We’ve all done it: you buy hair dye, promptly forget about it, and it sits on a shelf for months until you finally stumble across it while looking for band-aids, and decide to color your hair right that minute because it’s cocktail-o’clock and it seems like a good idea.
You never stop to question, “Does hair dye expire? Should I seriously be putting this on my head?” You’re more apt to think, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Oh, my friend, you don’t want to even contemplate the very worst thing that can happen—but you need to, especially if you’re a fan of frequent color changes.
Can Hair Dye Expire? Read on
First of all, here are the hard numbers: most hair color brands state that an unopened tube or bottle of hair dye is good for three years. Some companies swear that their product has an unlimited shelf life, but I personally find that unbelievable and don’t want to experiment to see if it’s true.
Now, that’s for unopened dye. Let’s talk about open containers of color.
Does Hair Dye Expire after Opening It?
Surely, at least once, you’ve ended up with hair dye left in the bottle and been loathe to throw it away, right?
So, does hair dye expire after opening it? Yup. The basic school of thought is that hair dye expires 1-2 years after opening it. Mind you, that’s for professional colors.
Drugstore brands and cult products such as Manic Panic likely go bad much more quickly. It’s not hard to tell if you’re dealing with over-the-hill hair dye. Extreme changes to the color of the product are a dead giveaway.
You might also notice a strong or unpleasant odor after opening the container. Sometimes, the expired dye will also separate. It looks murky as if it needs to be shaken or stirred. At that point, just chuck it.
Stop Doing These Things to Your Hair
Side Effects of Expired Hair Dye
If you dye your hair anyway, then you have to own the consequences. Before taking the risk, maybe you need to hear about some of the worst expired hair dye side effects.
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