Can Bleaching and Dyeing Hair Cause Ototoxicity If It Came in Contact with Damaged Skin?

Hello,

Can ammonia and 9% hydrogen peroxide cause ototoxicity if it came in contact with damaged skin (slight chemical burn)?

It was high quality product from Matrix and I used it before multiple times without any problems. Only sometimes it caused irritation on the skin.

However this time skin was more sensitive for some reason (allergies?) and the dye stung and burned more than usual and it resulted with several red spots/blisters that had lymph coming out of them. Next day tinnitus spiked with ear pain/fullness when exposed to moderate sounds + tinnitus has gone from a high pitch hiss to very intense SSSSS sound like a sandblaster going off. TTTS (and subsequent ringing from it) got worse too.

I don't perceive any significant hearing loss and the main symptom is that tinnitus is objectively louder and stands out more from environmental sounds. I can also hear it when other people and I speak. It wasn't the case a week before after latest spike calmed down and tinnitus got quieter overall.

However last time I experienced similar symptoms due to sickness/ototoxicity audiogram showed 25-30 dB loss at ultra high frequencies. It has recovered since then with steroids.

Today I took 60 mg of Prednisone just in case, but so far I don't notice any difference. I'm also taking 6-9 mg of Melatonin every night for a month at this point. It supposed to protect from ototoxicity.

I did a bit of research and it seems that hydrogen peroxide might be ototoxic when applied to middle ear (at least in animals) however I couldn't find anything regarding ammonia and obviously I didn't apply it to middle ear, but it might have entered the bloodstream.

Some more context here:
Last month I had a very significant spike due to 2 flights with ETD issues and consequent noise exposure.
Stayed at home and took supplements for the whole month and it mostly subsided.

Recently I had a spike from shouting (my own voice, mostly TTTS came back and brought back ringing in left ear) and after that I had long car ride in quiet car that I could tolerate, but it spiked tinnitus hyperacusis a bit too, but it was slowly subsiding + I took 0.5 mg of benzos the day before for sleep. This was last week.

This Monday I had my hair bleached and colored. It burned the scalp a little bit and caused blisters. I had experienced this before, but not to this degree. This time there were more blisters in the areas where atopic dermatitis was present before so it must be connected to just sensitive skin that didn't heal properly yet.
Next day at moderately noisy office I started noticing pressure on the eardrums/ear fullness (pain hyperacusis?) and it was bit more bothersome while driving in the car. I could also hear tinnitus more loudly while driving and noticed it became more tonal at around 16000 Hz instead of previous broadband high frequency hiss.

Tinnitus switched from left side of the head more to the center and overall I experience very weird symptoms that I can't describe properly. It feels like tinnitus is very intense and actually causing something tense up in my head (aside from TTTS). I suspect it might be just hyperacusis, but I experience it in complete silence.
Something is physically not allowing me to ignore tinnitus and relax. I had some progress with habituation, but what I'm experiencing right now it something different from just louder tinnitus. I had tinnitus louder than this or at a similar level and didn't experience any other weird symptoms.

Right now I'm sitting at my computer (with a fan on) and last couple of hours tinnitus spiked (for no reason) and I'm experiencing ear fullness sensation with pressure on the eardrums.

I'm going to continue taking Prednisolone for a few days, but I'd like to taper off it as fast as possible since corticosteroids seem to affect the eyes.

What do you think about this situation? What can I do or what supplements can I take aside from Melatonin and NAC to alleviate this situation?

Thank you.

 

I'd stay away from traditional hair dyes even without tinnitus. I used it one time, supposedly 'natural' and some of it got on my bathroom cabinet and literally removed the paint off it. And google hair dyes and allergic reaction. There are some NSFL photo right there for ya.

The best and safest method is to use Henna. Its literally just a plant leaf. And not ones with other added stuff. Its permanent, won't wash out, kills lice, slightly straightness your hair and 100% truly natural. But fair warning, its smells when applying it so you can always add essentials oils if you are not allergic to them. I used Henna for years. And get the real stuff with only one ingredient, henna, also known as Lawsonia inermis. You can get black to brown shades depending on the ratio of Henna and Indigo, another simple plant. Henna is red, indigo is blue. Together they make all sorts of shades. This was my formula for dark chocolate brown which was arghh my natural hair color

1/3's henna
2/3's indigo
a table spoon of Amla to mellow out the red tone
used lemon juice to break it down
sat for 12 hours to form the color
left on hair for 4 hours wrapped in saran wrap and two beanies for heat.
if you want jet black then it's a two step process, on pure henna then one pure indigo.

Two places I like buying organic henna from:
https://hennasooq.com/
http://www.mehandi.com/default.asp

A great forum to ask questions and get recipes
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21

Hope this helps

 

A very interesting read. I wonder if anyone else has similar symptoms. Can hair bleach cause tinnitus??? Henna may be all natural but it can only be used for darker shades. If you are using bleach you are using it to lighten. I have my hair professionally done. Seems like the day after ear pressure and fullness are worse and I also can relate to the tense feeling you described in your head.

 

Thank you for such a detailed answer!
Unfortunately I'm allergic to most of the herbs and oils and this one of the reasons I never used Henna, besides darker tones don't fit my pale skin and I look really weird. I need to got out in the sun more haha.
I'll pass this on information to my mother, she uses brown or red dyes so I think she'll be open for an idea to try Henna, thank you!

As for chemical dyes I never had an allergic reaction to them and before I used semi permanent Matrix ColorSync without ammonia and it always give very nice natural color however it only lasts for 2-3 weeks and then you have to reapply it, because your natural color or gray starts to show.

This time I decided try out permanent hair dye with ammonia and it seems the skin didn't like it at all.

 

I tried googling and couldn't find anything except hydrogen peroxide might be ototoxic in animals when applied to middle ear. People use it all the time to treat wounds and I just couldn't find anything regarding antiseptics causing tinnitus. Same thing for ammonia. I don't know maybe I did search well enough?

Yes, dark shades just don't suit me so I lighten up my hair a bit from 7 to 9. It's subtle difference, but it looks more even with my eyebrows and my beard + it suits my skin color better too.

I also have my hair professionally done with high quality dyes from Matrix.
I had intermittent pulsatile tinnitus for 1-2 years at this point and coloring my hair never caused any issues even when it burned the scalp a bit, however this was the first time I had my hair bleached and the first time I used permanent ammonia hair dye since getting "regular" tinnitus.

How many times did you experience these symptoms of ear fullness? For how long does it last? Does it spike your tinnitus? Does the hair dye/bleach irritate or burn your scalp? For how long did you have it on your hair? I needed to wait 50 minutes before washing it off. Before that with semi permanent hair colors I had to wait for about 40 minutes.

What's the strength of the bleach you had used? Last couple of times the colorist used 9% instead of 6%, because it 6% doesn't give adequate results. The hair looks to orange instead of pale yellow after bleaching.

Today tinnitus is a bit better and the tense feeling is better too, however I still notice ear fullness or pressure on the eardrums. This is weird, because when sickness/antibiotic caused hearing loss I didn't experience these symptoms to this extent and tinnitus was much worse.