Common Beard Dye Ingredients

You should carefully read the label to determine what the ingredients are. Ammonia is an ingredient often used in beard dyes to open the hair cuticle, which allows the dye’s color to penetrate the hair follicle. You know, that noxious stuff used in floor cleaner that smells like a hospital. Inhalation can cause coughing as well as nose and throat irritation. Over time, it also causes olfactory fatigue – essentially, if you keep using products with ammonia in them, your early warning system gets turned off and you may not be able to properly detect the dangerous chemical anymore (which, needless to say, can lead to dangers all of its own). Skin or eye contact with even low doses of ammonia can also cause skin or eye irritation in many.

Fortunately, many manufacturers have stopped using ammonia in their products because of the side effects. The bad news is that they’ve mostly substituted it with ethanolamine. It serves the same purpose as ammonia — it opens the hair follicle.  Ethanolamine started out as a solvent in oven cleaners before its other uses were discovered.  It works as an alkalizer, boosting the hair’s pH levels, swelling the outer layer so the color can penetrate more fully.

The upside is that fewer people suffer allergic reactions from ethanolamine than ammonia. The downside is that you’re essentially putting oven cleaner on your face.  

The US Committee on Toxicology in a 1967 report stated that “that skin and eye irritation and immediate signs of irritability and restlessness followed by central nervous system depression are the major adverse effects.“ Prolonged exposure to ethanolamine has also been linked to cancer. FDA animal studies found that it encourages the formation of tumors, and that prolonged exposure can result in liver, kidney or nervous system injury.

Resorcinol is the compound that actually dyes the beard. Primarily, resorcinol is used by the rubber industry in the production of tires. It’s also used in wood glues and chemical fertilizers. The EU Commission has done a report on common dye ingredients and found that resorcinol disrupts thyroid function and that can manifest in hyperthyroidism and an enlargement of the thyroid gland also known as a goiter. Resorcinol is also acutely toxic if it’s consumed orally or used in high doses.

The next ingredient to watch out for is para-phenylenediamine (PPD). PPD is used as a dye for dark color shades and is made from coal tar, benzene, naphthalene, phenols, aniline, and other chemicals. It is also used as a wood preservative. According to a study done in Germany, PPD is the 5th most common skin allergen. It’s also linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer. When used together with hydrogen peroxide it can form a DNA-altering substance called Bandrowski’s Base. When ingested, it can cause respiratory distress and renal failure.

There are also some “gradual change” or “progressive” hair and beard dyes on the market. These brands will have you believe that they’re less damaging because any change happens gradually over a period of time. Many of these products use lead acetate, used as a color additive for the dark shade hair dyes. Lead is a heavy metal known to cause anemia and produce neurological problems. It can also lead to serious health issues including cancer. Lead acetate hair dyes actually can cause elevated lead levels throughout the homes of people who use them, potentially triggering health issues for other family members, too.

In general, a good rule of thumb before purchasing anything you put on your skin is to make sure that it’s hypoallergenic. And when in doubt, ask your doctor.

Ease of Use and Time of Application

Purchasing a box of drugstore beard dye might make you feel like you need to apply to chemistry grad school. You’ve got gloves, tubes, mixing bowls as well as several applicators and not to mention the dense instruction booklet. Then you have to inhale the toxic fumes while mixing everything together while hoping that you’re getting it right; otherwise, you may end up with burns or a bright orange beard. 

 Another option are pre-mixed beard dyes. These combine the chemicals for you into a single bottle. So application is much faster and simpler. However, it’s still the same chemicals, so skin and olfactory irritation is still a possibility, and you still have to breathe the acrid chemical odor for five minutes and then take a shower afterwards.

If you’re dealing with henna-based dye, you won’t inhale toxic chemicals, but you’ll have to repeat the arduous process numerous times for the dye to have any effect whatsoever. Users report that it takes several time-consuming applications over a period of days or even weeks (!) to build up the proper color intensity. The good news is that the products are much gentler on the skin. 

The gradual color products are sometimes shampoo-in and are much less hassle. However, like henna dyes, they often take many applications to build up the right color intensity, and often they can never quite get you back to your natural hair color. They also stain your hands and your walls.

In short, when it comes to beard dye, you will get a permanent or semi-permanent color that lasts weeks; but regardless of whether it’s chemical or henna-based, application likely won’t be easy and instant. And you will still have gray roots appearing in a few days.

Blackbeard for Men instant, brush-on beard color, however, applies quickly and instantly. Because it is not a dye, there are no gloves, no messy clean-up, and no harsh chemical odors. Application time is in seconds, not minutes or multiple days.

The Right Color for a Natural Look

Needless to say, if your hair and beard are naturally blonde, you don’t want to dye your graying beard black. Picking the right shade is important if you want to achieve a natural look. After all, you don’t want to leave the house with your newly dyed beard just to hear a passerby say: ‘ha, nice dye job.’

Your natural beard is composed of different colors. The color variations are, in most cases, subtle, but the different shades work in concert to create an overall “color.” That makes it tricky to choose the right beard dye color, because you can easily pick one that makes your beard look too dark. Often men overreact — especially after spotting the creeping gray in their beards for the first time — and buy beard color that’s way too dark for them. Yes, it will knock out the gray; but it will also make it very obvious that there is a dye job at work. When in doubt, go a shade lighter to be on the safe side.

Most beard dyes will result in a very uniform look. But if you look at a man’s natural beard, you’ll notice that beard color is never uniform. Hence, the dying process, even if you’ve picked the right shade and followed all of the instructions to the letter, can often lead to fake-looking results. If a natural look is a big concern for you, then we suggest sticking to non-permanent dyes since they usually give you more control over the entire process as well as the final result. Blackbeard for Men instant, brush-on beard color allows one to vary the tonality from heavy to dark simply by how much product one puts on (or wipes away,) allowing for a far more natural look than beard dyes can achieve.