide it up into tiny portions worth a few cents, and sell them for 10 or 20 dollars.The profits must be incredible. Plenty left over for advertising, which creates the desire for more tiny bottles. Add a pretty girl on the box, and somehow women see it as a magic potion.
Alas, there's no magic involved. It's only the industrial solvents Peroxide and Ammonia. All hair dyes have them, even 'All Natural' types. Both of these can also be used as household cleaners, and then the instructions warn not to breathe it, wear gloves, and don't get it on your skin. And yet when they're in hair dye you can rub it into your brain!
Did you know that the nazis used Peroxide as rocket fuel? NASA never used it, because it's too dangerous! If you ever saw those old movies of V2 rockets exploding you'll know why. Also, it's so toxic technicians in full safety gear would sometimes drop dead while working with it.
Yet deadly chemicals are necessary for the process to take effect. A complete list of chemicals includes:
p-phenylenediamine, which form hair dyes on chemical reaction, and preformed dyes, e.g., 2-nitro-p-phenylenediamine, which already are dyes and are added to achieve the intended shades, in an aqueous, ammoniacal vehicle containing soap, detergents and conditioning agents; and, (2) a solution of hydrogen peroxide,
4-methoxy-m-phenylenediamine (4MMPD) or 4-methoxy-m-phenylenediamine sulfate (4MMPD sulfate)
carcinogenic formaldehyde as well as Cocamide DEA (a substance which can be contaminated with carcinogenic nitrosamines or react to produce a nitrosamine during storage or use)
lead acetate, used in 'removes the gray' type hair dye.
So you say the goverernment will protect you. Wrong. In 1938 the Federal Drug Administration was banned from interferring with hair dye! The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act allows the FDA to ban any product, with the exception of 'coal tar derived hair dyes'. (coal tar is the old name for petrochemical products, which are used to make all the above chemicals.) FDA paperwork states "a cosmetic manufacturer may use any ingredient or raw material and market the final product without government approval." Hey, those little bottles pay for a lot of lobbying, and bribes. (or is that the same thing?)
In 1979 the FDA tried again. They found that chemicals in hair dye caused cancer, and told the hairdye companies to put the following on the boxes 'Warning - Contains an ingredient that can penetrate your skin and has been determined to cause cancer. ' Once again the hair dye packagers lobbied, and politicians delayed the requirement until 'more testing was completed'. Those tests are still 'being done'. Ha! The mighty FDA brought low by some bleach pushers. They can go after cigarette companies, but hair dye is forbidden.
Other labs have found that the use of permanent and semi-permanent hair dyes is associated with a significantly higher risk of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, multiple myeloma, leukemia, Hodgkins disease, and breast cancer. Studies of hairdressers concluded that they were at a higher risk of developing bladder and other cancers. Research has also found that children whose mothers used hair dyes shortly prior to conception or during pregnancy have a cancer risk ten times higher. The most common threat to health is the ingredient phenylenediamine. This compound can be extremely irritating, and even cause blindness if applied into the eyes.
Supposedly, 50 million women dye their hair, and when they're done they wash the chemicals down the drain to wash into the rivers, oceans, and back into the air as rain. Billions of bottles of industrial solvents treated as 'magic potions' when they are really hazardous waste. Where's all the Enviromental Groups? Where are the tree huggers? Oh, yeah, they're all dye-jobs too.
Yeah, but it makes you look real pretty. I don't understand the draw of hairdye. I have blond hair but would never dye it. Men dyeing their hair is especially sissypants effeminate doofus. 'Dye-jobs' give various reasons for doing it, such as purity, innocence, and angelic qualities. (honest, they say that. If that's true, then we True Born must be an elite group. We have 'Hair by Almighty God'. )
Perhaps they realize the power of the dye companies and want to suck up to it. They're big and influential, and demand submission.The media helps spread the image to help sell more dye. Individuals think it somehow 'makes them better'. You might become a star. If that image was true, we True Blonds should have the top positions in every job. We were given our hair by God. Yet the dye-jobs get the media attention, because true blonds don't need to buy dye.
here are some links, or do a search for 'hair dye ingredients'.
http://www.injuryboard.com/ Do a search for causes-Defective and Dangerous Products-Hair Care
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-prd.html FDA Cosmetic Ingredients
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fdahdye.html Health Risks, including Cancer
http://www.projectcensored.org/stories/c1998.htm # 2 Story-Cosmetic Products Carcinogenic