Shampoos that have yellow 5 - yea or nay?

[enting]

I bought a new shampoo to try and when I got it home I noticed a little warning under the ingredients list saying "contains tartrazine". I've been trying to check the internet for articles about yellow 5/tartrazine and if it's a problem. I can only seem to find information for ingestion, not topical use, so I ask all ye of hairliness: what say you about yellow 5 in shampoo? Is it a concern or is it so safe that it never occurred to anyone to ask?

[lapushka]

I think it may just be a colorant.

[MusicalSpoons]

I think it may just be a colorant.

It is, but it's also one of the most allergenic food colourings used and in some parts of the world is banned for food.

enting, the few mentions I've found for 'dermal', 'cutaneous' or 'topical' exposure to tartrazine all say no reactions reported, but that is just from a 10-min Google search so take as much or as little notice of that as you wish :wink:

(I think it's in my conditioner, actually. No harm here as far as I can tell, but again we all have different sensitivities and [in-]tolerances)

[enting]

It's definitely used purely as a colorant, but colorants can have other effects than just color, depending on what they are.

Thanks for the reassurance/searching MusicalSpoons. I think I'm wondering what risks I'm looking at, if any.

I'm not allergic to it as I've been exposed to it in the past with no harm done, and I even used this shampoo once before reading the label (silly me). I suspect I can use it without a further thought, but something about the extra warning added to the label gave me pause.