Colouring/hair chemical agents-haidresser occupational hazard

[shootingstar]

Really, I don't think I want to colour my hair:

Already I've had 2 highly experienced hairdressers over the years, working as hair stylists for over 15-20 yrs.

The colouring, perming and straightening chemical agents are toxic to their health. Just had my haircut and blow dry a few days ago. My hairdresser says that if the salon door is closed, the colouring agent fumes have affected her sinuses so much that she is affected by the end of day. There is a hair stylist working less than 5 ft. away whose primary job is hair colouring and bleaching jobs.

It's awful.

For the sake of other people's health, I now don't want to colour my hair. (Not that I want to nor have done so in the past. I've had 2 hair perms in my life. That's it. It turned my black hair slightly brown.) Then there is the health impact effect on myself, especially if i want to go drastic, ie. blonde ..ie. that would take a powerful chemical agent to achieve this. Also did some searching around on PubMed database, U.S. National Institutes' of Medicine database. There's nothing conclusive that stuff is safe over many years of hair colouring use.

I'm sorry to be a fashion de-bubbler. Just to meet and know someone who is physically sick from daily exposure to hair chemical agents, is sad.

[PamNY]

If you don't want to color your hair, then don't. But people get sinus trouble from all kinds of things -- or think they do.

Concern about hair coloring safety is by no means new.

[shootingstar]

Both hair stylists have gone to their doctors and been advised a number of things or change jobs.

No need to be peeved at me in particular.
Frankly I never paid any attention about hazards of prolonged use/exposure to hair chemical agents in the past --simply because my hair has never been coloured. Therefore I never looked into the issue previously.

Sorry if I sound like a dummy.

[PamNY]

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound peeved.

[shootingstar]

Apology accepted.

I feel sorry for my present hair stylist --hair styling is genuinely her calling. She loves making people happy by giving them a new cut. One can tell by her expert cutting and how she assesses her clients. I've had her for 7 yrs.

She is in her late 40's and hence has not obtained any other skill, a single Mom, turned grandmother recently.

And the salon she works in..is ok..abit of a factory with many other hair stylists.

Didn't have her chemical exposure problem before because she ran her own salon and it was just her in the salon. So her exposure to chemicals was way less.

[Grog]

In Quebec, hairstylists who become pregnant are preventively taken off work as soon as they find out they are pregnant, and benefit from some kind of insurance to cover for their loss of revenue. I believe it's primarily because of the chemicals used. It drives me nuts to see pregnant hairstylists at work here in British Columbia...