How Safe Is Your Hair Relaxer?

For eons, black women all over the world have relied on hair relaxers to achieve the straight hair texture. It all began in 1909 when Garret Augustus Morgan, an African American sewing machine repairman from Kentucky, accidentally discovered the first chemical relaxer while trying to create what will reduce friction on wool in his workshop.

Since then it has become a culture which albeit fashionable has not only obvious complications for the hair and worse even for the health of women that use them.

As culled from Lawsuit Information Center;

Relaxers are applied to the base of the hair shaft and left in place for a “cooking” interval. The relaxer alters the hair’s texture by purposefully damaging the hair’s natural protein structure. Retreatment is usually required every 4-8 weeks.

Hair relaxers contain hormonally active and carcinogenic compounds, such as phthalates, known to cause endocrine disruption, they are not listed separately as ingredients but are often broadly lumped into the “fragrance” or “perfume” categories.

Phthalates are harmful to the human body because they are endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). The endocrine system is involved in producing and circulating hormones such as estrogen. EDCs interfere with the regular activity of the endocrine system. EDCs disrupt the endocrine system and interfere with the body’s hormonal homeostasis in various ways.

American Journal of Epidemiology Study

A well-established body of scientific research has determined that the high rate of uterine fibroids among Black women appears to be connected to the use of chemical hair relaxer products. The most important study on this subject appeared in 2012 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Lauren A. Wise, et al., Hair Relaxer Use and Risk of Uterine Leiomyomata in African-American Women, American Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 175, Issue 5, 1 March 2012.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, investigated the possible association between hair relaxer use and the risk of developing uterine fibroids in African American women, using data from the Black Women’s Health Study.

This study looked at health records from over 23,000 pre-menopausal African American women between the ages of 21 and 69 from 1997 to 2009 with no history of uterine fibroids. The study results showed that women who regularly used chemical hair relaxers (particularly beginning at an early age) displayed a significantly increased risk of developing uterine fibroids compared to those who did not use relaxers.

The study found that women who used hair relaxers were more likely to develop uterine fibroids than those who did not use hair relaxers. Women who used hair relaxers at least seven times a year had a 1.4 times higher risk of developing uterine fibroids than those who did not use hair relaxers. The study also found that the risk of developing fibroids increased with the frequency and duration of hair relaxer use.

Breaking those numbers down a bit, the study also found that the risk of developing fibroids increased with the frequency of hair relaxer use. Women who used hair relaxers every two to four weeks had a 1.23 times higher risk of developing fibroids, while women who used hair relaxers every one to two weeks had a 1.52 times higher risk.

Hair Relaxer Lawsuit

Product liability lawsuits against the cosmetic companies that manufacture these hair relaxer products are now being brought by women across the country. The first hair relaxer lawsuit was filed in Chicago in October 2022. Eight more hair relaxer cancer lawsuits were filed in the following weeks and thousands more are expected.

So far, all of these lawsuits have been uterine cancer cases. The plaintiffs allege that they developed uterine cancer are years of regularly using chemical hair relaxers. The primary defendants named in these cases included\ international cosmetic companies like L’Oreal and Revlon.

Fibroids are not the only discovered aftermaths of hair relaxer use; some cancers are now as well been linked to these products.

And this year as notified by Drug Watch;

Lawyers representing more than 120 plaintiffs in a multidistrict litigation case against chemical hair straightening manufacturers recently filed a master complaint outlining the allegations against more than a dozen companies.

Named in the chemical hair straightener lawsuit are 15 manufacturers, including well-known brands such as L’Oreal, SoftSheen, Revlon, Luster and Sally Beauty. All are accused of knowing the dangers their products could cause to consumers and that they failed to warn them.

The complaint alleges the defendants “manufactured, sold, distributed, advertised, and promoted toxic hair relaxer products that caused Plaintiffs to develop cancers and other injuries.” It also states plaintiffs are seeking compensation for “punitive damages, monetary restitution, medical monitoring and equitable relief.”

Studies have linked harmful endocrine-disrupting chemicals, such as phthalates in chemical hair relaxer solutions, to reproductive problems, uterine cancer, breast cancer, uterine fibroids, endometriosis and preterm delivery.

The presence of the EDCs, which affect the body’s hormones, was not disclosed on product labels. Plaintiff’s lawyers say the lack of disclosure is a violation of state and federal laws.

Companies advertised the chemicals as “gentle,” “healthy” and “natural.” They targeted people of color, including children, the complaint states. As many as 90% of Black women have used a chemical hair straightener product, according to the allegations.

“Defendants’ marketing efforts, all have a common theme, they are filled with representations and insinuations that their hair relaxing products are safe and beneficial to the user,” the complaint states. “The use of words such as organic, natural, nourishing, added protection or healthy in their marketing and can lead a consumer to believing these hair relaxer products are safe when in fact they are not.”

A litany of lawsuits was filed against makers shortly after a National Institutes of Health study released in October 2022 linked chemical hair straighteners to an increased risk of cancer. Women who used the products more than four times a year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer, according to the study.

That same month, L’Oreal responded to the lawsuits stating it stands by the safety of its products and saying, “lawsuits filed against us have no legal merit.”

These are the cancers Linked to Chemical Hair Straighteners; uterine cancer and breast cancer. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are to blame for the increased risk, researchers found.

EDCs can affect people in different ways, depending on the chemical and the volume of exposure.

In the light of these studies, discoveries and lawsuits, the headlining topic question already has its answer.

There are safer options like heat straightening brushes to achieve the soft hair look. They may give temporary results but they save you from permanent health consequences.

So before you think of “cooking” your natural, God-given afro into a softer texture with chemicals, you may well have to ask whether African hair is a disease that has to be cured with harmful additives which can lead to devastating health consequences or worse, death.

Is relaxing your hair worth all the risk?