Cosmetic hair colorants - to beautify or to destroy!

Objective to determine the adverse effects of hair colorants on hair and skin and to find an association between types/usage of hair colorants and their adverse effects. methods this cross-sectional,questionnaire-based study was done on female medical students and faculty only. a questionnaire was given to a sample of 150,which matched our criteria. spss software 17 was used for data analysis. results mean age of the subjects was 25.41±3.13 years. incidence of adverse effects among frequent users of hair dyes was 48.8%. incidence of adverse effects among occasional users of hair dyes was 38.5%. diffuse non-scarring alopecia (34%) was the most common adverse effect on hair. a higher percentage of adverse effects were observed in subjects who used permanent organic hair dyes. conclusion there is a significant positive association between hair dye use and various adverse consequences in the hair and skin. furthermore,permanent hair dyes cause more damage than other vegetable or temporary dyes.