The Morrocco Method

Women spent more than $700 million on hair-coloring products in 1991, up nearly 40 percent from just five years ago. But as sales have burgeoned. So, too, have scientists' concerns over the safety of the chemical dyes used in hair-color preparations.

Two studies in the last few months and a scattering of others over the past several years have suggested that hair dyes may cause cancer. The findings indicate that the chemicals in the dyes may be absorbed through the scalp, enter the bloodstream and induce dangerous changes in the genetic material of various cells of the body. On occasion, those changes may lead to Hodgkin's disease (a cancer of the lymph nodes), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma (a cancer of the bone marrow cells) or other types of tumors. Brown, black or red dyes seem most perilous, and permanent dyes, which remain in the hair until it grows out, are of greater concern than temporary coloring that can be washed out with a single shampoo.

The risk of cancer from hair dyes is likely to be relatively small experts emphasize. Women who have dyed their hair have no reason to panic, and nobody is arguing that coloring products are a major cause of illness or death. "This is not something on the order of cigarette smoking or not wearing seat belts," says Dale Sandier, Ph.D., of the National Institutes of Health in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, an epidemiologist familiar with studies on hair dyes.

Indeed, the companies that make these products have criticized the recent studies as flawed and say they are confident hair dyes are safe.

The Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association, which represents hair-color producers, said in an official statement "the safety and effectiveness of hair-coloring products have been tested thoroughly over the many years of their use. Independent research. . . has shown no significant differences in cancer rates between users and nonusers of hair dyes."

But several recent studies on the subject seem to indicate otherwise, finding, for example, that women who used hair dyes had significantly increased risks of getting lymphoma and multiple mycioma, while men who used hair dyes were twice as likely to get certain types of cancer as were men who didn't use any kind of hair dyes.

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which, because of a legal loophole dating to the '30s, does not have the power to pull hazardous dyes off the market, says it needs more information before it can decide whether to insist that some hair dyes bear warning labels like cigarette packages. But with companies changing the ingredients in their products faster than scientists can test their safety, it's unclear if the FDA will be able to gather enough data to make an educated decision.

In the meantime, some scientists say they think the risk is real enough that women should think twice before using hair dyes, particularly the somber shades favored by the downtown New Wave crowd.

"I am concerned about the number of young women using these products, especially since the dark colors are so popular today," says Shelia Hoar Zahm, Sc.D, who led one of the largest studies yet of hair-dye use and cancer risk, published last year. "My personal opinion is, I hope women will reconsider the need for these products."

Women who want to color their hair should consider sticking with lighter hues, researchers say, and with temporary colors that are simply sprayed in for a night on the town but then washed out the following day. Also relatively safe is any coloring process that touches only the hair shaft and doesn't come in direct contact with the scalp, such as frosting or streaking with bleach. Perhaps safest of all are the natural dyes, products like henna that are made from extracts of vegetables, nuts and other plant parts.

The history of hair dyes as a potential cause of cancer goes back to 1975, when scientists were beginning to experiment with new methods that allowed them to screen large numbers of chemicals for their effects on living cells. In a landmark paper by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, entitled Hair Dyes Are Mutagenic, the team found that 150 of 169 commercial permanent and semi-permanent hair-dye formulations caused genetic mutations in petri dish experiments-an indication of these chemicals' potential to cause cancer. The worst culprits appeared to be the so-called coal-tar dyes-darker colors that used to be derived from coal and today are synthesized in the laboratory.

In 1977 the National Cancer Institute released preliminary' results of animal studies that tested the cancer-causing potential of 18 coal-tar hair dyes. Results indicated that two of the dyes cause cancer when eaten by rodents.