Hair highlighted during 1st trimester

[Trickytricky]

Is this one of the banned things? I'd quite like to get my hair done and wanted to check if highlighting was a no go. Thanks

...though if you want an ironic laugh find me on parenting and infant feeding being the most pfb woman ever! Though goodness only knows what I'd be like if I didn't research and realise my worry is a result of my past/irrational! As it is I'm just a bit boob, sling and branded educational toy mum (aka pretty par the course for mn).

Squizita I do agree that your approach is sensible. However, my point of view is as a teratology researcher. I attempt to quantify these types of risk every day-often it is not possible due to lack of good quality data and it is then a fact that risk cannot be ruled out. The only way to identify a 'causal correlation', especially in something that is probably low risk, is by formal studies of people. Things that cause problems rarely and in small numbers of people are generally not easily detected without formal analysis unless they do something very distinctive. Animal teratology studies are largely considered to be unreliable indicators of the human situation, so all the studies of ingredients are rather meaningless. I feel quite strongly that providing information that says risk cannot be ruled out (rather than just saying 'its safe') allows women to make an informed choice about whether to avoid something, which might be an easier choice with something that is not vital for health. Please can you send me the citation for the Regan study that you mention, I can't find it on Pubmed and it certaintly wasn't available when we last reviewed all of the scientific literature on hair dye use. I had severe maternal anxiety too- my daughter was the result of my 7th IVF cycle and i spent my whole pregnancy waiting for something to go wrong. For me, the best way to assuage this was to not engage in anything that might have been remotely risky and having information to hand that informed my choices about that was helpful. Everyone is different.

Sorry to clarify- I was told it first hand at her recurrent miscarriage centre. They give you a briefing on how to protect your very high risk pregnancy. It's in the top 3 centres worldwide. I would have to dig out her books to find sources.

Put of interest, did you avoid all risk - including the highest ones e.g. driving etc when pregnant? How did you cope with known/common risks?
The problem with 'coping' with maternal anxiety by avoiding certain risks is that like an addiction, it feeds the illness. Sounds like you were lucky and kept a lid on it. However in many people it can be a bit like an alcoholic who "scratches their itch" with one drink... then another ... then another. You cope with anxiety by avoiding something, then something else, getting phobic about tiny risks when the glaring obvious ones might be overlooked.
This can result in a very toxic environment for the child which can last into adulthood.

Also - admitting you had anxiety and coped by ruling out tiny risks is one thing. Giving advice on a pregnancy thread to someone with normal pregnancy and no anxiety based on this is something else.
Sugar in huge doses is bad. But a diabetic doesn't advise non diabetics based on their personal risk/profile without mentioning it.
People with peanut allergies don't advise based on their condition without mentioning it.
MH is health. Your standpoint - by your own admission- is affected by your mh issues in pregnancy.
I am somewhat suprised you never mentioned this on this thread or indeed others where you've pushed "better safe than sorry" over the months I've posted here. Because it's highly relevant.

In your OP you didn't make your maternal anxiety clear. It is rather relevant to risk perception and your bias, yes?
It only came to light when you were discussing why you posted as you did.

I don't think I've pushed a 'better safe than sorry' approach at all. Any 'advice' that I have given (I would say information rather than advice) is I hope based upon the scientific evidence that I analyse day in day out. We work as a team here and any assessment of risk through a rigourous process involving multiple people. I try to speak as a professional in these sorts of posts. The information that I have provided is that same as that would have been given by any of my colleagues, and they don't all have anxiety (or children for that matter).

Apologies but the way it often "reads" is very "better safe than sorry". Much more so than hcp and experts in real life (who are paid to avoid pregnancy loss) have been. Maybe it's an Internet tone thing.

FWIW being a professional doesn't always make us impartial when discussing risk. For example, I have extensive experience working with child protection and spotting neglect. I have to bite my tongue when normal, loving parents post on MN about how to prepare baby for 1st HV visit and so on. Because I work with the risky end of things, my anxiety focuses very much on the risk (actually a good thing socially) of a HV getting the "wrong end of the stick" and spotting cp concern where there is none. My gut reaction would be "scrub the baby! scrub your house! Seem perfect!" - an overreaction in line with my work. In reality the risks are there but much smaller and not relevant to low risk loving parents.
I'm not saying this is happening with you - just that "I work with this stuff so am 100% cool" is not a given in all cases.

You are absolutely right of course, and I am willing to accept that my background might affect things to some degree. But I do try not to project.

Don't we all.

Honestly irl you'd laugh your pants off at me. It took me 4 months to take pfb on the bus! All the while knowing it was relatively safe.

..sorry, and as i said, the risk assesments are not just down to me. All of our information goes through an editing process involving multiple people including clinicians. We are generally considered the UK experts on teratology, and the primary role of the service is to provide teratology advice for front line HCPs

I had followed your story and was so thrilled when you got your baby. I know how it feels.

sorry for x post :)

I love it a bit when people disagree politely on MN

I guess everyone has their own different risk acceptability too - I have the occasional glass of wine (then regret it as it makes me feel sick) but avoid caffeine totally. I eat cured meats but avoid salad in restaurants (although I do think this is statistically a good choice).

Thing is if you go down the 'it hasn't been studied / tested so best to avoid it' route, many things aren't ethical to run trials on pregnant women. So a common sense approach is best, and thinking logically about highlights, they don't touch your skin so cannot be absorbed by the body. With many things a statistical approach is best, but where stats aren't available I think it has to be down to common sense and personal choice. Otherwise we end up putting pregnant women in a scientific bubble of only pre-approved activities.

You're apparently supposed to wait till 20 weeks!

My roots are horrendous and I'm only 11 weeks I'm trying to not have any colour at all done though through my pregnancy haven't seen my natural hair since I was 12! Not even sure what colour it is anymore

Yes, I absolutely agree, every woman and each pregnancy is different. The acceptable level of risk/perception of benefit is a very personal thing will be based on multiple factors.

I of course think that a pragmamtic approach is sensible and the over riding chances are that it's okay to dye your hair in pregnancy. I do however, think that its okay to tell women that we are not 100% sure of this and it's up to them to decide based upon their personal circumstances. When I have my highlights done the dye touches my scalp (it stings!) and there is also a very theoretical risk of exposure via fumes, which is why this subject generates interest. But as others have also sensibly said, we absorb chemicals through our skin constantly, so where to stop??

I know I probably came across as rather extreme saying I avoided all risk when pregnant- I did of course drive without even thinking about it and i even highlighted my hair-shock horror-but did wait til after T1 :)

But if people (lay people, rather than scientists) ask if something is safe in pregnancy, and you say to everything " risk cannot be ruled out", what most will get from that is " it really could be a risk, better safe than sorry". Which is the WORST attitude to have through pregnancy. Risk cannot be ruled out for pretty much anything, and what you end up with is incredibly paranoid women who are almost afraid to move.
You see them all the time on here posting "help, I did this [entirely innocuous thing here] and I've heard you shouldn't when pregnant, now I'm terrified". This culture of better safe than sorry has led to an infantilising of women that treats us like idiotic incubators. It doesn't help anyone.

I haven't bothered, but then my hair is temperamental at the best of times...

Plus the thought of sitting for three hours at the hairdressers with a numb bum doesn't appeal either.