Hair Colour: Will Your Lice Dye For It?

With all my talk about the harmfulness of chemicals, I have a confession to make. I dye my hair. Just did it again last night. Am I hypocritical about the harmful effects of the chemicals in lice "shampoos"? I don't think so, because (a) I only dye my own hair, not the hair of others and definitely not the hair of children, and (b) the claims on the hair dye box are fulfilled - the product does what it says it will do and my grey hair is covered. If the results of lice "shampoos" were even close to what was promised, I might say that using them was worth the risks. But they aren't and you still gotta pick and comb.

A woman recently told me that she will never get head lice because she dyes her hair. Now, I've been colouring my hair for a long time, and I've had head lice before. Some people advocate using hair dye as a treatment against live lice that are already on your head. On the Internet, you will find people that seemingly support this with their own anecdotal evidence. I've worked with people who have tried to use hair dyes as a pediculocide. Sorry, didn't work. I think that I will do some of my own experiments. If the guy at Harvard can be quoted all over the Internet for throwing 6 lice into some olive oil, perhaps I can do some groundbreaking "research" in the area of hair dye and its actual effects on lice and nits.

Or not. Hair dye is still full of chemicals that many people have serious reactions to. And if lice have adapted to the chemicals in the "shampoos", then they probably have adapted to hair dyes. I'll forget the research grant money. I'll just pick and comb instead.