Safe Alternatives To PPD – Hair Colouring despite P-Phenylenediamine allergy
If you are a fellow PPD (p-Phenylenediamine) allergy sufferer, you probably know how it feels to be into trendy hair colours but not being able to try them out on yourself.
Apart from Henna and all the PPD free hair colours you get from health stores (Sanotint etc.) which I haven’t tried yet, there are actually some drug store alternatives.
First of all, you can use bleach. If you’re allergic to PPD only, bleach won’t harm you. Of course it’s a harsh chemical to use on your hair but it can give you a trendy colour like white, platinum or silver coloured hair. If you use Jerome Russell 40 vol 12% peroxide with a sachet of its powder bleach, you can achieve a pretty salon like effect. The requirements are to leave it on for the right amount of time depending on your natural hair colour.
I used it to dye my roots today. The first time I wanted to go platinum blonde, I used Schwarzkopf’s XXL platinum blonde colour and the results were horrific. I had partly yellow, partly platinum patches all over my hair. The original colour of my hair before that first try was a honey blonde with my medium brown roots already about 5cm long.
I had to go to the hair dresser’s and ask for blonde highlights to even it out. It was a torturous day for my hair but the result was quite nice. So if you ever have a home bleaching accident like that, fixing it with professional highlights is probably the safest option. Make sure you condition your hair and look after it in the following months. And give it a rest for about 2 months before bleaching again.
So after having used Jerome Russell’s bleach to dye my roots today, my hair turned out like this (and this was literally taken now)
And I couldn’t be happier. A toner was not even necessary. Please note that my natural hair colour is an ashy light brown, almost dark blonde. Depending on your natural hair colour, the leave-in time for the bleach varies. Mine was left in for 45 minutes including application time. I have a few yellowy patches on the back which I haven’t paid attention to, so I probably should have left it on for another 10 minutes.
Another recommendation I have for those of you with a PPD allergie desperate to change their hair colour is to use Schwarzkopf’s Live Salon Style hair dye. It has the ingredient TDS (toluene-2,5-diaminesulfate) instead of PPD. I personally don’t react to it and would assume that some of you might be lucky enough not to react to it yourselves.
Please perform an allergy test regardless of my positive experience as I have read about cases of PPD allergic people reacting to colours containing TDS .
For a proper salon experience you could go to a Wella salon as their Colour Charm range contains TDS as a replacement for PPD. I’m sure there are other salon colours containing TDS. Always ask your hair dresser to show you the ingredients list.
Another option is to get foil highlights regardless of what colour is used. Just explain your situation to your hair dresser and ask them to make sure the colour doesn’t touch your scalp. I have had highlights done for about 10 years now and colours never touched my scalp but it is still important to mention it to your hair dresser because depending on your body, even a tiny bit of PPD on your skin can cause a huge reaction.
I hope you found this advice helpful. If you have other alternatives, please let me know! Just because we react to one ingredient, shouldn’t restrict us from the fun of changing hair colours!
GERMAN:
Sichere Alternativen zu PPD – Haare färben trotz PPD Allergie
Falls du auch an einer PPD (p-Phenylenediamine) Allergie leidest, weisst du bestimmt auch wie schade es sein kann alle möglichen Haartrends ausprobieren zu wollen, es aber nicht zu dürfen.
Blond
Ausser Henna und natürlichen Haarfarben aus Reformhäusern (z.B. Sanotint, obwohl auch Sanotint TDS enthält – mehr dazu später) bieten auch gewöhnliche Drogeriemärkte einige Alternativen.
Als aller erstes möchte ich die häufig gestellte Frage über Bleichmittel für Haare aufklären. Darf man sich die Haare trotz PPD Allergie bleichen? Ja! Das geht. Denn Haar- Bleichmittel enthalten keine PPD und keine TDS. Dazu gehört Schwarzkopf’s XXL Platinum Blond und möglicherweise auch die anderen Blondfärbemittel der XXL Serie. Oder: Blonde Foliensträhnchen beim Frisör!
TDS (toluene-2,5-diaminesulfate)
TDS ist heutzutage als ‘weniger schädliche’ Alternative zu PPD in vielen Haarfärbemitteln enthalten. Jedoch wird hierbei um genauso viel Vorsicht gebeten! Erstens kommt dies auf die Person an. Also führt vor dem Färben mit einer TDS Haarfarbe auch einen Allergietest durch. Zweitens scheint es auf die Helligkeit der Farbe anzukommen. Zum Beispiel reagiere ich nicht allergisch auf die blonden Farben der SYOSS Live Serie. Sobald es um Farben ab Mittelblond geht, steigt auch die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass ich darauf reagiere. Logischerweise muss dies an der Konzentration liegen. Je dunkler die Farbe, desto höher die Konzentration an PPD oder TDS.
Strähnchen
Foliensträhnchen sind eine gute Methode die Haare zu färben ohne dabei die Kopfhaut berühren zu müssen. Falls deine Haut nur bei Berührung mit PPD oder TDS reagiert, sind Strähnchen eine perfekte Alternative an deine Wunschhaarfarbe zu kommen. Jedoch rate ich auch da zu einem Allergietest mindestens 48 Stunden vor der Anwendung. Gehe dazu am besten zu deinem Frisör und bitte ihn eine Teststrähne in der Nähe deiner Kopfhaut (z.B. unten am Nacken) mit deiner Wunschharfarbe in Folie einzuwickeln. Nach der üblichen Wartezeit entfernst du die Strähne und wartest ab, ob du darauf reagiert hast.
Mit diesen Methoden konnte ich bis jetzt meine Haare erfolgreich Färben. Leider ist Schwarz die einzige Farbe auf meiner Wunschliste, die ich nicht riskieren sollte. Ich hoffe, dass dieser kurze Artikel euch weiterhilft. Fazit: Blond lebt’s sich’s leicher bei dieser bösen Allergie! 🙂
That’s an impressive post.this blog is really amazing and provide me answers to all my questions. This is really informative and I will for sure refer my friends the same. I was searching for the post which gives me information on this topic.Thanks.
Have to say, I use Schwarzkopf’s XXL platinum blonde and have always had fantastic results. I use a silver toning shampoo in addition to this to give my hair a more white-blonde look, but prior to that I was using XXL for several years and never had any issues. I also have mousey dark blonde hair naturally so can’t be too far off your natural colour. I guess it really depends on different hair types 🙂 Great article though.
Hi, I have been researching PPD allergies for clients of mine for over 8 years. You are one of the lucky ones who can use TDS. I have found that about 10% of the people who I deal with that have the true PPD allergy can tolerate the TDS. I am in New York State, and have been licensed for 26 years. The reason that I am writing here is that if you are allergic, you can not foil with any product that you are allergic to. This can be very dangerous! What people don’t realize is that after the foils are removed, and the hair is shampooed, the hair continues to release microscopic amounts of PPD for up to a week. I promise that you might not see this with your eyes, but your body will react to it. October 13, 2011, a woman in England died from PPD poisoning. It took TWENTY MINUTES, and at the time there were 2 others in comas. Don’t become a statistic, anaphylactic shock is your bodies reaction to an allergen. It can kill you, it just get’s covered up by big marketing.
Dear Gina, thank you for writing. I appreciate your comment a lot. I was going to write a follow-up post because after using a DARK Schwarzkopf Live Salon Style colour with TDS, I actually did react allergically. It was only the light colour I did not react too. I was aware, however, that many people do react to TDS which I mentioned in this post.
Are there alternatives to dark hair dye you would recommend? Anything that is longer lasting than Henna? I am back blonde now and will probably remain this colour as blonde foil highlights don’t seem to harm me. I am very interested in this issue though. And it hurts me to see that the majority of hair dressers I go to have no idea about what PPD is. Or they get so scared about my allergy that they won’t even bleach my hair (although bleach never harmed me). I wish there was more awareness. If you are interested in contributing a post, I would love to publish it on here.
Well, my little Forever, I am not sure where to begin! I guess I will start with an “I’m so sorry you reacted again…” I always feel great when someone can still color with a TDS product, but it seems that now you are in with that other 90% after all. In my experience, I have found that if you are allergic to TDS, it is the same with all of the color brands. So, even if you tried Wella, or Pravana, you would most likely react, and it usually gets worse each time. Now, the henna aspect. I think that you would find that you would have wonderful, lasting results if you followed the instructions, and purchased from http://www.mehandi.com who I do not make any money on! I just have purchased from a few places, and THAT one works. You can even get different colors, such as strawberry blond, red, dark red, dark brown, and true black. (a caution, it has nothing to do with the PPD/black henna! It is indigo mixed with henna, then amla, and buxom added, and set for 4 hours. After, you sit with just indigo for 20 minutes. Voila, cat black hair!) I am also applying for grant money right now to lecture, and educate more hairdressers on the subject. Do you have any other questions I can help with? ~Gina
Hey there! I just want to second Gina’s comment about Mehandi. I use their Sudina henna, and I find it to be quite permanent, with no fading at all. It’s a bit messy to use, but very safe and natural. Add fresh lemon juice and yogurt to give it a boost, and lots of ground cloves to make your hair smell yummy for weeks!
The henna poster Gina is an internet marketer for mehandi.com. They show up everywhere to discourage women from using dyes so they can sell henna. PPD is dangerous, but this lady is just selling a product. Getting really tired of this lady showing up on every website I look at that deals with henna or ppd.
well, she hasn’t sold anything to me and everything she said was truthful.
I do NOT work for mehandi.com, nor would I sell any product for ANY company. If you would like to slander my name, maybe you should hear from my lawyer. I am a salon owner in Central New York, and I have been researching the chemical aspects of the allergens associated with PPD for 8 years. Did I mention I have been a licensed cosmetologist for 27 years? Here is my e-mail, feel free to give me your address, for my lawyer to contact you. beanner468@gmail.com
Oh, and thank you, forevertwenteen, for defending me! ❤
hi..for over 25yrs i bleached my hair and had no problems..i started dying my hair jet black 3yrs ago,…also wiv no problems. then the last time i had a horried reaction all over my ears, wich i still have today..7 months later. i allways used live XL..but the last time used one from a pound strore. is this a reaction to ppd ?? or just a cheap dye?? i realy want to stay dark. if this isent poss can i still bleach my hair bak t blonde??…would realy appreciate any input. tnx
Hi jewelz!
Unfortunately dark box colours almost always contain ppd. Sometimes it’s tds but even that is strongly concentrated in dark colours and can cause reactions. I’m almost sure it could have been caused by that. Bleaches (including the Schwarzkopf ones) don’t contain it which is why I can only bleach my hair in order to not react. I wish I could dye my hair black but doubt it’s possible. Since your hair is black already, I suggest henna from lush! It’s all natural and shouldn’t cause a disaster on already black hair. Hope this helps!
Hi, just want to inform anyone who reads this that Henna is not completely safe to use if you have a PPD allergy. I have severe atopic Dermatitis and an allergy to PPD and my dermatologist told me to not use henna because the allergen is very closely related to the PPD allergen and can also cause an allergic reaction. Just because Henna is PPD free does not mean it’s safe for everyone. Test it out, as always. – And, also, thanks for the info on hair bleach!
Hey guys I have a total allergy to ppd and manages to dye my hair from peroxide blonde to brown because I found this ppd free hair dye called Vegetal hair dye by Herbatint. They do loads of colours and it lasts like a permanent colour if u dye it over blonde especially. Check out my blog candycatscosmetics.blogspot.com I made the blog to tell people out it- the dye has saved me!