Safely Colouring Your Hair
If you want to carry on your usual routine and have your hair coloured during pregnancy, or colour it yourself, it's best to wait until after the first 12 weeks, as the risk of the chemicals harming the baby is much lower then. Going to a hairdresser and having your hair coloured by professional is a good move if you're wary of using chemicals yourself and takes some of the worry away.
If you decide to colour your hair yourself at home, you can take a few simple steps to make the process safer:
Do a strand test first, even if you've used the product many times before. When you're pregnant, you experience all sorts of changes to your hair and it can react very differently to colouring.
Make sure you don't breathe in too many of the fumes, which can be toxic, by keeping a window open and the room ventilated.
Wear plastic gloves to avoid the chemicals coming into contact with the skin on your hands.
Apply the hair dye with a brush or implement provided and try and avoid getting too much of it on your scalp. To help this, you can put olive oil around your hairline and ears to act as a barrier and stop dye from penetrating your skin.
Leave the hair dye on for the minimum time and then rinse it off thoroughly with water.
It's worth bearing in mind that highlighting your hair, rather than dyeing it completely, is a good option, as the chemicals are only absorbed by your hair and don't come into contact with your scalp. There are also safe alternatives to chemical dyes, such as henna, which are worth exploring.