Exposure of hairdressers to the main cosmetics used in hairdressing salons in France: A preliminary study.

In recent years, more attention has been given to chemical exposure in hairdressers. This increasing interest is largely due to the various respiratory and skin symptoms observed in hairdressers. According to these symptoms, hairdressers are in contact with various sources of exposure. Particularly in France, little information is available to assess professional exposure of hairdressers. In order to gather information to assess exposure in hairdressers, 11 hairdressing salons were visited. All the salons were located in Brest City (France). Preferentially, small hairdressing salons were visited. Observations were performed to obtain salon characteristics and to record workers' practices. Calculations revealed that in the worst-case scenario, dermal professional exposure reaches 14.68 and 13.67 mg/kg/day for hair coloring and highlighting mixtures, respectively. Inhalation exposure represents 14.2 and 18.1 mg/kg/day for hair coloring and highlighting mixtures, respectively. These exposure values represent baseline values for exposure of French hairdressers working in small hairdressing salons.