Health Conscious Hair Color
Beneath the luster of our hair, blood vessels pulsate close to the skin. "Whatever you put on your scalp penetrates your body via the blood" says Roya Adjory, co-owner of the environmentally conscious Los Angeles-area Nori's Eco-Salon. For this reason, Adjory, along with her sister Roza and mother Nori, carefully read labels and conduct investigations when choosing brands of hair color to use in the salon or recommend to their customers. Health-conscious aficionados who don't want to ingest a chemical soup through their skin should be aware that the FDA does not regulate the chemicals used to color hair. The European Union keeps more stringent standards, and in 2006, banned 22 hair dye chemicals, but the FDA claims that only one of those banned is used in the U.S.
What's a conscious consumer to do? Read labels, for one. While even the most eco-friendly products can have tongue-twister ingredient lists, Adjory recommends avoiding hair dyes containing sulfites, phthalates, parabens, ethanolamine, and perfumes. Talk to your stylist, or find someone who specializes in going green (without turning your hair a chartreuse hue). Adjory prefers Aveda and EcoColors for coloring and Isvara Organics and Shikai for their other haircare products. If you want to do your own research, The Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database, which ranks products' hazard levels can be found at www.cosmeticdatabase.com. Learn more about Roya and her commitment to healthy hair care at www.norisecosalon.com.
Felicia Marie Tomasko
