I'm planning to dye my hair black. I've never dyed my hair before, it is naturally very dark brown. Would I need to do a strand test? (For allergies or something) People have told me I don't need to because of the colour? ---------- Post added 27th Oct 2015 at 12:39 AM ---------- What are the chances of being allergic or something? I've read newspaper articles where women have dyed after dying their hair and I'm kinda freaking out and scared :/ A friend has offered to help me, we won't have time to do a strand test. But people say because of the colour, it's ok ---------- Post added 27th Oct 2015 at 12:43 AM ---------- I have no known allergies at the moment FYI ---------- Post added 27th Oct 2015 at 12:54 AM ---------- It's going to be okay right? It's probably very rare to get a reaction and if I do get a bit of a reaction, I'll know not to dye my hair again, it's not like I'm going to keep dying it again and again and again so I'm so paranoid
You really should be testing, as some formulas are harsh, and may contain cheap chemicals, and can irritate your scalp. And of course, the possibility of an allergic reaction. Things like phenylenediamine (a very common dye ingredient) allergies can be pretty serious and imo, it would be better to have a small reaction on your arm, than to skip the patch test and have a crazy reaction all across your scalp/neck/face region. If you're super concerned about damage or reactions but really don't want to do a patch test, I recommend you at least look into some of the more non-toxic dyes.
If you have no known allergies, you should be fine and doing a test on your skin probably isn't necessary. If it worries you, it shouldn't hurt. If you want to do a test, do it on your arm--like near your wrist or the underside of your forearm. I recommend doing a small strip test first to see if you like it. If you do, feel free to proceed dying the rest. Depending on how light your hair is, you might want to keep it in longer and the box says. I know for me, my hair is naturally black, so I need to bleach my hair before dying it the colors I usually do. After that process, my hair is between a dirty blonde color to somewhere a few shades above platinum blonde status. That said, I generally leave the dye in between 1-2 hours at the very least to help the color set better.
