Dark hair dyes - are they carcinogenic?
Dark hair dyes - are they carcinogenic? I’ ve read Professor Plant’s books and am trying to follow her programme, but part of it is to avoid using dark hair dyes. I have dark hair and am not ready to go grey yet, so have been using vegetable dyes from the health food shop thinking they would be safe. However, they still contain the chemical which is associated with cancer (phenylsomething diamide - forgot to write it down!) so I’m looking for one that is safe to use.
Does anybody have any information about these products or know where I can find any?
Yes You are right to be concerned about the relationship between cancer and hair dye. The components which have been linked with cancer are found in larger quantities in brown hair dye than in other colours. But they are present in all hair dyes including vegetable based ones. The risk is believed to be small but not negligible. I think that drawing attention to this is perhaps the most useful contribution to helping women with cancer that Jane Plant makes in her book. There is much more scientific evidence for a link between hair dye and cancer than there is for one between it and dairy produce.
My hair grew back a startlingly snow white after chemotherapy but nothing would induce me to dye it. Incidentally, some research (details of which I don’t have unfortunately) has linked some compounds in henna to cancer too.
I am not a medical expert and am speaking solely from personal experience and reading. I don’t want to scare anyone unnecessarily but I do think you are right to consider the risks and benefits to you of dying your hair after a bc diagnosis. For some women the small risk will be worth taking. For others, perhaps those like myself who have a poor prognosis, it isn’t. I hope you find this helpful.
Best wishes
Roisin
Thanks for reply That’s very helpful, thanks. I’ll continue my search to try and find a safe hair dye, as I really can’t bear the idea of letting my hair go grey now I’ve managed to grow it back to a decent length! Self-image seems to be more important to me now I’ve had cancer, maybe because I felt it stripped me of femininity, and even of humanity, at the time.
I’m interested in opinions about the Plant dairy-free regime as well, but maybe this isn’t the right forum? I personally thought her evidence was compelling and her recovery startling once she’d eliminated dairy from her diet. I’m not finding it too hard apart from cheese, which I really do miss, so will probably give it the benefit of the doubt anyway.
Izziebear I don’t want to take up too much of the forum but thought you might be interested to know that I have eaten hardly any dairy produce throughout my life. I simply don’t like it. I never ate it even when I was a child. A couple of decades ago dairy free high soya produce diets were promoted as a way of preventing breast cancer (Plant’s diet isn’t that new) and as a way of minimising menopausal symptoms especially hot flushes. I followed this diet assiduously and had a really boring time food wise. I subsequently developed a grade 3 bc. There is some research evidence, not a lot and far from conclusive, to suggest that soya may actually be the cause of some breast cancers. The best advice would seem to be a good balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables. I hope you don’t think I’m preaching. I’m just relating my experience as honestly as I can because I’ve always been interested in diet and lifestyle methods of preventing breast cancer. I don’t know why, incidentally, because there is no history of the disease in my family.
Best wishes
Roisin
Izziebear Sorry, I forgot to add in my previous post that Jane Plant does say it is ok to get your hair streaked because the dye does not come into contact with your head (the hair is pulled through a rubber cap). This seems to me to be a reasonable compromise. I can well understand and sympathise with you about having a hair colour you don’t like. I have considered this but my hair has grown back too thinly and it is too weak for this to be a viable option.
I hope you get your hair looking how you like it again soon.
Best wishes
Roisin
grey hair I am very interested in this as I have dark brown hair apart from at the front which -if I dont colour it - is a dirty grey and makes me look old and tired. Obviously I dont want to do anything which would put me more at risk but whilst I have hair I would like it to look decent!
Laine
At the moment I’m stumped - no idea how to find out if there are any ‘safe’ hair dyes on the market - I was hoping that people on here would be able to advise. I’ve looked on the internet but all I’ve found are articles on the dangerous chemicals and nothing about where to get dyes that don’t have them. I suppose it’s possible that there aren’t any available, in which case I’ll either have to accept the risk and carry on using them or let myself go grey.
The streaking thing suggested by Jane Plant doesn’t work for me, as my natural hair colour is very dark brown, almost black (with about 10% grey if I don’t colour it) and streaks tend to be for lighter coloured hair. I did try it, but it looked awful.
If anyone can make any suggestions, I’d be very grateful.
I’ve been dyeing my roots at home since my early 30s and am now 52. My scalp always itched for the next few days and so when I was first diagnosed in 2000 with Breast Cancer I wondered if it could have been due to the hair dyes as there are no other reasons for my cancer.
I have since decided not to think along those lines and have discovered the joys of having my hair done at the hairdressers. It has been around 25 years since I’ve been into a hairdresser’s salon as my husband always used to trim the ends for me pre chemo !!
I have to say that I’ve been very impressed with their attention to my concerns and I feel so wonderful after a visit. I have the same person do everything so it’s a very relaxing experience and my scalp hasn’t itched once.
I’m definately in the camp that says go for it and please try not to worry too much, life’s too short !!
hi
been reading this thread and thinking OMG i’ve been dying my hair for 20 yrs - can this really be the cause of my cancer ???
what does prof plant actually say ? think i’ll have to buy this book.
my teenage daughter also dyes her hair brown/black should i be worried ?
thanks for any help
susanne xxxx
Please get this in perspective I’ve done a quick internet serach and as far as I can make out there’s not evidence that hair dye is implicated in causing breast cancer. There have been some research studies which have identified dark hair dye as a possible risk factor for some kinds of lympohoma and for bladder cancer but these are not in the least consulsive. Some of the research studies relate to subjects who used hair dye over 20 years ago. The components of hair dyes have changed (now safer) since the 1980s.
Jane Plant is a Professor of Geology, and her book, though it sounds persuasive, is not based on proper double blind trials. It is speculative and not conclusive…not scientific at all. Personally I think her book is very damgaing because so many people get uneccessarily frightened (more by the dairy than the hair dye) but to frighten people on the basis is unforgiveable.
Fine if people decide not to dye their hair but please don’t think there is any evidence to suggest a risk factor for breast cancer in using hair dye…there isn’t. Chcek it out with one of the cancer helplines for reassurance.
Jane
last post I meant to say that to frighten people on the bais of anecdote is unforgiveable.
Jane
Not scaremongering I don’t think Jane Plant is ‘scare-mongering’. I think she has valid and well-known concerns about the relationship between hair dye and cancer. The link between the chemicals to which Izziebear refers and cancer has been known for some time. There is currently a wide range of vegetable based hair dyes which were developed largely in response to public unease about the use of chemical hair dyes in relation to cancer.
I avoided all hair colourants of all kinds because of this until my hair had become so ‘salt and pepper’ coloured that I felt I had no choice but to have it coloured. This was pre-diagnosis. I would not take that risk post diagnosis. As I said in my original post it is a small but not negligible one.
It is up to every individual to make a decision on the basis of risk and benefit. Some people would prefer to take that small risk to have hair colour they like. Others such as myself would prefer not to. The situation becomes more complicated, and the decision harder to make, if one has had chemotherapy because that too increases one’s risk of developing certain cancers.
Also the risk of allergic reaction is greater in the case of brown hair dyes than others. Again a very small risk. I read (many years ago so don’t have the reference) that on average 3 women die each year in the North of Ireland from kidney failure caused by a severe reaction to brown hair dye. NOW THIS IS A SMALL RIISK. BUT IT EXISTS. The risk of allergic reaction may be greatly increased during and after chemotherapy I understand.
Izziebear, like many other women, asked a serious question about hair dye and its relationship to cancer. I answered it in good faith and to the best of my ability. It is a subject that I, as a serious minded woman trying to get information about an issue of public and personal concern, have taken considerable interest in for at least two decades. There will no doubt be many other women reading these forums who have done the same.
NO-ONE CAN CLAIM TO KNOW WHAT CAUSES BREAST (PARTICULARLY NON-HORMONE DEPENDENT) CANCER.
THIS MEANS THAT NO-ONE CAN CLAIM TO KNOW WHAT DOES NOT CAUSE IT.
It makes sense to suspect all chemicals of being carcinogenic. Little is known about the carcinogenic effects of many individual chemicals far less of those of the kind of chemical cocktails we ingest on a daily basis. For an idea of how many chemicals we ingest simply by dyeing our hair and wearing make-up we have simply to read the product labels.
There is simply not enough known about these chemicals, singly or in combination, for anyone to say that they are safe, and therefore that anyone who is concerned about them is scaremongering.
Before a diagnosis of breast cancer I accepted the small risk of dying my hair and wearing make-up. After diagnosis and chemotherapy I wouldn’t dream of doing so. I don’t think I’m scare-mongering. I think I’m making a perfectly valid and rational decision in an attempt to protect my health. We each of us need to do that without being accused of scare-mongering if we err on the side of caution.
Best wishes
Roisin
Sorry I should have entitled my previous post
‘BECAUSE I’M WORTH IT’
Best wishes
Roisin
It’s true that Prof Plant is a geologist, well, actually she’s a geochemist (like I am) and probably works harder at keeping up with current scientific research than most hard-pressed oncologists. Most scientific research is across the disciplines these days, and I can read a medical paper as well as a med student or doctor could read a geochemistry paper - they would get at least 70% of the meaning right away and have to look up the other 30%.
Whereas the average non-academic would really and truly not know where to start (the same feeling I get when something goes wrong with the car and I look in the engine).
Plant’s book is about analysing the evidence and doing a thorough search of all the current scientific literature. And at least she has asked lots of the right questions. There is a proven link between prostate cancer and dairy intake (her other books outline this), and there is some evidence for the PROMOTION of existing breast cancer cells by high levels of the growth factors found in milk.
Probably because I’m so used to reading this sort of phraseology, I can see she’s not saying dairy causes cancer (although that’s what sells the books), she actually saying have people really paid attention to the research that suggests diet is a factor in cancer cause and therefore prevention? The emphasis on China and that diet is that it is radically different from our western diet, and that fact in itself is thought-provoking.
Common sense should prevail. Up until a few years ago, the sugar industry denied that excess sugar consumption had anything to do with rising diabetes rates, and the dairy industry is similarly well-financed and would do anything to avoid bad press. Anyone who has read Morgan Spurlock’s ‘Don’t Eat this Book’ will have second thoughts about buying any processed food or food that has been intensively produced.
It’s easy to knock Jane Plant, without realising the reason she wrote the book was to shine a light on a very dark area. Why aren’t more people shouting about why the rates of breast cancer (and prostate cancer) are rising beyond age-standardised and screening-normalised incidences?
I think research will give us lots more answers in the next 20 years, I just don’t want to be a guinea pig for Western lifestyles so I’ll do what I can right away and be proved right or wrong in due course.
Tina x
academic credentials?? Hi Tina
No I’m not a scientist unless you count having a masters degeree a long time ago in the social sciences. I stick by what I say about Jane Plant’s book. I don’t think its scientific to say as she does that people who she has given her diet to who have ‘cheated’ have sadly died. Nor do I think its scientifc to claim as she does that she had a terminal diagnosis on the basis of regional recurrences which are not terminal.
Nor do I think that there is a ‘proven link’ between dairy and prostate cancer…this is not the majority view in the cancer research community (unless I have missed something).
Yes Plant raises some interesting questions and yes the differences between breast acncer rates in China and the west are intersting but could be due to a whole variety of other factors. The higher rates of stomach cancer in China compared to the west are also interesting.
I feel strongly about this cause I feel very saddened when I see people struggling to stick to punitive diets in the vain hope they will be ‘cured’ and then end up dead anyway…and yes this has happened to two women I knew…one a good freind…anecdote doesn’t prove anything of course but it sure can sharpen the intellect of a non scientist.
Anyone wanting an accessible and balanced account of the history and science of cancer should read One in Three by Adam Wishart…much better than Jane Plant.
Jane
Heartily agree with Jane RA People latch on to the advice of supposed “experts” like Jane Plant because they want to do something positive to improve their chances. Because they are so desparate to believe it is doing them some good, they ignore the lack of scientific back up for any of it.
Jane Plant is not medical qualified nor a dietician. It is wrong of her to use an academic title obtained in a different field to con people that she has any expertise.
In Germany, many cancer patients swear by a diet involving Quark (a soft creamy cheese) and Linseed oil. Now, if Quark is supposedly doing the Germans some good (I’m just as sceptic about that diet) then Jane Plant is wrong.
As I have secondaries that include bone mets, I need plenty of calcium. Hence, I am highly unlikely to go dairy-free as it is difficult to get enough absorbable calcium from other foods. Many fruits and vegetables have a high dry weight of calcium (because it is dissolved in the water that the plant takes up), but it passes straight through us.
I also spotted some proper US research a while back (forget the references) that suggested once you have secondaries, dairy produce is actually beneficial, so that is good enough for me.
Yes, I believe what I want to hear as well!
Academic Credentials? Plant’s book is seriously methodologically flawed. Moreover, as someone famous whose name I cannot remember once said ‘This book is both original and good. Unfortunately the good bits are not original and the original bits are not good.’
Plant does not review anywhere near the amount of reputable research papers needed to draw the conclusions she does. Her work also draws on, but does not credit, many other propagandists of similar diets over the decades. Nevertheless, although derivative, her comments about hair dye are reasonable provided one keeps an open mind with regard to the very small known risk and the unmeasurable benefits of using hair dye.
I have read Wishart’s book and he shows a shocking lack of awareness of breast cancer. He gives an example of someone who is successfully cured of breast cancer only to die of liver cancer. That must have been a secondary so she cannot have been cured but Wishart seems not to know that breast cancer differs from other cancers in terms of the liklihood of secondary spread.
Both books are typical of the genre of popular cancer writing and should be read as such.
Hi everyone I hope no-one minds my saying this but I’ve noticed a strong tendency on these forums for people to reply to points made in posts to by naming one or two high profile forum users and saying ‘I agree with so- and so’ while ignoring other contributors but MORE IMPORTANTLY THEIR ARGUMENTS.
This makes the forums seem quite intimidating at times and encourages a cult of personality which detracts heavily from what is actually being said. It is most noticeable of course when we disagree. It is much easier and friendlier to say I disagree with whatever one does disagree with rather than I disagree with Jo Bloggs. This personalises what should be impersonal. Surely what matters is what is said not who said it if we want to have a serious discussion?
Best wishes
Roisin
Soya food stuffs Just a comment following a discussion today with my oncologist.I have read alot about soya and the positive effects for menpausal symptoms. however I have also read that soya is a source of phyto oestrogen, which is how it has an effect on menopausal symptoms. my cancer was oestrogen and progestorone positive, consequently my hormones were stimulating it to grow and part of my treatment invovles knocking out my ovaries. I asked my onc if I should avoid sources of phyto oestrogen and he said I should. I ave been a vegetarian fr over 20 years. I eat healthil and am concentrating on having a good balanced diet. I am not eliminaing dairy from my diet. I am being careful about sources of phyto oestrogen and buying as much organic food as I can, including milk from a local organic dairy.
Geraldine