Discussing Hair Coloring safety during Pregnancy

Discussing Hair Coloring Safety During Pregnancy

Today, Ask the Pro Stylist will be discussing hair coloring safety during pregnancy. Is hair coloring ok when pregnant? This is the question posed to me today from a reader who wants to dye her heavy highlighted hair back to her natural color.

Dear Deirdre,

I want to go from heavy highlighted hair to a medium, dark brown. I was dark brown when I was younger and just found out I am pregnant and am afraid to color my hair. Is hair coloring safe during pregnancy? What do you suggest?

All the Best,

New Mom to be

Hi New Mom, and thanks for writing in for a little beauty advice. It happens to be a great question as I have also lived it, so I do have a ton of information here regarding hair coloring safety.

Before my children turned my hair color mostly grey, about 60% now, I would say I was a yucky mousey brown, very booooring hair color. From a very young age, about 8, I started to develop gray hair, and to hide it, my mother began to highlight my hair, aka Farrah Fawcett. (Oh my, I think I just heard some readers ask-“Who’s that?”)

Span 17 years later and my head of heavy highlighted hair coloring discovers I am pregnant with son number one. In fear of harming the delicate child growing within, I colored my hair medium brown, using a semi-or demi-hair color, with the belief that this was the safest hair coloring to do during pregnancy. Basically, that just coated the blonde, didn’t lift my brown and allowed for my natural color to grow out.

As the years progressed, I did the same for son two, three and four, however, with number four, I had considerably more gray hair and continued to dye my hair with the semi-permanent hair color, until that boy popped out and I could get my highlights.

I avoided highlights, not because the bleach penetrates the scalp, because it doesn’t, it doesn’t touch the scalp, but because I didn’t want to inhale the fumes, which honestly, was really stupid on my part, because I continued to do hair coloring and highlights in a salon.

The caution pregnant woman are advised about is placing chemicals on the scalp that may be absorbed into the blood stream, thereby crossing into the placenta, which with highlights-doesn’t occur, according to WebMD. And the Mayo Clinic concurs that no real risks are posed from hair coloring during pregnancy.

Hair dye is placed directly on the scalp and may cause allergic reactions for any individual, pregnant or not. Even using a semi-or demi-permanent color can cause a reaction as well as vegetable dyes, or hair coloring claiming to be ammonia-free. The difference within all is the level of ammonia; lower levels can still become an issue, albeit the risks are quite small. AND, the organic, vegetable hair dyes can still cause allergic reactions, without pregnancy being a factor.

So, to answer your question regarding hair coloring safety, dye that is applied directly to the scalp during pregnancy poses little to no risks, that being an allergic reaction, HOWEVER, I am not a medical professional and my advice is to bring the tube of color, if your hairstylist allows, or at least the box, to the OBGYN to get the ok. In my opinion, highlights during pregnancy are ok, as they are not done as often and do not touch the scalp. If you want to color the entire head of hair, one time at the beginning of your pregnancy to last for the entire nine months so you return to your natural hair color, then that is probably your best bet if the safety of hair coloring during pregnancy is still a concern for you.

I hope our discussion of hair coloring safety during pregnancy has answered your question. Best of luck and health to you and your baby, and Happy Styling! Direct any questions for me to DeirdreAHaggerty@gmail.com.