Dyeing hair in pregnancy

[nickie2]

When I went for my first doctors appointment I asked if it was safe to use hair dye and she looked at me like I was a harmless simpleton and told me that there's no real risk, but that pharmaceutical companies just put a 'may not be safe during pregnancy' warning on the box, to cover their arses should anything unrelated happen with the pregnancy and the m2b gets litigious.

I asked my midwife today, 15 weeks and 2 hair dyes later, if it's safe and she said that many weren't and you have to phone the company to find out.

Does anyone know what the score is with this? Do you dye your hair? Do you know which brands are safe and which are not? And I guess if you can't dye during pregnancy, you can't dye if you're going to breastfeed. I can live with it, just want to know what the score is... and kind of regretting dyeing my hair those 2 times when I thought it was OK

[expatinscotland]

Yes, I dye my hair.

I use semi-perm dyes at home. Before, whilst pregnant with my first two, I had it professionally highlighted.

It's fine.

[fledtoscotland]

i've had my hair dyed professionally through both pregnancies. IIRC my hairdresser said your scalp can become more sensitive but i've been OK

[ilovemydog]

my midwife said that it was OK, but she suggested after 3 months. Don't know why.

Get the hairdresser to find out when you make the appointment...

[TinkerBellesMum]

It's not so much about afety more that the hormones in pregnany affect your hair and you can't be sure how your hair will react to it.

[beckmo]

If you look on the NHS direct website (I googled dying hair in pregnancy and it came up) it gives good advice.

Says its safe ,mainley because there has never been any cases where dying hair has effected a foetus. If doing at home wear gloves (of course) and do in a well ventilated room.Says breastfeeding is not a problem as the chemicals do not transfer into the milk (in as many words).

Still can't bring myself to do it though and didn't with DD either...it smells so strong and chemically.

[mama2bee]

I use Daniel Field hair dyes because they don't have any nasty chemicals in eg no peroxide or ammonia. Not easy to find though, I order them online but I think Sainsburys stock some colours.

[Divvy]

My eldest dd is a hairdresser and they are trained now to not do all over dyes, but to do foils as then the chemicals dont touch the scalp, which then can get into blood stream, which is how people get reactions.

[cheerfulvicky]

I would imagine that the first three months thing is because the baby is doing most of its developing then, and any chemicals could potentially have an adverse affect on how it forms. I personally wouldn't risk using anything other than natural henna during pregnancy, but I can also see the sense in colours that don't touch the scalp and enter the blood, so that would be a good way of getting around the slight risk...