Will dyeing hair cause cancer? More and more studies have found that the risk of these cancers will increase

▎ WuXi AppTec's content team edit hair dyes, daily chemicals that can change hair color, and are very common in daily life
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Many middle-aged and elderly people regularly dye their hair black in order to cover up their gray hair and look young.
Many young people also dye their hair in other colors, or even "colorful", in order to be fashionable, cool, handsome, and beautiful
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According to the durability of dyeing, hair dyes can be divided into temporary, semi-permanent and permanent
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Among them, permanent hair dyes are the most widely used hair dyes because they can last longer and are more convenient
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However, because the hair dye contains a lot of chemicals, will it increase health risks, especially cancer risks? This has also aroused people's attention and worries
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For example, most hair dyes contain p-phenylenediamine, which is a substance included in the list of carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
It belongs to category 3 carcinogens.
Human or animal data)
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At the same time, with the development of more research, scientists have discovered that the use of hair dyes may be associated with an increased risk of a variety of cancers
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Image source: 123RF may increase the risk of prostate cancer in men.
Recently, a study published in the well-known journal Cancer of the American Cancer Society (ACS) showed that the use of oxidative permanent hair dyes is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer in men Related
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Oxidative permanent hair dye is the main type of permanent hair dye, and most people use this
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In this study, scientists analyzed data from 28,795 people in the Finnish ATBC study
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They are 50-69 years old, and they are all men who smoke
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During an average follow-up of 28 years, a total of 2,703 people developed prostate cancer
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After removing the influence of many factors such as age, life>
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Compared with people who did not use oxidative permanent hair dye, the use of this hair dye was associated with a 77% increase in the risk of prostate cancer; it was associated with a 179% increase in the risk of early prostate cancer; and it was associated with a 66% increase in the risk of advanced prostate cancer.

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At the same time, the results also show that the use of oxidative permanent hair dyes on the increased risk of prostate cancer is more pronounced in people with a shorter smoking age and a higher body mass index (BMI)
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Scientists have analyzed that oxidized permanent hair dyes contain a variety of substances that may increase the risk of prostate cancer, such as benzidine, 4-aminobiphenyl and 2-naphthylamine
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Image source: 123RF may increase the risk of breast cancer in women.
In 2019, a study published in the International Journal of Cancer found that the use of permanent hair dyes and hair straighteners was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in women
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In this study, scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) analyzed data from a total of 46,709 women in the "sister study".
They were all 35 to 74 years old, and all of them had breast cancer.
Sister, but I don’t have breast cancer
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During an average follow-up of 8.
3 years, a total of 2,794 women developed breast cancer
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After removing the influence of other factors, the results of the study showed that compared with women who did not use hair dye, women who used permanent hair dye within 1 year had a 9% higher risk of breast cancer
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The use of temporary and semi-permanent hair dyes is not significantly associated with breast cancer risk
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In addition, research results also show that the use of chemical hair straighteners is also associated with an increased risk of breast cancer
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Among all women, women who used hair straighteners increased their breast cancer risk by an average of 18%
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As the frequency of use increases, the risk is higher.
Women who use hair straighteners at least once every 5-8 weeks have a 30% increase in breast cancer risk
.

Image source: 123RF may increase the risk of multiple types of cancer in women.
In 2020, a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) further found that the use of permanent hair dyes may increase women’s basal cells to varying degrees The risk of cancer, ovarian cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and many types of breast cancer
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In this study, scientists from Harvard Medical School's Brigham and Women's Hospital and other institutions analyzed data from 117,000 women in the NHS, who were between 30 and 30 years old.
55 years old
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During the average follow-up period of 36 years, there were 20,805 new cases of solid cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer), 1807 cases of blood system cancer, 22560 cases of basal cell carcinoma, and 2792 cases of skin squamous cell carcinoma
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In addition, 4860 cancer-related deaths occurred
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After removing the influence of other factors, the results of the study show that compared with women who have never used permanent hair dye, there is no obvious association between using permanent hair dye and the risk of most cancers, but it is associated with some cancer risks.
Elevated related
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Specifically, the use of permanent hair dyes is significantly associated with the increased risk of some breast cancers (including estrogen receptor-negative, progesterone receptor-negative, and hormone-receptor-negative breast cancer) and ovarian cancer.
As the frequency increases, the risk of cancer will also increase
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At the same time, the effect of permanent hair dye on cancer risk is also related to natural hair color
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For example, the use of permanent hair dyes is associated with a slightly increased risk of skin basal cell carcinoma, but in people with light natural hair color (gold or light brown), this risk is higher; it is also associated with Hodgkin’s lymphoma The increased risk is related, but this phenomenon is only observed in people with dark natural hair colors (brown, black, and red)
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Image source: 123RF Summary It should be noted that the three studies mentioned above are observational studies, which only show that the use of permanent hair dye or hair straightener is associated with an increased risk of certain types of cancer, and does not indicate cause and effect Relationship
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Moreover, with these findings, is it not recommended to dye hair again? Scientists remain cautious
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However, they believe that although it is not yet possible to draw a definitive conclusion on whether the hair dye will cause cancer
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But based on some research evidence, everyone should at least be aware that hair dyes may have cancer-causing risks
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Especially those who like to use permanent hair dye, and those who use hair dye frequently, should pay attention to it
.

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The life that was bitten by a dog really relies on these three types of foods, the content is actually higher than milk! There are 6 advantages and 2 disadvantages of sleeping naked, one of which you will never think of! About the 4 truths about lung cancer, what many people think may be the wrong reference material [1] Jung-Eun Lim, et al.
,(2021).
Hair dye use and prostate cancer risk: A prospective analysis in the Alpha-Tocopherol ,Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study cohort.
Cancer, DOI: 10.
1002/cncr.
34035.
[2] Yin Zhang, et al.
,(2020).
Personal use of permanent hair dyes and cancer risk and mortality in US women: prospective cohort study.
BMJ, DOI: https ：//doi.
org/10.
1136/bmj.
m2942.
[3] Carolyn E.
Eberle, et al.
, (2019).
Hair dye and chemical straightener use and breast cancer risk in a large US population of black and white women.
International Journal of Cancer, DOI: 10.
1002/ijc.
32738 Disclaimer: WuXi AppTec's content team focuses on introducing global biomedical health research progress
.

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The opinions expressed in the article do not represent the position of WuXi AppTec, nor does it mean that WuXi AppTec supports or opposes the views in the article
.

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If you need guidance on treatment plans, please go to a regular hospital for treatment
.