THE wife of a chemist died from an allergic reaction after changing her hair dye, an inquest was told. Narinder Devi, 39, had applied Movida Shade 55 black, made by Laboratoire Garnier, to hide her first grey hairs. Within minutes the mother-of-three complained of discomfort and began pouring cold water over her head to relieve the irritation.
An hour later Mrs Devi, a company director, was pronounced dead, the coroner was told. Pathologists said she suffered a severe anaphylactic shock "most likely" caused by the hair dye.
Geoffrey Skingsley, managing director of Garnier UK, said the company had sold about 11 million Movida products since its launch in January, 1996 and had no record of similar incidents.
Mrs Devi's husband, Kapil, who runs three chemist shops in Birmingham, England, said his wife, an asthmatic, had changed from Belle Color, another Laboratoire Garnier product, to Movida.
He said: "As far as I know she used Belle Color probably every two or three months but the last time she developed an irritation of the scalp. I gave her some antihistamine tablets which alleviated the symptoms and after that she made a decision to change the dye."
The inquest was told that the Movida product contained colourant and a separate developer which must be mixed together. It is recommended that a small amount of colourant should be tested on the arm 48 hours before being applied to the head.
Six other leading companies in the industry recommend that users test the entire product, including the developer. After the jury returned a verdict of misadventure Christopher Ball, the Birmingham deputy coroner, urged the company to modify its sensitivity testing directions on the product.
(9 May 2001) Kuala Lumpur. Source from keratin.com
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