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The
three dirty words! We have all heard that they are bad for our
hair but why? The information below helps separate myth from fact.
Peroxide
Used
in conjunction with almost all permanent hair colourants, including
bleach. Also found in permanent wave lotions and permanent straightening
products. Note the use of the word 'permanent'. If you want to
make anything 'permanent' when it comes to your hair you have
to get into the centre of the hair shaft itself and change the
chemical make-up of that area. To do this, your product has to
be small enough to pass through the outer layer of hair and then
it needs to swell to stop it slipping back out (in the case of
colour) or react with the natural make-up of your hair (in the
case of perms and straighteners). This is what peroxide does and
without it most of today's potions and lotions would not work
at all.
It is not harmful in itself when used by professionals who know
what they are doing. If used in too high a strength, or if too
many chemical processes are done one on top of the other, that's
when problems occur. So if a hairdresser says you should wait
for that next perm or "no more highlights for you right now",
believe them it's not because they are too busy, it's because
you may end up loosing some of your hair if they do.!
Alcohol
Used
in several finishing products, especially common in those that
spray. It's there because it's a cost effective carrier of the
product e.g. it is the holding factor that dries without trace
quickly on the hair. It does make your hair feel dry but that's
what it's there to do. Over use of high level alcohol based products
can result in overly dry hair.
Ammonia
Last
on the list but the most harmful if large amounts are found in
the hair product you are using (normally permanent colours). Yes
this is the stuff you clean your loo with and do you really want
lots of it on your hair? But certain products rely on ammonia
to swell or open the surface or the hair to allow them to penetrate
to the centre where they need to be to do their work. Where this
stuff is bad is that once the outer layer of your hair has been
opened it never quite goes back to its old smooth self. That's
not always a bad thing in that it's this factor that makes fine
hair feel thick after a colour service. However there is a point
where the surface is so open that it becomes rough to touch, tangles,
has no shine and eventually splits and breaks. So choose low ammonia
based products along with regular treatments.
You can suffer from or develop and allergy to ammonia the symptoms of which can be an itchy scalp and or you start coughing or get watery/red/itchy eyes when you have your hair coloured. If this happens to you or you are pregnant (see our section on pregnancy and your hair for more details) or a cancer suffer undergoing chemotherapy where your liver function is often impaired resulting in an inability to process ammonia we suggest you choose an ammonia free product.
At the time of writing the available 100% ammonia free products that we know about are as follows. We have also split the list into home use and professional salon products so that you can request ammonia free from your hairdresser (if a salon does not stock a product you can call ahead and they will often get them in for you):
Home Use Colours:
- Herbal Essences True Intense Colour Gel by Clairol
- L'Oreal Castings ColourSpa
- Revlon Coloursilk Permanent Hair Colour
- Revlon Frost&Glow Blonding Kit
- RevlonFrost&Glow Highlighting Kit
- Schwarzkopf Live Colour
- Schwarzkopf Country Colours
Professional Salon Only Colours:
- Affinage b Blobde ammonia-free Highlighting meches
- Affinage Satin' Aveda Colour Current Energized Gel Colour
- Aveda Full Spectrum Deposit-Only Colour Treatment
- Farouk Chi Ionic
- Farouk Chi Infra
- Farouk Bio Glitz
- Goldwell Elumen
- Indola Supermeche 5
- Indola Vitamin Colour
- Intercosmo Viola Avance
- Landoll Just Lite
- The Organic and Mineral Research Insitute's Permanent Watercolours
- PPS Hairware Tone on Tone range
- Redken 5th Avenue Shades EQ demi-permanent colour
- Schwarzkopf Igora Viberance
- Schwarzkopf Igora Personality
- Schwarzkopf Igora Colour Gloss
You should not notice any difference in the effectives of an ammonia free product to any other similar hair colouring product but it will be minus that awful smell and they also don't stain the skin!
It's
all about using everything in moderation. Using any of the above
in hair products is not harmful but if you over use then your
hair condition will suffer. One of the best examples of this is
with permanent hair colour. When you go to the salon to get your
colour done, they apply it very neatly and carefully to the roots
or new growth only. When they refresh the colour on the ends it's
with a different type of colour that's low in peroxide and ammonia
or a watered down version of what goes on the regrowth. However
when colouring your hair at home you can't be so careful. The
results can be great the first few times but as the hair is coloured
again and again the condition starts to suffer and you may even
feel that the colour has changed. In fact it has because you are
no longer putting it on the same hair!
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