HAIR STRAIGHTENER Legal News Articles & Interviews

Santa Clara, CA As advocates and watchdogs with organizations like the NAACP and the Environmental Working Group, and at least one politician, create more awareness amongst Black women about serious health risks of hair straightener products, more hair relaxer lawsuits are filed. And they are insisting that the regulatory framework needs to change. 

Santa Clara, CA Just five months after a study published in 2021 showed a link between the use of hair straightener, women—and mostly Black women—diagnosed with uterine and ovarian cancers began filing hair relaxer lawsuits. By 2023, the FDA proposed a ban on formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing chemicals in the hair products, with an April 2024 deadline. Incredibly, April came and went and formaldehyde stayed. And the lawsuits are increasing. This October alone, 200 new cases joined the hair relaxer class action lawsuit. 

Santa Clara, CA Two lawmakers in March 2023 wrote a letter to the FDA, urging it to ban harmful chemicals in hair relaxers. Last month, those lawmakers sent another letter to the agency asking why the proposed ban is still not in place. If not in place this month, the FDA will have missed its date three times. The FDA has already missed two of its hair relaxer formaldehyde bans, and one lawmaker believes another delay could cause more health issues for communities of color. 

Santa Clara, CA Despite studies over the past decade determining that formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals in hair relaxers are linked to reproductive-health disorders, and despite consumers concerns since the late 2000s, and advocacy groups petitioning the FDA since at least 2011 to ban hair products with formaldehyde, the agency still hasn’t banned the carcinogenic products. Health experts keep asking the FDA why it missed its own deadline, with the answer that it takes time. But during that time, how many more Black women will be diagnosed with uterine fibroids, preterm birth and infertility, or breast, ovarian and uterine cancer?

Atlanta, GA Several Georgia women who filed a lawsuit against L'Oreal for negligence and fraud related to the use of hair relaxers have been given the go-ahead by the Georgia Court of Appeals. The French multinational personal care company had previously asked the courts to dismiss the complaints. Plaintiffs, including Kiara Burroughs, accuse the companies of selling hair relaxation, or lanthionization, products that caused or increased the risk of women developing uterine, ovarian or breast cancer, endometriosis, uterine fibroids or other injuries to the reproductive system. 

Santa Clara, CA When it comes to regulating products, hair relaxers in the U.S. are like the wild west. Despite the FDA announcing a proposed ban for April 2024 on hair straighteners containing formaldehyde (it has missed that deadline), and despite the EPA announcing that exposure to formaldehyde is an “unreasonable risk to human health”, nothing has been done to remove this known human carcinogen from the market.

Santa Clara, CA The FDA has missed its own April deadline to ban formaldehyde in hair-relaxers, despite mounting pressure to remove the hazardous chemical from all hair-straightener products, and despite no opposition to its removal. Critics say the agency’s failure to deal with the proposed new regulation would do far too little, in addition to being far too late. After all, the FDA's role is to prevent harm from happening in the first place. Many Black women with serious health issues linked to these products have filed over 6,000 hair relaxer lawsuits against manufacturers and the longer the FDA stalls, more complaints are inevitable.

Santa Clara, CA  As of early March, at least 8,334 hair relaxer lawsuits are pending in a federal MDL (multidistrict litigation). Following a study that linked cancer to hair straightener products in late 2022, African American women have filed product liability lawsuits claiming certain cosmetic companies caused their uterine cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer and other serious injuries.

Chicago, IL Black women who have used hair relaxers for most of their lives have been “shocked” and “horrified” to discover that studies have linked formaldehyde—the chemical found in most hair relaxers—to cancer and fibroids. A recent Boston University report highlights an increased risk for Black women to develop uterine cancer after receiving a particular hair treatment, but studies suggesting that hair products containing a variety of chemicals are linked to asthma, hormone disruptions and even cancer go back to 2018.

Santa Clara, CA As attorneys ramp up advertising on television and social media, more Black women are becoming aware of the association between hair relaxers and uterine cancer, and that at least a dozen cosmetic companies sold their hair straighteners containing dangerous chemicals and failed to warn customers. Many women are just now learning that they have rubbed carcinogenic formaldehyde into their scalps for decades and thousands of hair relaxer lawsuits have been filed – and continue to be filed – by women of color against these companies, including L’Oreal and Revlon.