Q: I am in the middle of changing my hairstyle from short to shoulder. My hair is salt and pepper and I have recently begun using a flat iron. But my hair turns yellow from the heat. I have turned the heat way down but it still happens. Is there any solution to this problem? My husband calls it "nicotine hair" and I don't even smoke! I use shimmer lights shampoo and conditioner on a reg. basis.

A: The first thing I would suspect as a cause of the yellowing is that some hair product you are using in conjunction with the flat iron is causing this yellowing that has become troublesome. Some products, when exposed to heat can become yellow. If the hair is naturally pigmented, this is usually unnoticeable. However, in silver or salt-and-pepper hair colors, it becomes problematic. If you are not using any styling product while you flat iron your hair (no styling gel in the blow drying stage, or hairspray to smooth the hair during ironing) then this is obviously not the case. However, if you are using a styling product (apart from shampoo and conditioner) then try blow-drying the hair and ironing it without product to see if this helps to resolve the issue.

The second thing to check is for residue on your flat iron. Using a cloth dampened with rubbing alcohol on a cool iron, or a water-dampened cloth on a hot iron should remove any residue left behind by products that were used before which could transfer to the hair and cause yellowing.

The final possibility is that your hair is simply sensitive to the heat of a flat iron. (It would react the same way to a curling iron.) This happens among fine to medium hair types as the last vestiges of pigment in the hair are oxidized by the heat of the flat iron, breaking down the melanin and leaving the underlying pigment (pale yellow). You might try continuing to lower the heat of your iron, but it may not be enough and will probably not get you the straight results you want. If your hair is heat sensitive, then you will probably be best served by giving up the use of the flat iron altogether.

Once you’ve identified and eliminated the cause of the problem, continued use of the Shimmer Lights shampoo and conditioner should restore your hair to its silvery, shiny luster.

Check your diet. High concentrations of sulfur based foods and drugs can have this effect. Usually it is temporary, and will change if your diet changes.

©Hairfinder.com

Gray hair may have a yellow tinge as the result of internal or external causes. Medication, food, and health conditions can turn the hair yellow from inside the hair shaft. Products used on the hair, such as shampoo, conditioners, hair spray, mousse, and gels can leave a yellowish residue on the hair shaft.

Hair turns gray or white due to a loss of melanin. Melanin provides hair and skin with its color or pigmentation. Yellowing from inside the hair shaft or on the surface of the hair is visible as the hair becomes increasingly colorless.

You will want to evaluate the cause of yellowing. Are you taking medication that is known to change hair color? Do you have liver disease or another condition known to make skin and eyes yellowish? Do you eat an abundance of carrots or other foods that are high in carotene, an orange compound that can make skin and hair yellowish? Are you a smoker whose hair has been yellowed by nicotine? Does the water you use to wash your hair have high iron content? Do you swim in a heavily chlorinated pool? After you answer these questions, you'll want to look at the products you are using on your hair.

If possible, you'll want to eliminate the cause of the yellowing. If this is not possible, some of the remedies below may be helpful in eliminating the yellowish tinge in your hair.

Why Blue or Purple?

Commercial products and some home remedies add blue or purple pigment to the outside of the hair shaft. These remedies work on a principle well-known to artists: complementary colors tend to neutralize their opposites. Blue is a complement to yellow and purple is a complement to orange. Use of these complementary pigments on yellowish or orangish (brassy) gray, silver, or white hair neutralizes those unwanted colors. Care must be taken, however, not to overdo the blue or purple.

For many of us, medications are a daily fact of life. We take prescriptions for blood pressure, diabetes, and many other conditions. And let’s not forget those who take prescription medications to treat hair loss itself. While these medicines are often life-saving advances in the areas they treat, they can sometimes have side effects that affect our hair. Let’s take a look at some common complaints and the medications that are known to cause them.

Hair Loss

Hair Loss is the most common complaint named when encountered as a side effect to medications. That’s not to say that it’s the most common side effect to medications, but rather that when a medication causes hair loss as a side effect, it tends to be a major impact on the individual and is listed as most troubling.

Telogen Effluvium

The most common form of hair loss caused by medications is called telogen effluvium. It refers to a diffuse shedding of the hairs over a large area of the head, and is generally the result of stress or some serious systemic shock that causes a percentage of the hair follicles to shift into the dormant phase and then be shed.

Medication types that are known to cause telogen effluvium are retinoids, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, antidepressants, and NSAIDS (including ibuprofen). (Source: American Osteopathic College of Dermatology) Such an abruptly-occurring diffuse hair loss is often not noted until weeks and months after the event that caused the incident to take place. This can mean that the cause may be overlooked or confused, particularly if there are many things going on with an individual.

The good news is that telogen effluvium requires no treatment to correct. The loss of the hair is a result of new growth pushing the old hairs out of the follicle. So, given time, the new hairs will emerge and grow back to return the scalp hopefully to normal.

Anagen Effluvium

Anagen Effluvium is hair loss that occurs during the growth phase of the hair’s growing cycle. It prevents the matrix cells in the follicles from dividing normally and producing new hairs. Anagen Effluvium typically occurs within a few days or weeks of taking a medication and is commonly caused by drugs used in chemotherapy treatments. As with many other reactions, the level of hair loss and the severity of the anagen effluvium is related to the strength of dosage and specific drugs taken and your sensitivity to said medications.

Specific Medication Types Thought to Cause Hair Loss:

• Acne medications containing vitamin A (retinoids)

• Antibiotics and antifungal drugs

• Antidepressants

• Birth control pills

• Anticlotting drugs

• Cholesterol-lowering drugs

• Drugs that suppress the immune system

• Drugs that treat breast cancer

• Epilepsy drugs (anticonvulsant)

• High blood pressure medications (anti-hypertensives), such as beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, and diuretics

• Hormone replacement therapy

• Mood stabilizers

• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)

• Parkinson's disease drugs

Steroids

• Thyroid medications

• Weight loss drugs

The following Chemotherapy Medications tend to cause hair loss:

• adriamycin

• cyclophosphamide

• cactinomycin

• docetaxel

• doxorubicin

• etoposide

• ifosfamide

• irinotecan

• paclitaxel

• topotecan

• vinorelbine

Hair Growth as a Side Effect of Medication

While it’s not a common side effect of many medications, many women who are pregnant and taking pre-natal vitamins find that they have improved strength, growth and condition of their hair. This is known to come as a combination of both the benefit of the vitamin therapy as well as the increased growth hormones in a woman’s system as she “grows” her baby. Some women have been known to continue with their pre-natal vitamins in order to retain some of the benefit after childbirth and all the time.

Side Effects of Hair Growth Medications

While most of our discussion has been on the topic of medications whose side effects relate to hair loss (or growth), there has been recent studies that pertain to side effects caused by popular medications used to treat hair loss in men.

In a review of the existing drug studies on the drugs Dutasteride (brand name Avodart) and Finasteride (brand names Proscar and Propecia), the medications have been linked to a decrease in sexual desire (libido) and in cases, even erectile dysfunction. The concern increases as a small percentage of these cases showed persisting symptoms even after the drugs were no longer taken. A professor of biochemistry and urology at Boston University School of Medicine stated that almost everyone who takes these drugs experiences some of these side effects, and some are more dramatically affected than others.

Since these drugs work by blocking androgen (the specifically male hormone) in the body, the side effects seem inevitable: Men need androgen for erectile function, libido, ejaculation, and just for a sense of well-being.

©Hairfinder.com

You already know that the type of light falling on your hair affects the color that your hair appears to be, and you've probably noticed that the lighter the color of your hair, the more influence different lighting types have on your color. You may also know that light has a "color" temperature. Sunlight is considered "natural" light and is our reference point for all other types of light. The color temperature of sunlight at midday is about 5500 degrees Kelvin (K). Even the color of sunlight can swing dramatically based on time of day and atmospheric conditions. Whether a light appears "warmer" or "cooler" than natural sunlight depends on whether it's color temperature is above or below that of sunlight. The Kelvin scale was started in the late 1800s, when the British physicist William Kelvin heated a block of carbon to produce a range of different glowing colors at different temperatures. The black cube produced a dim red light that turned a brighter yellow as the temperature went up, and eventually produced a bright blue-white glow at the highest temperatures. In his honor, color temperatures are measured in degrees Kelvin, which are a variation on Centigrade degrees. Instead of starting at the temperature water freezes, the Kelvin scale starts at "absolute zero," which is -273 Centigrade. (Subtract 273 from a Kelvin temperature, and you get the equivalent in Centigrade.) However, the color temperatures attributed to different types of lights are correlated based on visible colors matching a standard black body, and are not the actual temperature at which a filament burns. How's that for more than you ever wanted to know about degrees Kelvin? In general, the higher the color temperature, the more "cool" or blue the light appears. The lower the color temperature, the "warmer" or more yellow the light appears. The temperature of the light in our salon depends on time of day, but ranges between 3200 and 5500 K. During the day, the light is usually around 5000 K; made up from sunlight at around 5500 K, and a lessor amount of quartz halogen, which is about 3200 K. In the evening when the sun goes down, the light in the salon is around 3200 K, a bit more "warm" looking than midday sun. If you get your color done in the salon at night and then look at that color outside in daylight the next day, your color is going to look just a little bit "cooler" outside. If you get your hair done here in the day under lighting that is about 5000 K and then go to your office, which is lit by fluorescent bulbs at around 6300K, your hair is going to look "cooler" in the office. If on the other hand, you get your hair done here during the day under lighting that is about 5000K and look at it at home under incandescent lighting at around 2600K, your hair will look considerably "warmer" or more golden at home. Household incandescent light is one of the "warmest" or yellowest artificial lighting sources you are likely to encounter other than candles or a fireplace. You can purchase bulbs to achieve just about any color temperature you may want in the rooms of your house.

The chart below illustrates the range of lighting in degrees Kelvin.

Skylight (blue sky) 12,000K - 20,000K

Average summer shade 8000K

Light summer shade 7100K Typical summer light (sun + sky) 6500K

Daylight fluorescent 6300K

Overcast sky 6000K

Clear mercury lamp 5900K

Sunlight (noon, summer, mid-latitudes) 5400K

Design white fluorescent 5200K

Special fluorescents used for color evaluation 5000K

Daylight photoflood 4800 - 5000K

Sunlight (early morning and late afternoon) 4300K

Brite White Deluxe Mercury lamp 4000K Sunlight (1 hour after dawn) 3500K

Cool white fluorescent 3400K

Photoflood 3400K

Professional tungsten photographic lights 3200K 100-watt tungsten halogen 3000K

Deluxe Warm White fluorescent 2950K 100-watt

incandescent 2870K 40-watt incandescent 2500K

High-pressure sodium light 2100K

Sunlight (sunrise or sunset) 2000K

Candle flame 1850K - 1900K

Match flame 1700K

So the moral of this story is; if you're really particular about the color hue of your hair, take into consideration where you want it to appear ideal. Out at night with lots of warm, yellow lights typical of clubs and people's houses? Or in an office environment that may have much cooler lighting? Or in the sun? The difference isn't huge, but there is a difference.

Hair Color Designed Just For Men

The image of youth and vitality are becoming essential for climbing the corporate ladder in today’s competitive business world. Studies have shown that men with gray hair command lower salaries compared to their non-gray counterparts and are considered less effective.

As a result, many men are looking into hair color as a way of camouflaging gray or dull hair. Hair color, properly applied, can brighten natural hair color, conceal a percentage of the gray or remove all traces of graying hair.

In the past, men have run into several problems when attempting hair coloring services.

1.Improper application, usually “home hair color” can result in a shade that is the wrong color, too dark or too solid to appear natural.

2.Salon tinting can require 20 to 45 minutes of processing time. Many men are uncomfortable sitting in the salon for that amount of time with the color preparation on their hair.

3.Even when properly applied, hair color can turn unnaturally red or gold from exposure to the sun or over time as it fades. This makes the added hair color painfully obvious and is unacceptable to most men.

 MiN Hair Color  is designed specifically for men and while available only through hair care professionals, it seems to solve many of the previous problems.

1.There are ten shades that can be mixed by the hairdresser to achieve the perfect color match.

2.MiN (short for minutes) processes in only 3-5 minutes, depending on the level of coverage being sought. This time can be spent relaxing inconspicuously at the shampoo bowl. No sitting under the hairdryer or wearing a processing cap.

3.MiN is designed to resist fading to gold or red and to stay true to tone.

I think this product deserves a thumbs up.

Min Hair Color appears that it may be the perfect solution to keeping a youthful and competitive image in the work place while eliminating the previous problems.

COLOR by MiN New York, Pepper

Quick. Easy. Natural. The MiN New York Touch Up Color Kit.

MiN New York was founded on Color for salon professionals, now you can enjoy excellent results in just 5 MiNutes

Recognized by Men's Health Magazine in "100 Rules of Looking Great!"

Kit includes:

• Catalyst (activator)

• Color

• Blocker (selective color blocking agent)

• Applicator brush and gloves

• 2oz Travel WASH Shampoo • Detailed Instructions

http://www.inoa.co.uk/inoa/_en/_gb/index.aspx#/page=dispatch

Last week L’Oréal Professionnel revealed a new product that will, according to the company, revolutionize the salon hair coloring industry.

Inoa, short of Innovation No Ammonia, conteins mea, is discovered after years of research. The treatment will color uniformly and leave hair soft, shiny and silky.

Inoa “lifts color up to three levels, covers gray and has true-to-tone color results”. There is no odor or any discomforts usually associated with ammonia application, such as a burning, itchy scalp.

It is a three-step mixing process where oleogel, color concentrate and a cream developer with dual conditioning agent are mixed.

In the beginning, Inoa will be offered in 50 shades.

The price of the product is not revealed but it will cost 10% more than traditional salon treatments.

Inoa will debut in Europe at the end of September and in the U.S. and Canada in January.

Inoa, which stands for Innovation No Ammonia, is being billed by L’Oréal as the most revolutionary colorant to come out of its labs in decades. Thanks to a formula discovered after years of research, Inoa’s creators claim the three-step treatment will color uniformly and leave hair soft, shiny and silky — all without odor or any of the discomforts associated with ammonia application, like an itchy scalp. While it is not the first salon offering that is ammonia free, the company said it is the first ammonia-free product that lifts up to three levels, covers gray and has true-to-tone color results.

“Inoa will be to the hair coloring industry what the CD was to vinyl,” claimed Laurent Dubois, L’Oréal Professionnel’s managing director France, at the brand’s catwalk-style launch in Paris’ Tuileries Gardens Tuesday before a packed house of hairstylists and journalists. Like the CD, he said, Inoa would take a while to render its predecessors irrelevant. But he strongly hinted that Inoa will slowly replace L’Oréal Professionnel’s existing salon color lines. These include Majirel, introduced in 1978 and now the division’s leading colorant with 126 shades.

The science behind Inoa is deceptively simple. Instead of ammonia, the product contains monoethanolamine, which traditionally does not cover gray as well and cannot lighten hair as much as traditional products. But by adding an oil-based gel to the monoethanolamine color concentrate, plus the cream developer, L’Oréal researchers determined it provides an optimum result, including up to three levels of lift and 100 percent gray coverage, according to the company.

Initially, Inoa will be offered in 50 shades.

L’Oréal executives declined to divulge sales projections for Inoa, nor would they give its price tag. However, they said its products would cost 10 percent more than traditional salon treatments. L’Oréal’s overall salon portfolio generates about $3 billion in yearly sales, with around half of that stemming from hair color, according to the company.

Inoa is expected to launch in 2,000 salons in Europe on Sept. 22. By yearend, L’Oréal Professionnel aims for the product to be in 8,000 doors on the Continent and expects to have trained up to 10,000 hairstylists on using the product.

The rollout will continue in January in the U.S. and Canada, followed by South America in April and Eastern Europe next June. Advertising visuals will be revealed later this summer, and will run in trade press

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-hdye.html

Hair dye products may be divided into three categories, i.e.,

permanent, semi-permanent and temporary hair colors. Permanent hair colors are the most popular hair dye products. They may be further divided into oxidation hair dyes and progressive hair dyes. Oxidation hair dye products consist of (1) a solution of dye intermediates, e.g., p-phenylenediamine, which form hair dyes on chemical reaction, and preformed dyes, e.g., 2-nitro-p-phenylenediamine, which already are dyes and are added to achieve the intended shades, in an aqueous, ammoniacal vehicle containing soap, detergents and conditioning agents; and, (2) a solution of hydrogen peroxide, usually 6%, in water or a cream lotion.

The ammoniacal dye solution and the hydrogen peroxide solution, often called the developer, are mixed shortly before application to the hair. The applied mixture causes the hair to swell and the dye intermediates (and preformed dyes) penetrate the hair shaft to some extent before they have fully reacted with each other and the hydrogen peroxide and formed the hair dye.

Progressive hair dye products contain lead acetate as the active ingredient. Lead acetate is approved as a color additive for coloring hair on the scalp at concentrations not exceeding 0.6% w/v, calculated as metallic lead (21 CFR 73.2396). Bismuth citrate, the other approved color additive (21 CFR 73.2110), is used to a much lesser extent. Progressive hair dyes change the color of hair gradually from light straw color to almost black by reacting with the sulfur of hair keratin as well as oxidizing on the hair surface.

Semi-permanent and temporary hair coloring products are solutions (on rare occasions dry powders) of various coal-tar, i.e. synthetic organic, dyes which deposit and adhere to the hair shaft to a greater or lesser extent. Temporary hair colors must be reapplied after each shampooing. The vehicle may consist of water, organic solvents, gums, surfactants and conditioning agents. The coal-tar dyes are either listed and certified colors additives or dyes for which approval has not been sought. The dyes may not be non-permitted metallic salts or vegetable substances.

A hair dye product containing a non-approved coal-tar color (but not a non-approved metallic or vegetable dye) which is known to cause adverse reactions under conditions of use cannot be considered adulterated if the label bears the caution statement provided in section 601(a) of the FD&C Act and offers adequate directions for preliminary patch testing by consumers for skin sensitivity. The caution statement reads as follows:

Caution - This product contains ingredients which may cause skin irritation on certain individuals and a preliminary test according to accompanying directions should first be made. This product must not be used for dyeing the eyelashes or eyebrows; to do may cause blindness.

If the label of a coal-tar color-containing hair dye product does not bear the caution statement of section 601(a) and the patch testing directions, it may be subject to regulatory action if it is determined to be harmful under customary conditions of use.

Several coal-tar hair dye ingredients have been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals. In the case of 4-methoxy-m-phenylenediamine (4-MMPD, 2,4-diaminoanisole) which had also been demonstrated in human and animal studies to penetrate the skin, the agency considered the risk associated with its use in hair dyes a "material fact" which should be made known to consumers. The regulation requiring a label warning on hair dye products containing 4-MMPD published in October 1979 was to become effective April 16, 1980. The regulation required that hair dyes containing 4-MMPD bear the following warning:

Warning - Contains an ingredient that can penetrate your skin and has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals.

Some hair dyes manufacturers held that the potential risk was too small to be considered "material" and challenged the validity of the regulation in court. The agency decided to reconsider its earlier position, entered into a consent agreement with hair dye manufacturers, and stayed the effectiveness of the regulation until completion of an assessment of the carcinogenic risk of 4-MMPD in accordance with scientifically accepted procedures.

In addition to 4-MMPD, the following other hair dye ingredients have been reported to cause cancer in at least one animal species in lifetime feeding studies: 4-chloro-m-phenylenediamine, 2,4-toluenediamine, 2-nitro-p-phenylenediamine and 4-amino-2-nitrophenol. They were also found to penetrate human and animal skin.

Lead Acetate in Hair Dye Products

Lead acetate is used as a color additive in "progressive" hair dye products. These products are applied over a period of time to achieve a gradual coloring effect.

In order to be approved for this use, a color additive petition was required to establish safety. The safety data submitted in support of this petition included results from trials on humans using the products. In the trials, people using the product under controlled conditions of use were monitored for the amount of lead in their bloodstream. No significant increase in blood levels of lead was seen in the trial subjects and the lead was not shown to be absorbed into the body through such use.

These data allowed FDA to determine that safe conditions of use could be established, and a color additive regulation (Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 73.2396) allowing the use of lead acetate in hair dyes was established. The regulation requires that the following caution statement appear on the product labels:

"Caution: Contains lead acetate. For external use only. Keep this product out of children's reach. Do not use on cut or abraded scalp. If skin irritation develops, discontinue use. Do not use to color mustaches, eyelashes, eyebrows, or hair on parts of the body other than the scalp. Do not get in eyes. Follow instructions carefully and wash hands thoroughly after use."

To ensure safe use of these products, it is important that consumers follow these directions carefully.

Consumers can determine if lead acetate is used in a particular hair dye product by reviewing the product ingredient declaration appearing on the label of the cosmetic package.

February 17, 2008

July 11, 2008

February 16, 2008

BRIGTH RED HAIR;

THIS IS MY STYLE!