Look for safer, organic salons that promote clean air and nontoxic products; schedule visits to standard salons for first thing in the morning.

Something in the air: Salon products make you look good, but they're not so good for your health.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—When you walk out of a salon with a well-styled head of hair, odds are you’re also leaving with lungs full of carcinogenic toxins and a body exposed to hormone-altering chemicals. While safer salons are few and far between, a big turnout at a SalonSpa Sustainability Summit held at the recent America’s Beauty Show, the industry’s big trade show, reveals an increased interest in healthier ways of looking hot.

THE DETAILS: America’s Beauty Show ran through last weekend and wrapped up yesterday, drawing more than 50,000 industry participants. This year’s big focus on safer products was well appreciated by Samuel Epstein, MD, chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition and author of the newly released book Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health...And What You Can Do about It (Benbella Books, 2009). He’s been sounding the alarm on the dangers of salon products for customers, especially for salon workers—and criticizing the FDA for lax oversight—for years. Currently, he says, 30 carcinogens and 20 hidden carcinogens (ingredients that are safe at face value but break down into harmful substances) are commonly used in salon products. While that’s not good for anyone, it’s particularly dangerous to hairdressers, a group known to suffer nausea, sleep disorders, fatigue, allergic dermatitis, acute lung irritation, asthma, chronic bronchitis, or even certain types of cancers. “The U.S. population is being exposed to toxic ingredients without any warning labels whatsoever,” he says. “This is magnified in salons, because workers are in the chemicals eight hours a day, five days a week. This is a national concern.”

WHAT IT MEANS: Hair and styling products are an overlooked source of chemical exposure. There are warning labels on harmful tobacco products, notes Epstein, so why aren’t they on the products we spray, slather, and wash ourselves with every day? California and the European Union have much tighter regulations on salon and consumer products, and Epstein hopes the Obama administration makes this a priority.

Until better rules are put in place, here’s how you can protect yourself at the salon.

• Find an ecosalon. Many beauty salons carry a “green” product or two, but if a beauty salon goes all out and is advertising as an ecosalon, chances are they’re carrying much safer products than the average one, Epstein says. Still, ask questions, and look at labels. If you’re seeing things like vinyl chloride, fragrance, parfum, and polyvinyl pyrrolidine, polyethylene glycol, you’re probably not in a true ecosalon. No ecosalon should be using aerosol hairspray, either, Epstein says. The very fine particles lodge deep into your lungs and can cause toxic effects.

• Be an early bird. If you don’t have an ecosalon in your area, get the earliest possible appointments at a regular salon, suggests Epstein. Although there will be some residual contamination, there won’t be as many airborne toxins floating around.

• Dye with caution. In the U.S., about 35 percent of women and 10 percent of men are exposed to hair dye toxins either in a salon or at home. Of particular concern are dark brown and black permanent and semipermanent hair dyes, which contain carcinogens, particularly phenylenediamines. These chemicals have been banned in Europe and are linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, multiple myeloma, breast, and bladder cancers. Epstein suggests certified-organic dyes, including ones marketed by the German company Logona. These safer dyes are now available in the U.S. (A new organic certification, “NFS Made with Organics,” was just approved and will soon help you find personal-care products that don’t contain dangerous toxins.)