Background: Permanent hair dye contains aromatic amines which are carcinogenic, and can cause allergic skin reactions. In the long term personal use of hair dye might therefore influence both morbidity and mortality.
Objectives: We tested the hypothesis that personal use of hair dye in women is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in the general population.
Methods: We included 7,684 women from the Copenhagen City Heart Study with information on the use of personal hair dye. We assessed the risk of cancer, skin diseases, other morbidities, and mortality during a median follow-up of 27 years (range 0-37).
Results: The multivariable adjusted hazard ratio for malignant melanoma in women with versus without personal use of hair dye was 2.07 (95% confidence interval 1.25-3.42). There was no increased risk of other cancer types. For other skin diseases and other major causes of morbidity we found no differences between the two groups, except for a minor excess of digestive diseases and increased risk of Parkinson's disease among women using hair dye. Finally, we found no difference in all-cause mortality comparing women using personal hair dye or not. After correction for multiple comparisons, none of the results remained significant. However, in sensitivity analysis the excess risk of malignant melanoma remained increased with a hazard ratio of 2.58 (95%CI 1.33-5.03) among users of personal hair dye.
Conclusions: Personal use of hair dye does not have major influences on morbidity and mortality. Our finding of a 2-fold risk of malignant melanoma in women using hair dye is hypothesis generating.