Photo Courtesy of Twitter (@TheShadeRoom)
A Texas woman suffered an allergic reaction from a chemical discovered in her hair dye and warned the public to be careful, The Shade Room reported.
29-year-old Shanika McNeil didn’t notice until the day after dying her hair sometime in January. On a Sunday, she dyed her hair and said there weren’t any issues. The next day, she woke with a headache and developed a rash.
“I dyed my hair myself on Sunday evening, and it was fine; I had no issues,” McNeil said. “Then in the morning, I woke up, and I had a headache— it lasted all day and then probably around 3 p.m. I noticed I had this line around my forehead and a rash.”
Her allergic reaction symptoms progressed.
“My scalp started burning like it was on fire, and then I used a napkin and could tell my scalp was oozing,” she said. “as the hours went by, I noticed my forehead was getting puffier.”
McNeil visited her doctor and was informed that her hair dye contained the ingredient PPD that caused her allergic reaction.
The United Kingdom National Health Service reported that PPD can irritate the forehead, scalp, neck, ears, and eyelids after using the hair dye. When skin is exposed to PPD, a stinging or burning sensation may be felt, and the skin can swell as well as dry, thicken, crack, and become red and blistered. And the reaction can happen immediately or later, usually within 48 hours.
The doctor prescribed McNeil antihistamines and steroids for the swelling. With the pain absent, the Texas woman went home happy that she was getting better. The symptoms returned.
“Every hour I looked at myself and my forehead was getting bigger, and the swelling was worse,” McNeil recalled the hyperinflation she endured. “It looked like I was an emoji; it was very weird. My whole family was panicking because I looked so strange. A lot of people said I looked like I was in a fight.”
Initially, McNeil thought her predicament was hilarious because her face appeared cartoonish or like an “emoji,” but the laughter subsided when she lost her sight “for a few days” due to her eyes being swollen shut.
Two weeks and two rounds of antihistamines later, the allergic reaction subsided. McNeil developed bald spots and eczema The incident impacted her scalp drastically to where she’s beyond tender-headed; her scalp is hypersensitive to where she can’t comb her hair.
“I haven’t dyed my hair since and I don’t have any intentions of doing it,” the Texas woman said.
She advised people to take a “patch test” every time before using it. “…and if you are sensitive to it, look for a dye that doesn’t have PPD in it.”
According to Twitter, other women have gone through something similar and posted on the platform.