Health anxiety and hair dye

[Macc]

Hello

I feel embarrassed even writing this. However here goes. Had general health anxiety for years and for a good while I couldn't dye my hair for fear of a terrible reaction Inc.anaphylaxis. This is despite me never having such a reaction in 25 years.

Anyhow in recent times I have been home dyeing hair brown and in Feb, to combat the grey, my hairdresser has been using foils to bleach it blonde. So far so good. Yet on Monday when I was having bleach foils I came over dizzy. It was only for a minute or 2, no other symptoms ie sore or itchy head, and I resisted making her rinse it off and running out of the place....in fact the bleach stated put for another 15 mins whilst I ate my sandwich.

Now I keep reliving it. Was it a reaction? Was it just my sinuses and bad timing and the panic made it worse. The worst is I'm now petrified to go back again to have more fouls despite loving my blonde. :(

Sorry for the essay....I just don't know what to do.

[nomorepanic]

Sounds like just a moment of dizziness and nothing more to me.

[Macc]

That's what my rational brain tells me.....

[.Poppy.]

Is it possible that the smell just hit you wrong?

From my understanding of the "dangers" of hair dye, it is usually specific to black dye and it's usually the stuff you get over the counter, not what the pros use.

[AMomentofClarity]

Sounds like just a moment of dizziness and nothing more to me.

This x 2

[zebra]

Hi, i have food alberty and 3 times i had anaphyl.reaction,i had to tajemný epipen and emergency had to come and take me to the hospital.
But now one week agp i changed my hairdresser and so the hsirfye was also another brand. Morning after my stalo was itchy, red, uncomfortable and i found a little lymph node behind my ear, one behind right,one behind left. They werent there before. They are small but like an anxious person i can feel them. Did anyone else experinced swollen lymph node after the hairdye reaction?

[Macc]

This x 2

Thanks....when im not feeling worked up I agree wholeheartedly and yes, could quite easily have been the fumes too. X

[Graceski]

It might have even been the anxiety that has made you feel dizzy, thinking about a possible reaction and then working you up. I get dizzy due to anxiety a lot. Even just sitting with your head down or something while the foils were going on.

An allergic reaction is more likely to cause irritation to the scalp.

For reassurance just have a patch test done every time you want your hair bleached then you know if no reaction you will be ok :)

[Macc]

Thank you, yes head position and actually worrying probably played a part too x

[AlexandriaUK]

Hi it's a lot rarer than you think to have a bad reaction to hair dye and it is often due to the fact that someone uses the same dye on a very regular basis.
If you/they do the 48 hour spot test and it's ok then their should be no problems.
As for foils the likely hood is even less as the dye doesn't touch the scalp or not very much.
Then we come to bleeching the hair with foils, bleeching has less paraphenylmendiamine in them than say black hair dye, their is still a risk of reaction of course but your reaction to having your hair dyed sounds more like anxiety and the actual smell probably increased it because if it had been a true reaction it wouldn't have gone off it would have increased, if you feel happier having a patch test before hand tell them and they will do it 48 Hours before but as you say you were fine.
It's always best to be safe especially with us that suffer with health anxiety, I was hairdresser for many years and never did patch test or saw anyone have an allergic reaction.

[Macc]

Thank you for explaining, looks likely to just be my anxiety again! I think I'll ask for a patch test next time and hopefully that will calm me down :)

---------- Post added at 16:03 ---------- Previous post was at 12:53 ----------


Hi it's a lot rarer than you think to have a bad reaction to hair dye and it is often due to the fact that someone uses the same dye on a very regular basis.
If you/they do the 48 hour spot test and it's ok then their should be no problems.
As for foils the likely hood is even less as the dye doesn't touch the scalp or not very much.
Then we come to bleeching the hair with foils, bleeching has less paraphenylmendiamine in them than say black hair dye, their is still a risk of reaction of course but your reaction to having your hair dyed sounds more like anxiety and the actual smell probably increased it because if it had been a true reaction it wouldn't have gone off it would have increased, if you feel happier having a patch test before hand tell them and they will do it 48 Hours before but as you say you were fine.
It's always best to be safe especially with us that suffer with health anxiety, I was hairdresser for many years and never did patch test or saw anyone have an allergic reaction.


Thank you I feel much better esp as you have the experience. Health anxiety really can mess up your rational thinking. Thanks