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After using a hair dye, a 61-year-old French woman developed retinopathy that caused her to partially lose her sight. The reason? The dye contained an ingredient that caused retinal detachments, as reported by the team of Dr. Nicolas Chirpaz, an ophthalmologist at the Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyon.
The story took place a few years ago, but is reported this week in the columns of Jama Ophthalmology by the team of Dr. Nicolas Chirpaz, ophthalmologist at the Edouard Herriot hospital in Lyon. A 61-year-old woman, with no history of vision problems, developed retinopathy which caused her partial blindness, after using hair dye.
Vision gradually becomes blurred a few days after dyeing
It was when he noticed that his vision was becoming less and less clear “a few days after dyeing your hair with a hair lotion containing aromatic amines”that the sixty-year-old consults the team of caregivers.
After examination, doctors discovered that she suffered from “multiple retinal detachments.” Her eyes also showed “unhealthy thickening of the neurosensory retina.”
A molecule questioned by doctors
The team then looked for all possible reasons that could explain the patient’s condition. Finally, they blamed “paraphenylenediamine”, a substance present in hair coloring. It is a pigment present in dark colorings, to make them adhere better to the hair. It is also present in certain types of black tattoos and can cause serious allergies on the skin.
In their publication, the specialists write that “Aromatic amine products such as paraphenylenediamine may ‘disrupt’ a neurochemical pathway essential to the health of what are called retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells.“.
According to the authors, this patient is not the first: three cases have already been reported in 2022 in other patients who used this type of product. This molecule is normally banned in cosmetics, but remains authorized at concentrations below 6% in hair dyes.
A return to normal after a dye change
On the advice of her doctors, the patient changed her brand of dye to one without aromatic amines. A beneficial decision since the effect was immediate: her vision returned to normal in just one month.
Luckily for her, “Four years later, the patient has not experienced any recurrence.” reports the medical team. A rare case, but one that deserves to be known, according to experts, so that doctors think about it, when faced with a patient presenting with unexplained retinopathy.
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