It is no secret that permanently dyeing your hair causes it to dry out. It’s natural to wonder whether the damage goes further than that. You may have asked this before – does dyeing cause hair loss?
The Good News
In most cases, dyeing doesn’t make your hair fall out, even though it may seem like it does.
If you dye your hair, you might have noticed an unusual amount of fallen hair clogging your drain immediately after you’ve washed out the dye. There is a simple, mechanical reason for this.
Around ten percent of your hair is in resting phase – this means that it is effortless to yank out painlessly, and it will fall out by itself in three months’ time. Dye needs to be rubbed into the scalp, with more pressure than you’d use just to apply shampoo. When you do this, you remove some of the hair that’s in its resting phase.
The Bad News
The chemicals that are used to make the dye permanent are meant to change the structure of your hair. Dyed hair is thinner, and it is worse at enduring any stress. Bleached hair is particularly sensitive.
In practice, this means that your hair will break a lot. As you brush it, it will frequently break right by the roots. The overall effect will be similar to hair loss, even though the follicles of your hair will remain unaffected by the dye.
Conclusion
All in all, does dyeing cause hair loss? It depends on how strictly you are defining hair loss. Dyes don’t reach the follicles of your hair, so they don’t make hair fall out. However, they make your hair thin out visibly due to increased breakage.
Most people can dye their hair without having to worry about that. But if you’re already dealing with hair loss caused by some other factor, it’s a good idea to stop dyeing for a while.
