We do not assist or recommend any hair dye.

photosensitivity is reaction of sunlight with certain substances deposited in your skin, like a certain cream you use, or an *oral* drug or supplement. If this was the case, avoiding those substances would help.

Again, it would really help, if you can put all your symptoms and their triggers/relievers into a timeline: When it all started, in how many minutes/hours after certain trigger symptoms appeared, what exact effect drugs have had (in a short factual manner).

Since you are saying heat itself also irritates your face, and aircondition helps, “physical urticaria” is possible. Oral OTC antihistamine, like Benadryl, or prescribed oral steroids would likely help in this case.

On the other hand, it’s possible that the hair dye has triggered not only an allergy to a PPD, but also to certain other product, containing PPD or not. This is called cross-reactivity. Anti-allergic drugs would also help in this case.

Options:
- Discontinuing all creams and oral supplements, except eventual drugs for certain medical condition you might have.
- Avoiding sun and heat sources
- Trying a cap, new type of pillowcase (cotton maybe), and, sleeping on your back (all this torture is meant as a trial only…)
- Providing your complete medical history and an exact timeline of recent facial symptoms to your doctor and discussing with him/her about “physical urticaria”, “photosensitivity”…oral corticosteroids or antihistamines.
- I believe a caring and knowledgable dermatologist can help you, when you provide him all mentioned info and pictures. Another option is allergologist.

Yesterday I did nothing different, just that I had a little sun exposure for the first time in what is becoming quite warm conditions here in Queensland which is quite tropical.
It was only 10 mins while in transit- not even intentionally out in the sun but afterwards felt like I’d been out there for a few hours or like a 2nd degree burn.

I haven’t changed anything in terms of diet, drugs, etc and I have been avoiding makeup this whole time.
I attempted to wear it nearly 4 months ago and within a few hours my face looked like I’d been in a bar fight.
I have not been game to put on makeup since, considering that even with gentle washing etc I don’t need to be wearing makeup and compounding the problem.
Having said that, at such a young age, I’m not looking forward to never being able to wear makeup again or at least for a long time.
It is the uncertainty and the fact that my face is so unpredictable that annoys me.

I bought a hair cap today and will try that and see if it makes any difference to helping not come in contact with the face while sleeping.

Is this photosensitivity permanent- has my face now lost the ability to tolerate mild sunshine or is this only while we’re still trying to figure out how to cure it?
Vitamin E is supposed to protect against sun damage so I’m surprised that so little of it had such a reaction and I’m worried about the days ahead in this weather.

The only thing that seems to aleviate it somewhat is being in airconditioning.
I can email photos privately if it helps.

you’ve mentioned redness, pufiness and itch as symptoms, and hair dye, sun and heat as triggers. To make it clear, can you put all this in an exact time line?

IMPORTANT: If you had itch yesterday after 2 months, what differently you did:
- washing your hair in a certain way?
- food you had yesterday but not for two months before?
- new make up, soap, shampoo…?
- drug or supplement?
- touching someone other with dyed hair?
- other

Hair dye does not likely travel via hair into the skin (certain substances, like mercury, actually travel from the skin into the hair), but can irritate your face by simply touching it. So, it would be worth to try to prevent hair-face touch at night.

I recommend you to go without any make up and oral supplements for few days – you’re exposed to several substances here and maybe you’ve developed photosensitivity to one or more of them…

Bed lining / pillowcase – it can be the fabric itself, no matter how new and washed, that may started to irritate you.

I unfortunately had to resume the cortisone cream last night for the first time in 2 months because the itching, redness and puffiness from the 10 mins of sun ‘damage’ on what was perfectly haealthy and glowing brown skin now looks like it’s been grafted from somebody else’s face.
I have not had the itching for about 2 months until yesterday.
For the past 2 months I have been taking 1000mg of Vit C for collagen repair and antioxidant, 1000mg of Vit E to help the skin and antioxidant, 600mg of biotin which is from Vit B for hair, skin and nails and CoQ10 for general health and also a powerful antioxidant.

I had been dabbing a few drops of pure Vit E oil on the worst part of the cheeks as a moisturiser for the past few months, particularly when about a month ago the skin there first started showing signs of shedding and peeling and was quite rough- the Vit E made it soft again but I still have to exfoliate every second day to clear this excess skin which is almost like a fuzzy peach or something but I alternate with organic almond oil and emu oil which are both very good for soothing irritation as a moisturiser as the Vit E is sometimes too cloggy on the skin.

I also drink a super rich fruit juice concentrate made and sold here in Australia made by a CSIRO scientist- it is antioxidant enriched and with ginger, white grape and red grape concentrate and tumeric which is all good for anti-inflammatory.
I sometimes make a face mask with pure green clay to draw out toxins in the skin and mix it with high grade manuka honey.

The first dermatologist had no clue and wanted to ‘try blasting it with super high levels of cortisone’- I’m aware of the damage that does- I already have some red broken veins and redness from the first lot of cortisone so super high cortisone from a doctor that wasn’t even sure he had the right idea?
No thanks- that stuff thins your skin and is irreversible.
He then wanted to do a biopsy which would leave a permanent 3mm chunk scar on my cheek- needless to say I didn’t want to go back to this guy who wanted me to see him 3 times during that week and would’ve cost me just under $1000- the $350 to stab in the dark for 15 mins was enough for me.
He wasn’t even interested in the photos I’ve been taking of my face to show the weird things it’s done over the past 4 months to get a better idea.

I keep getting told I’m doing all the right things to help my body along with as many good quality and natural products as possible, but for goodness sake, I’m just not finding that the body is responding in turn?

Jan, my hair is to the middle of my back.
Would it help if I went to the hairdresser and took a decent sized amount of this hair off or is it too late- that the toxins are already floating around in my body and seemingly winning this battle?
I really am at wits end here and wouldn’t be surprised if this thing (which has caused a sunlover to avoid it completely, cancel almost all forms of social contact and hasn’t been able to wear any makeup for 4 months) to start suffering from some sort of depression.

I really want this thing to go away- I have learnt my lesson and will never colour my own hair again no matter how desperate, but surely this has to end?

few possibilities:

1. You’ve developed crossed reactivity with certain substance in your pillowcase. You can try some other pillowcase and see what happens.

2. Hair dye remains on the pillowcase and constantly triggers allergic reaction in your cheeks. You can wear a cap at night to prevent hair touching your cheeks (but also change the pillowcase).

3. Hair dye causes photosensitivity.
4. Photosensitivity to certain other skin product or medication (even if taken oraly), or food, or food additive has been triggered by hair dye allergy…
5. Maybe even steroid creams irritate you…
6. Physical or cholinergic urticaria, triggered by sunlight or heat or physical irritation. In this case, sitting close to a heat sourse could trigger symptoms.

I am 33 and have been getting my hair professionally foiled with chocolate colour for about 13 years without any incident.
(just a half head of them at a time)
I started going gray at 26 so I decided to colour my naturally black hair brown with a full head of semi permanent foils-no bad reaction.

I then decided to try colouring my hair myself with a semi permanent colour when it started to grow out to tide my over until my next appointment and had no issues there.
I did it again with a different brand of semi permanent colour some weeks later and left the colour on too long- I wish I could go back in time and undo that choice so bad!

I had terrible itching and large flakes coming off my scalp, but unlike most others (which is partly what has be so curious) is I didn’t get a swollen face, eyes or ears etc but a reaction more like Karen2.
My cheeks went red and the itching subsided, and my hairdresser moved on so I went to a different salon which did a permanent brown all over the roots only which had since grown out and was showing black and gray.

I felt my face go red and burn nearly straight away and every single day since then, I have had red, swollen, puffy cheeks for 4 MONTHS and cannot get rid of this.
Needless to say I have not coloured my hair since and it is driving me crazy on what to do with it although the scalp irritation is long since over but the cheeks resemble a chipmunk every day particularly upon waking (although for years I’ve slept on a silk pillowcase to reduce irritation to skin and hair).
I have had cortisone creams, which then mimicked rosacea, antibiotics, grapefruit seed extract, apple cider vinegar, rosex cream, you name it, and I cannot get these red blotchy cheeks to go back to normal after 4 months.
What is going on here?
It is the only part of the body that will not return to normal!

I have been avoiding the sun over this time and today while out I was in the sun for no more than 10 mins and 6 hours later after applying ice to my cheeks they are still red and swollen and the skin feels thickened- I have not changed any products etc if anything I am using even gentler basic products than before I coloured my own hair.

We are approaching summer here in Australia and I am really concerned about the frequent damage to the cheeks.
Has anyone else had something like this before and can anyone shed any light on a timeline for how much longer this will go on for?
Do I have to cut my medium length hair off or something and does this technically make me allergic to PPD even though the scalp was only itchy for about a month and not since?
I have seen a dermatologist who didn’t really have a clue and waiting for my appointment to come up with another but would love some feedback in the meantime.

Appreciate any help.
Thanks,

Rachel.