Independent Toxicology Report

Possibly the most stringent study of permanent hair colourants makes HERBATINT top recommendation.  A  2011 report by 60 millions de consummateurs, the French equivalent of Which? Magazine, tested 18 high street and “natural” permanent hair colour brands. Comparing performance and toxicity, HERBATINT is their top choice.  The following is a translation from the French article.

THERE ARE STILL TOO MANY HAZARDOUS INGREDIENTS
Six years ago, we pointed out the potential health risk of permanent hair colouring products. In order to discover whether anything had changed in the intervening period we undertook test on 18 different current products. Unfortunately little has changed and we found only one product that goes someway to mitigating the risks.
The demand for home hair colouring products by women, and increasingly by men, has not diminished. Far away the most popular products are the permanent hair colourants. Far outstripping the demand for tone-to-tone and temporary colourants. Eight out of Ten hair colour products purchased are permanent (TNS Worldpanel). This is driven by the fact that permanent colourants are the only ones that reliably cover grey hair

GETTING RID OF GREY HAIR
Manufacturers make a range of claims about their products including: natural results , long lasting colour, but they all claim, full grey coverage . In order to assess how the claims made in the marketing reflect in the performances, we have tested 18 permanent hair colour products that represent a cross section of the market: well known brands, less well known brands and the products that products which claim to be more natural , because they contain ingredients from vegetal source. The price of the products tested were all below 15 Euros with some costing less than 5 Euros.

Two popular shades from each range were tested: blonde and mahogany.

Because of the overriding need to cover grey hair, most consumers ignore or are unaware of the risks linked to the use of permanent hair colourants. More than one side effect out of ten induced by a cosmetic product is due to a permanent hair colourant, according to the latest report of the AFSSAPS (French health products monitoring agency) this is believed to be a significant underestimation of the actual rate of people who react to hair colours, because of significant under-reporting by people determined to continue colouring their hair in spite of the risks involved. However the AFSSAPS has expressed concern at the increasing number of incidents of reaction to permanent colourants. In order to determine the level of risk presented by permanent hair colourants we conducted a toxicological evaluation of the ingredients included in the composition of the 18 brands in our sample.

The Choice of “60 Millions de Consommateurs”( French equivalent of Which? Magazine)
HERBATINT 4M
The haircolour of choice for limiting risks.  This product was not the best for grey cover or lasting, although the colour and its lasting was fully acceptable. The natural effect of the colour achieved was very good . However, it distinguishes itself, out of all its competitors , with a safer formulation on the toxicological scale because it uses fewer substances that can raise potentially sensitivity or become toxic. However like all permanent hair colours it contains paraphenylenediamine (PPD) which can induce allergy, one must be careful about the side effects.