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Thread: Permanent Hair Color and Breast Cancer

  1. #1
    Yppej
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    Permanent Hair Color and Breast Cancer

    The NIH report released today, showing a link between hair dye and breast cancer, is the kick in the but I need to go gray. I've flirted with the idea before but always chickened out.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    Interesting. I will look into it.

  3. #3
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    I stopped dyeing my hair in 2015... I probably look older than I would if my hair was still fake golden blonde, but I'm happy not having to keep it up all the time. The concern about chemicals was about 20% of my decision to go au naturale. The other reasons were a) I'm lazy and hated having to go through that ritual every few weeks b) if I waited too long, those ugly roots showed up c) I really admired women who had fantastic grey/silver hair. I am NOT one of those, but it made it easier to pretend I was and d) my hair IS salt and pepper--so what? I AM older now--so what?
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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    Well, I can’t say that I am surprised. I had a small weird growth, pre-cancerous, they said- right in my hairline at my temple, that was removed. At the time I vividly recalled how my hairdresser rubbed the color in there. I decided I was going to go natural, whatever that was, on my 60th birthday. It’s been 8 years, my natural is a light golden and I get compliments on it every day. Wish I had done it sooner!

  5. #5
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    My mom is 94. She had breast cancer twice in the same breast, the second time opting for a mastectomy. She colored her hair (waist long!) Until she was 85.

    She now has short white hair. Much more age appropriate.

  6. #6
    Senior Member flowerseverywhere's Avatar
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    We had two fiends die of cancer in their early forties leaving behind small children. At the time I was highlighting my hair, and paying no attention to chemicals. I remember looking at the product labels for the chemicals in permanent and hair color packages and thinking why in the world was I putting chemicals so close to my brain? So I stopped.
    Fast forward 25 years and our exposure to chemicals has done nothing but increase. From the meat and vegetables we eat, what we drink, from water to milk to soda, and the drugs we take. Add to that the chemicals in paint, wallboard, carpet, glues, packaging, our air and so on.

    You can bet some people are making big money off of the products that cure or arrest all these diseases. We truly are in a pickle.

  7. #7
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    I think I've colored my hair a total of maybe 4 times my whole life, last time over 20 years ago. Fortunately, I'm okay with the color and color changes through the years. It's all me - LOL.
    To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
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  8. #8
    Senior Member rosarugosa's Avatar
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    I need to give this some serious thought. I color my hair regularly.

  9. #9
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    I colored mine this year for the first time in years and I am wondering if it actually looks any better. It's gotten really light anyway, so it reads more blonde like I was as a kid, but the color left it more yellow. It was never yellow--I was a tow head.

    So I think I will highlight the roots as it grows out and then eventually stop highlighting. But the overall color is hard to get used to. Although I do get compliments, and I didn't before.

    I think I am not worried about the breast cancer link but I probably would not be young and color it all the time, if that makes sense.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Sad Eyed Lady's Avatar
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    It seems like this idea surfaces every few years, or at least I remember hearing this before. Maybe now they have actually established the link between hair color and cancer, so that is probably why it is back in the news.

    I quit coloring my hair 2 or 3 years ago and was pleasantly surprised with the results. I get a lot of compliments and things like "are those streaks real?". I certainly don't miss the doing of it. Sometimes I see an old photo of myself when my hair was so dark and I get tempted just for a few minutes, but then I remember how long it took me to get it grown out to where it is today and I quickly dismiss the idea.
    "Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in the midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free." Leonard Cohen

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