Hair dye
The question as to whether chronic exposure to permanent hair dye is linked to certain types non-Hodgkin lymphoma remains unanswered, though some studies indicate there may be an increased risk, especially for women who began using dye prior to 1980 or used darker colors[i].
I began dyeing my hair when I was a tween. I never have felt comfortable with my appearance and entering my teen years I wondered why don’t I look like me? Over the years, I’ve had many different hair colors and I’ve found that folks often associate me with those colors. In several cases, people who met me as a blonde didn’t recognize me as a redhead.
In any event, I think the likelihood that my hair dying expeditions were the source of my cancer are near zero. If I recall, I started dyeing my hair around 1984 and generally didn’t use dark colors. Plus, the suspected links to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are for subtypes different from mine (I have mantle cell and the suspected links are for primarily diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma)[ii].
