Dyes

They sprayed malathion and tried matchmaking with sterile mates, but the little pests kept swarming back. Now they're going for the lipstick dye. Officials hope the kiss of death for the crop-destroying Mediterranean fruit fly will be "SureDye," a red and yellow dye blend used to make pink lipstick.

A Chatsworth cosmetics manufacturer was charged Wednesday by the Federal Trade Commission with falsely advertising that its hair color and other products do not harm the Earth's protective ozone layer. Under a proposed consent agreement to settle the charges, Jerome Russell Cosmetics U.S.A. would be prohibited from making "false and misleading" claims that its products are "ozone friendly" and "ozone safe."

The biggest blond joke going is that those stark bleached manes you see on TV can exist in real life. Because if you try to go blasted-out-TV-blond, you'd better have a hairdresser five feet away at all times. That, and a standing biweekly appointment with a peroxide bottle. Hairdressers in Los Angeles, the capital of blond, are increasingly steering their clients away from mega blond for these reasons, and because of their growing awareness of the psychology of hair.

If experiments by a San Diego biotech company live up to their promise, the hair dye of the future may be a merger of gene therapy and cosmetology. And the same high technology used to deliver pigment right into the hair cells holds promise for treating cancer patients with a protein that would block hair loss from chemotherapy, a scientist at privately held AntiCancer Inc. said.

"Does she or doesn't she?" Judging from the looks of drugstore shelves these days, lots of women do. In 1993, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 43 million American women colored their hair, up 7 million from 1991 figures. More than two-thirds of women who color their hair do so at home. "The numbers go up every time a baby boomer sees her first gray hair," says a L'Oreal representative.

What could unite such fierce competitors as Bristol Farms, Costco, Safeway, Albertsons, Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's? A group of fish-eating consumers who want to know whether the salmon in the stores' display cases is wild or farmed. The grocery giants have formed an unlikely alliance to fight a legal bid by 11 consumers who contend California markets have failed to clearly distinguish salmon caught in the wild from its farm-raised cousin, which contains red dye to appear more palatable.

Not so long ago "working on a tan" meant a choice among baking in the sun, broiling on a tanning bed or slathering on a chemical-laden self-tanner that left streaks, smelled awful and imbued skin with a distinct fake orange glow. Today, there's another choice. All-natural and organic ingredients have arrived inself-tanningformulations that rely on sugar beets and various natural oils to help gradually darken the outer layer of skin. These eco-friendly products are free of many of the no-no components other all-natural skin care products avoid, such as parabens, synthetics, fragrance, colorings and dyes.

Allergies were far from Christie Littauer's mind when she fed creamed spinach to her son Jack for the first time. The 6-month-old had already eaten peas and green beans. Why not try something more exciting? "A few bites into it, he started wheezing," says Littauer, of Henderson, Nev. "He got bright red. Something was obviously wrong."

A beauty queen with no hair ? that turns expectations upside down. At the 90th Miss America competition in Las Vegas last weekend, Miss Delaware, Kayla Martell, was that girl. Martell usually ? but not always ? competes for titles wearing a wig, but far from trying to hide her baldness, she uses her beauty queen status to raise awareness about alopecia areata, the autoimmune disease that caused her to lose her hair as a child. FOR THE RECORD: Women's hair loss: An article in the Image section elsewhere in this edition, about thinning hair in women, identified Dr. Monte O. Harris as being affiliated with Cultura cosmetic medical spa in Washington D.C. Harris is with the Center for Aesthetic Modernism in Chevy Chase, Md. The error was discovered after the section went to press.

Sizzurp, purple drank, lean -- that cough-syrup-laced concoction of many  names -- has been gaining popularity in hip hop culture and notoriety as more celebrities fall prey to its effects. Rapper Lil Wayne was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai last week, reportedly linked to use of the prescription-strength medication. The codeine in the medicine serves as a pain reliever and also suppresses coughing, said Dr. George Fallieras, an emergency room physician and hospitalist at Good Samaritan Hospital.