Girls Next Door: Ammonia-free Hair Dye

What is ammonia?

Ammonia is a commonly produced industrial chemical with a pungent smell often found in household cleaning products, fertilizers and hair colouring products. It is used in almost every brand of professional hair dyes to open up the hair shaft and cuticles for easier penetration of colours. In doing so, it will inevitably damage your hair and also result in other long-term health issues if you are over-exposed to it. Some common dangers are:

Burning and irritation of eyes (even without directly getting it in your eye)
Severe coughing and choking when inhaled
Irritation and burning of skin

The amount of ammonia found in professional hair dyes is generally within a safe limit and normally shouldn't cause any severe health problems. However, if you ever decide to use one of those box dyes at home, please be cautious of the following:

Never mix ammonia with bleach or any of its derivatives as the combination can produce extremely toxic chlorine gas
If you accidentally get any ammonia on your skin or in your eyes, rinse it off with water immediately

Fortunately, advances in organic research have enabled formulas of natural and organic ingredients to eliminate the need for ammonia in professional hair dyes. This is also known as Organic Colour Systems. Although ammonia has been eliminated, it is replaced with another chemical called monoethanolamine which is odorless and has a much less volatile Ph characteristic than any ammonia chemical. Monoethanolamine has the same function as ammonia does but is much gentler and less violating to our body.

Currently, some ammonia-free hair colouring products on the market are:

Garnier Olia