It can be fun to switch up your personal aesthetic with hair dye whether it’s refreshing your natural hair color or making a bold color change.
However, there’s a bit of bad news. A Consumer Reports analysis of several hair dyes and hair chalks found issues.
James Rogers, Consumer Reports’ director of food safety, told WTOP they sent 21 at-home hair dye kits and 2 hair chalks to a lab. All of the tested products are readily available in retail stores or online.
“We could detect levels of toxic chemicals in every product tested, and some of the products had more than one,” Rogers said. “We found a probable human carcinogen called methylene chloride in every product.”
Methylene chloride is a chemical used in paints, adhesives and pharmaceuticals and it causes cancer in animals, the report said.
“So that was very interesting to us. But more concerning is that within the two hair chalks that are marketed to children that contained a chemical called benzene, which is a known carcinogen,” Rogers said.
They also tested for the following heavy metals: Arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury. Most were undetectable in the dyes. However, three heavy metals were detected in the two hair chalks.
Exposure to heavy metals over time is associated with a range of issues from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, problems with the immune and reproductive systems and even contact dermatitis.
You can read more about Consumer Reports’ findings on their website.
WTOP’s Veronica Canales contributed to this story.
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