Does hair dye make hair weaker?

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by Guest Posts on Tue Aug 13, 2019 10:06 am

Does hair dye make hair weaker?

Just lately don't know why when I wash my hair in the bathroom sink and I then comb my hair through. I loose a lot of hairs. More than I used to. I am a female of 61 years of age. My hair still gets greasy so tend to wash it most days. Whether it is because I wash it so often, don't know. But use quite a good shampoo. Either an Elvive one for coloured hair or an Aussie one. As I have it dyed every 6 weeks with a Nice and Easy hair dye that my daughter does for me, so is that the problem whether a hair dye makes the hair weaker? Fiona
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Dr Sharon Wong
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by Dr Sharon Wong on Thu Aug 15, 2019 10:27 pm

Re: Does hair dye make hair weaker?

Hello Fiona,

Thank you for your post. Hair dyes can all potentially weaken the hairs by damaging the cuticle layer, making the hair fibre more porous. This can cause structural and aesthetic problems with the hair fibre such as brittle hair/hair breakage, split ends, dry and dull hair etc.

If you are losing the full length of hair including the root then this is unlikely to be due to the dye (assuming you have had no adverse scalp reaction to the dye) and unless you are being particularly aggressive with hair washing this is also not likely to have caused the hair loss.

There are many reasons why you may be shedding more hair than usual and it would be advisable to see your GP for a set of blood tests to include thyroid hormones, ferritin (iron storage) and vitamin D. In other cases medications and psychological stress may also contribute to increased hair shedding so best to talk through all these possible factors with your doctor.

Best of luck and I hope it settles down soon.

Sharon
Dr Sharon Wong
Consultant Dermatologist and British Skin Foundation spokesperson
http://www.talkhealthpartnership.com/on ... n_wong.php

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