Does dying your hair lead to balding?

Light colored roots make it appear as if balding

Hair loss tends to be common in people who regularly dye their hair with permanent hair dye. But are you going bald, or is your hair just breaking somewhere in between the root and the tip? Is there a link between hair dye and balding?

Most of the damage occurs when manipulating the hair shafts, which has to be done in order to dye them properly and make sure that the color lasts long term.

When you permanently dye your hair, it requires you to rub dye into the hair and scalp. After dying is completed, conditioner is used to decrease the swelling seen in the hair shafts and neutralize the hair pH. In total, there are 4 rubbing and rinsing sequences required to properly dye a full head of hair. This rubbing will cause any loose hairs to fall out.

The weakening of the hair shafts

Hair dying can also lead to a permanent weakening of the hair shafts, themselves. Dying the hair requires you to use hydrogen peroxide to swell the cuticular scale and open up the ports for the permanent dye to enter the hair shaft where the reaction takes place.

Once this process has finished, the hair remains more porous than natural, undyed hair. The new pores present in the hair shafts can promote the loss of protein from the hair, making it weaker; especially with a lot of washing and combing, etc.

Also. porosity increases when the hair is made lighter than when it is darkened.  That’s why brown or dark hair made lighter tends to experience more loss and breakage than lighter hair dyed to be a darker color.  The amount of peroxide needed will dictate the amount of loss that occurs.

Knowing the difference between hair loss and hair “breakage”

To sum it all up, the hair loss that comes along with permanently dying your hair is not always hair loss because you are beginning to go bald. More hair could be appearing in the sink because your hair is weaker and breaking. This is what we mean when we use the term breakage. It can be hard to make this distinction.

The best way to know for sure is to collect hair samples for about a week and have a talk with your dermatologist to determine whether the hair is falling out from the root, or not. If less than half of the hairs have the bulb attached, then the loss is caused by breakage and isn’t a major concern.

The best way to stop your hear from breaking is to do as little as possible to it. That’s where we can come in to help.

How 4RootZ can help you combat hair breakage

4RootZ was formulated to help people color their hair in a more easy way, at home, with fewer side effects like breakage and damage to the hair. Our formula coats the hair with semi-permanent color that can be washed out on a daily basis, very similar to using normal hair gel.

By using a hair coloring gel instead of hair dye, your hair will remain healthier and break less. The hair you see in the sink each morning will be less and less. Our formula promotes healthy, shiny, beautiful hair.