Yuku free message boards

It sounds like you *might* have developed an allergy to PPD (the main ingredient in ~99% of the hair dyes that actually work). You might want to try another brand to see whether it has the same effect... but don't use it when you're at home alone until you've confirmed that you don't react. You *could* go into anaphylactic shock, and could actually suffocate & die if you're home alone when it happens and you pass out before calling 911.

Beardye should be safe, because it's henna-based. That's good because it's unlikely to cause an allergic reaction, but might be bad because henna-based products mostly suck. I've never tried Beardye, though... it's not obsessed with being "all natural", so it might be formulated in a way that enables it to actually work effectively ;-)

If Beardye doesn't do the job, it's not completely hopeless... there's another category of haircolor that you can buy online that's currently sold only in Europe (I think it's technically approved by the FDA, but snarled in a patent mess in the US). The active ingredient is "dihydroxyindoline HBr", and the product is "Re-Nature" by Schwarzkopf. You can get it from http://drogisterij.net (Dutch website, it's a German product). I think this URL will search for it and take you to the result page: http://tinyurl.com/2eujygb

The good news: if you're allergic to PPD, you're probably NOT allergic to dihydroxyindoline HBr. It develops into a really nice neutral brown without the slightest hint of red. You use it more or less like JFM -- apply it, wait 15-20 minutes, then wash it off. It's officially classified as a "progressive" hair colorant, but that's not quite accurate. Products like Grecian Formula and Youthair are "progressive", because they build up slowly with each use and slowly oxidize over a week or more to darken. Re-Nature is "progressive" in the sense that it darkens after you've applied it, but in this case we're talking about a day or two instead of a week or more, and once it darkens, it behaves mostly like conventional oxidative dye (JFM is oxidative, btw). Specifically, if you go too dark, you can bleach it away and start over -- you can't do that with lead-acetate (Grecian), and I'm pretty sure you can't do it with bismuth citrate (Youthair).

The bad news: The dark ("Dunkel", in German) variety stains skin like a permanent ink marker. You won't be leaving the house for a day or two after using it, and it's absolutely not suitable for use on stubble. When you come out of the shower, the formerly white hair will be kind of an iridescent yellow-green that darkens to brown as it oxidizes over the next 18-36 hours. I mentioned that it stains skin like a mofo, right? I'll try to post some pics after work tonight to show exactly what I'm talking about.

It also comes in a light variety, but it's pretty useless. It doesn't stain nearly as badly as the dark variety, but it also doesn't make much difference to the hair it allegedly colors. For the record, there's absolutely no chemical difference between the "Men's" and "Women's" varieties. The only difference is the color of the box (blue vs pink) and the picture on the front (man or woman).

Try the Wolfshead Beardye first, but if you get desperate and want to try the Re-Nature, PM me. I have a few boxes left (both dark and light) that I've been planning to sell someday on eBay, but are currently sitting under the sink in the bathroom.

More links, if you're interested:

Schwarzkopf's official site -- http://www.renature.schwarzkopf.com/

Amazon's German site (for the review; don't bother trying to order, Amazon won't ship it to the US) -- http://www.amazon.de/Schw...00ORSPBA/ref=pd_sim_dr_2

L'Oreal has their own product based on it. Here's their URL -- http://www.loreal-paris.f...omme/progress-homme.aspx

For anyone interested in the back-story behind the patent mess, apparently what happened is that Schwarzkopf "discovered" dihydroxyindoline HBr after L'Oreal, but filed for a patent (in Germany) before L'Oreal filed for a patent (in France). Both patents were filed before the EU assumed primary authority. Because the EU is a "first to file" system, Schwarzkopf got the patent rights everywhere in the EU besides France. Both patents are valid in their home countries because they were grandfathered in. The problem is, L'Oreal also filed for a patent in the US (where it's "first to invent"), and the timing was such that there's now a major conflict between US patent law and the treaty between the US and EU that makes patents automatically valid in both places. The net result is that we're unlikely to see any product based on dihydroxyindoline HBr in the US until the patent finally expires.

Update: I did more research, and figured out why I got some of the seemingly-odd results with the Re-Nature during the week following my photos above.

1. The current formula of Re-Nature is known (by Schwarzkopf) to have really, really uneven coverage of hair that has both virgin regrowth and ends that were already colored by oxidative color. It turns out, it really DOES take a week or two to darken hair to acceptable levels, but not for the reason you'd think. As I observed, the oxidation reaction itself is pretty rapid (~80% final darkness after 18-30 hours, compared to a week or more for lead acetate), but because Re-Nature penetrates and covers virgin uncolored hair so poorly, you won't get enough actually deposited on a given section of hair that's never had anything on it besides re-nature to darken it acceptably until after you've reapplied it a few times.

The good news: the reason I know Schwarzkopf/Henkel knows about it is because they have another series of VERY recent patents for a new, improved formula with much better coverage of virgin regrowth. The bad news: it's not out yet, and might never be unless the EU approves the altered formula.

2. Although Re-Nature behaves like demi-permanent oxidative dye insofar as its coverage and depositing is concerned, oxidized Re-Nature is basically melanin. That's why the One 'n Only Colorfix didn't make a dent in it: Colorfix doesn't bleach hair, it just dissolves the polymer chains that form from oxidized dye (basically, it turns them back into dye precursors similar to the state they were in before the colorant got mixed with the peroxide/developer and applied). Hair that's had dye removed with colorfix DOES tend to be lighter, but it's lighter because the peroxide in the dye (even "non-lifting" dye) bleached it slightly. Since I hadn't used oxidative dye between the time I used the Re-Nature and the time I used the colorfix, nothing ever came in contact with the oxidized re-nature to actually lighten it. That's also why, when I finally threw in the towel and bleached it outright, the renature-darkened hair behaved more or less exactly like the few remaining non-gray hairs.

The moral of the story: if you aren't allergic to PPD, there's no real reason to bother with Re-Nature. In its current form, it basically combines the poor regrowth coverage and staining of the worst oxidative dyes with the time delay of progressive colorants.

There IS one experiment I haven't tried -- using Re-Nature on hair that's been lightly bleached. In theory, this might produce very good results if the Re-Nature were to "grab" it hard the way oxidative dye grabs onto bleached hair. The problem is, after bleaching, you'd have to wait at least 6-10 hours before using re-nature to let the skin oil build back up to avoid stains like you'd get from a permanent marker... then wait another 18 hours (under the most optimistically ideal circumstances) for it to darken enough to matter. At that point, you've already got a day's worth of new regrowth poking out of your skin. Epic fail.