Can your hair dye make you bald?

Did you know that longer the duration of the dye, the riskier it is for your hair?

• 6 hair colour facts no one will tell you

Hair dye might make your hair look young and vibrant.

In fact, spunky hair colour considered as the new fashion accessory.

Having said that, not many realise the adverse effects of hair dye on the overall health of your hair in the long term.

Find out how the wrong and continuous use of hair dye can damage your hair and at times also make you go bald.

The adverse effect of ammonia

In order to stain the hair and rinse it, the hair dye has to penetrate a couple of layers of your hair to set permanently.

To get through the shaft of the hair, the ammonia dye has to break through the cuticle of the hair. The latter serves as a natural protection for the hair.

The ammonia lifts the cuticle and makes a passage for the molecules of the hair dye. The whole process increases the pH layer of the hair.

The substitute of ammonia 

There are few products in the market which don't contain ammonia.

There is a misconception that the products are not as harmful.

However, the truth is, for any dye to work, there has to be an agent which can lift the cuticle up.

In this case, they use products that contain ethanolamine, which are less invasive than ammonia, but does more or less the same job.

The harmful effect of peroxide 

Once the cuticle breaks and the dye molecules get in, the peroxide bleaches the natural colour of the hair so that the new pigment can take effect.

In the process of bleaching the natural colour of the hair, the peroxide of the hair dye causes great harm to the hair that later contributes to hair fall and thinning.

The normal colour protein of the hair also gets permanently damaged.

Longer the duration of the dye, the riskier it is for the hair 

As long as the cuticle is up and lifted, there is a greater risk of causing damage to the hair.

It weakens the hair and becomes a long term recipe for a person to become bald.

Frequent dying, therefore, is not at all healthy for your hair.

Although there is not scientific research to back such claims, there exist few theories which strongly back the argument that regular hair dye on a longer term can cause damage to the hair and is a reason for a person to become bald.

Family history 

If a person has a family history of baldness and hair fall, s/he should absolutely refrain from using a dye containing ammonia.

This will ensure that the cuticle remains intact and the hair remains stronger.

Lead image used for representational purposes only. Image: Pexels/Pixabay.com