From blow-drying to hair colouring, here’s how your beauty routine can make you prone to cancer

Ladies, beware! Beauty comes at a price—a steep price of the deadly cancer, we mean. So steer clear of these dangerous beauty and styling products.
hair colour side effects
Colour your hair with caution. Image courtesy: Shutterstock.
Sonakshi Kohli Updated: 16 Dec 2019, 14:50 pm IST
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When it comes to beauty and grooming, we leave no stone unturned to step out looking our glamorous best, right? Why else do you think cosmetics and treatments like hair straightening and colouring, gel manicures, and getting a face full of make-up done have become so popular nowadays?

Chances are that these could be a part of your beauty regime too. Which is exactly why you need to be told about their downside right away, ladies. By downside, we mean, the cancer-causing potential of these five beauty and styling treatments and products. Check ‘em out:

1. Hair dyes
From those blonde highlights to a full head of chocolate-brown to that beautiful ombre of eclectic red—there’s so much we do to experiment with our hair. After all, a new hair colour is all you need to amp up your style, right?

But did you know that your lovely, new hair colour could even amp up the risk quotient of you getting breast cancer? Well, a study conducted at the National Institutes of Health in the United States found that women who used permanent hair dye the year before participating in the study were nine per cent more likely to develop breast cancer when compared with women who did not use hair dyes.

In fact, hair dyes are also capable of causing bladder, blood, and other types of cancers as well as tumours.

That said, further research is required to determine exactly which hair dye ingredients are to blame for it. However, the American Cancer Society suggests that we expose ourselves to carcinogenic chemicals present in dyes by inhalation of their fumes and absorption through the skin.

2. Chemical hair straighteners
The magic of permanent curtain-straight hair eliminating the trouble of burning them using electronic hair straighteners has perhaps blinded us to the possibility of its cancer-causing properties.

Nope, we’re not saying it. The same study that opened our eyes to the ill effects of hair dyes has also given a reality check for people who get chemical treatments like rebonding, hair relaxing, and Brazillian straightening in a bid to get straight hair for months.

According to the study published in the International Journal of Cancer, chemical hair-straightening treatments were associated with a higher risk of getting breast cancer.

3. Hair dryers
When you switch on your hair dryer for those gorgeous out-turns and voluminous hair, the current flowing through the device produces an electromagnetic field around it. This is exactly where matters start getting out of hand.

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PERSONALISE NOW
Blow drying can wreck your hair and lead to cancer too.

As per a review published in the CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, while the electric field can’t exactly permeate through you, the intense magnetic field has the power to penetrate your tissues and kickstart weak secondary currents in your cell membranes and tissue fluids. This cellular change can promote different phases of carcinogenesis, thus making you more prone to cancer.

That’s not it. Certain hair dryers, especially the old-school ones emit harmful silicate minerals, which are capable of causing cancer as per a report published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health.

4. UV nail lamps
Surely, gel manicures and nail extensions can make you and well, your groomed hands, stand apart. However, according to a 2014 study published in JAMA Dermatology, exposure to the ultraviolet rays emitted by the enamel-drying lamps can pose a risk of skin cancer.

If you’re wondering how keeping your hands inside the lamp for a mere 10 minutes in total can bring you so much harm, you’ve got to know that in those 10 seemingly-harmless minutes, you get a UV dose equivalent to the day-long recommended limit for outdoor workers as per a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. So, don’t take it lightly.

5. Make-up products
Ladies, unfortunately, even products like moisturisers, shampoos, foundations, and lipsticks that you apply directly on your skin on a daily basis too can make you more prone to skin, breast, and other types of cancers—thanks to the presence of parabens in them.

causes of cancer
Do you love make-up? It can give you skin cancer too.

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these harmful preservatives added in beauty products mimic the properties of oestrogen and are linked with breast and skin cancer.

The solution?

Now that you’ve gained enough knowledge about the potentially harmful beauty products, how about checking the ingredient list and opting for paraben-free and organic products?

In fact, investing in a technologically-advanced hair dryer and decreasing its usage to a bare minimum can also help you a great deal. As for the gel manicures, chemical hair-straightening treatments, and hair dyes—stay away—as much as you can.

After all, what’s the use of these carcinogenic treatments if in the end, you’re left struggling with a deadly cancer and absolutely nothing to flaunt? Think about it.

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Twenty kilos down and struggling to maintain the weight loss by preaching healthy eating, while eating unhealthy every now and then. ...Read More

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