# Nair+My Head=safe? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 13, 2002, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nair-my-head-safe/123652 "2002-08-13T08:12:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nair-my-head-safe/123652/1 "2002-08-13T08:12:31Z")
I bic’d my head this weekend. As my girl said, “Holy baby-butt, Batman!” She likes it a lot. But it’s growing back really fast. If I use a bikini-zone Nair on my scalp, am I going to mess up my tender wittle head? And no, I’m not going to use Nads. To much joke potential. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nair-my-head-safe/123652/2 "2002-08-13T08:16:13Z")
If it’s sensative enough for the bikini area, I don’t see any problems you would have with your head… ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nair-my-head-safe/123652/3 "2002-08-13T08:29:18Z")
make sure not to get any in your eyes. jb ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nair-my-head-safe/123652/4 "2002-08-13T09:16:14Z")
Yeah, I figured that. Cool. Thanks for the input folks! ---
**Author:** ![elfoldo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@elfoldo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfoldo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nair-my-head-safe/123652/5 "2002-08-13T15:14:21Z")
You should probably call the company and ask them specifically if it’s okay to use on your head. It could be that the skin on your head is different and would absorb more of the chemicals. Come to think of it, I think I would be cautious to use any sort of hair-reducing chemical on my head. Perhaps there is some unknown effect it could have on baldness later. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nair-my-head-safe/123652/6 "2002-08-13T16:31:13Z")
If there were any chance that it would hurt your scalp, the Nair bottle would warn you so. That’s just the way of consumer liability. ---
**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nair-my-head-safe/123652/7 "2002-08-13T18:02:36Z")
When I was a wee youngun I thought Nair was cream rinse and did a good washing of it in my hair. I even left it on for rougly 5 minutes while it soaked in as I always did when using cream rinse. I didn’t know that it was supposed to make my hair fall out until I told my parents. They laughed at me and I was very self conscious for a couple of weeks. For what it is worth, my head hair never fell out from the Nair. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nair-my-head-safe/123652/8 "2002-08-13T18:26:05Z")
Nair contains (as its effective ingredient) calcium thioglycolate. Thioglycolates are also used in permanent wave solutions; they break the disulfide bonds that cause hair to hold its shape. When you neutralize the thioglycolate after a few minutes, you get a new shape to the hair. If you never neutralize it, the hair is permanently weakened, and it falls apart. This disintegration begins on the surface, allowing the hair to be removed easily. This is why it didn’t make hair on your head fall out; the hair is too long, the stuff probably never reached the roots, and it wasn’t in long enough. However, it ought to work just dandy for removing stubble from a shaved head. Some people are sensitive to thioglycolates, so test a patch of skin first. So, Dorkus: did your hair look–weird, afterward?