Best Hair Dye for Thinning Hair
What is the best hair dye for thinning hair? The ideal choice for thinning hair is always one made with ingredients you can feel good about. At Madison Reed, our products are free of harsh ingredients such as ammonia, PPD, resorcinol, parabens, phthalates, gluten, SLS, and titanium dioxide. Instead, they're enriched with nourishing ingredients like keratin, argan oil, and ginseng root extract. We’ll chat a bit more about these ingredients and show you some great colors that mask thinning hair perfectly. Intrigued? Great, then read on!
What Are the Best Hair Dye Ingredients for Thinning Hair?
While the following ingredients may not directly address thinning hair or scalp concerns, their presence helps nourish the hair.
Keratin is a naturally occurring protein that composes the structure of hair. We add additional keratin to strengthen and fortify hair. Keratin infuses hair with additional protein to restore elasticity and help prevent breakage.
Argan oil is a multitasking ingredient that nourishes hair from root to tip. It contains vitamin E which can help repair damaged ends and protect hair from future breakage. It restores shine and adds natural smoothness, while hydrating and softening to leave hair feeling silky and healthy.
Ginseng root extract is a unique fortifying ingredient, and is able to penetrate into the hair to improve individual strand strength, soften hair, and alleviate split ends.
Alternatively, the following ingredients should be avoided:
Ammonia: Ammonia is an ingredient commonly used in hair color. It has a strong odor, and exposure to ammonia fumes can irritate skin, eyes, throat, and lungs, causing watery eyes, itchy scalps, coughing, or burning.
PPD: Short for para-phenylenediamine, PPD is a hair dye traditionally used to create darker shades of hair color. It is known to be an allergen and skin sensitizer. Contact with the skin can cause dermatitis in susceptible individuals.
Resorcinol: Although it’s used in most permanent hair colors due to its efficacy in coloring hair, we never use resorcinol in our formulas as it is classified as a hazardous chemical and can be toxic to the immune system. In fact, resorcinol has been formally classified as an irritant by the European Union (EU), and has been prohibited in cosmetic products in several countries. Resorcinol is a skin sensitizer and can be one of the ingredients that users are allergic to in hair dye.
Parabens: Widely used in beauty products as a cosmetic preservative to promote longer shelf life, there is concern that parabens may interfere with the endocrine system.
Phthalates: Phthalates are often used as solvents and plasticizers in shampoo and styling products, and many are banned in the EU. Some studies have found that phthalates might have some effects on reproductive hormones.
Gluten: Gluten is sometimes found in wheat proteins and used to preserve the structure of the hair. However, for those who are sensitive to gluten, we decided to err on the side of caution, and have removed it from all of our formulas.
SLS or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate: SLS is a surfactant, meaning it lowers the surface tension between ingredients and creates the lather often associated with shampoo and other hair products. However, SLS is also known to strip the protein from hair, depleting the hair and scalp of beneficial protective oils. Products containing harsh surfactants like SLS are also known to contribute to color fade. In severe instances, SLS can also irritate the scalp, causing redness, dryness, and itching. Read more about SLS.
Titanium Dioxide: Some evidence shows that in high concentrations, pigment-grade (powdered) and ultra-fine titanium dioxide dust may be linked to cancer, allergies, immunotoxicity, and organ system toxicity, among other problems.
