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Pregnancy hormones usually make your hair and skin luscious, glowing and well-nourished. However, post-delivery, the disappearing pregnancy hormones take away all their goodness with them, leaving you with a dry scalp and dull skin. The greys become visible and you start losing your hair as well. That’s when many of us think of indulging in some self-pampering activities such as dyeing our hair or getting them permed. These treatments entail the use of chemicals, per common knowledge. But as a breastfeeding mom can you dye or perm your hair? Read on to know the answer to this question.
The question is not exactly if you can, it is more about whether you should? Ask your pediatrician, and you will get a stern no for an answer or that incredulous look on their faces that will make you mince words and never look them in the eye. Ask a hairdresser and you will receive conflicting answers. To know the real reason behind these responses, it is important to understand what hair dyeing and perming entail, in their entirety.
The above mentioned chemicals, if applied directly on the skin, do get absorbed into the bloodstream, but only in minuscule quantities. However, if these chemicals only applied on your hair, there is a negligible chance of them getting absorbed into the bloodstream. Hence, their penetration into the milk that is produced is absolutely nil. This means that when chemicals are not applied on the skin or scalp, they are safe for use by breastfeeding mothers.
In case dyeing or perming products do get applied on the scalp (although accidentally) their absorption is minimal and does not pose a danger to the breastfed baby.
The use of chemicals in hair treatments such as hair dyeing and perming could possibly lead to many breastfeeding women shying away from them completely. However, there are several methods that you can deploy to undergo these treatments, and yet keep your breast milk uncontaminated from chemicals. Let’s look at these alternative and safe methods of hair treatments for breastfeeding mothers:
Your pediatrician and hairdresser might or might not give you a straight-jacketed response or an answer. But as a mother, you know what’s best for your child. More so, during pregnancy and nursing, you proactively put your baby before you! In any case, before you embark on commencing any chemical treatment on your skin or hair, ask questions, seek answers and trust your gut! Also read: 5 Harmful Chemicals You Need To Avoid During Pregnancy
So all the new mommies out there, did you dye or perm your hair while breastfeeding your baby? Do share your experiences in the comments section below.
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