Fragrance hypersensitivy

Perfume allergy, what is it?


I guess no one have missed that the wonderful world of perfumes are among the best things I know of. That I would get tired of perfumes are as unlikly as that I would get tired of reading good books and listening to music.


Since perfumes has become more then a hobby for me, perfumes are in my thoughts most of the time. When chosing a perfume I think about if I´m going to wear it only because I like it so much or if I am going to chose a perfume for "work" meaning a scent I plan to write about soon. Most thing associated with perfumes are interesting, history, the person that has create the perfume, if the perfume is typical for it´s time, it´s creator or it´s perfume house, the chemistry behind perfumes and all the synthetic ingrediens used (even though I don´t know so much about it yet, still I´m very curious). But, sometimes I am also thinking about the bad things associated with perfumes, favorite scents no longer produced, regulations that forbids use of most loved ingredienses in perfumes. Lately I´ve been thinking about perfumes and the allergies it can cause.


Luckily enough i don´t have many allergic people around me. I have a nickel allergy caused by massive piercing experiences during my teens, and two of my daughters have a light pollen allergic, my sister is allergic to cats and some among my friends have lactos intolerance. Thanks to the facts that I don´t know any person with severe allergy I don´t have to pay much consideration about allergies and I also realise I don´t know so much about it.


There for I decided to ask the people of Swedish Astma-and allergy association a little about perfume allergy and symptoms. Johanna Löf, representative helped me to clear some things out. People that reacts against perfumes doesn´t have any actual perfume allergy, but suffering from something called Sensoric Hypersensitivity(SHS). We all have nerv-endings in our nose, that will provide that the air we breath reaches the lungs in right temperature and quality, but people suffering from SHS have, for some reason, super sensitive nerv-endings. When having an allergic reaction it is the bodies immune system that reacts, this isn´t the case when it comes to SHS, but the symptoms are the same. A person suffering from SHS reacts with symptoms like having a really bad cold. The symptoms comes very rapidly and stays for a coupple of days. And there isn´t any medication that will help (in contrast to allergies). The only thing that helps is to avoid the things causing the problems, perfumed products and also other scents, like cigarette smoke.


Johanna tells me that peoples with SHS often reacts most when they are close to a person that have used a lot of different perfumed products, such as washing detergent, fabric softener, deo, bodylotion, schampoo, hairspray and on top of all that also perfume. And, even though I love perfumes I don´t want to be the one causing someone to have a really bad reaction. And do we really need so many different scented products?


Now, when i know a little more about SHS I´ve stopped buying perfumes washing detergent. And when it comes to perfumes bodylotion I didn´t liked it before, since I think most of them are stealing attention from the perfume. And thanks to the fact that I´m working at home I can use as much perfume as I wish or when I´m walking the dog without disturbing anyone, so I don´t have to use it when I´m going by bus, train or visting places where there can be someone with SHS.


Johanna would like to share a little tips for those of you that likes to wear perfume when going to a party, but has to go with bus or any other public transport. Put on the perfume when you arrive to the party! OK, it can be a little un-convinient to bring a big bottle of perfume in a small purse, but most of us perfume lovers do have sample vials or decant bottles.


I think it´s easy to avoid giving people troubble with my perfumes, what do you think? Maybe you even know someone suffering from fragrance hypersensitivity? Now and then I can get headache from some perfumes, like YSLs Opium. Do you have some scents you´re sensitive to?




Pic: Smart canucks