Too relaxed about the risks: the crisis in Black women's hair care

The Guardian

19-03-2025

Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. This week I look into the emerging health hazards associated with styling Black hair, and how for generations Black women have been let down by legislation, social pressure and the forever shifting demands of the beauty industry.
Hair products marketed to Black women span a wide range, everything from wash to styling day involves a product that promises to make one's hair smooth, shiny, and above all manageable. Whether hair is worn straightened, natural, or even tucked away in braids, there is an oil, cream or gel to improve the style. Your straightened hair can be glossier; the curls in your natural hair can be more defined and last longer. And goodness, yes, your hair is braided but your edges are unruly and need to be laid. On social media, I even saw a powder that can be sprinkled on straightened hair to give it more volume. So it seems hair products now run the gamut of solid and liquid states.
But evidence is mounting that the Black hair care and styling industry is wildly unregulated and poses risks to Black women's health. Last month, analysis found that 80% of about 4,000 beauty products marketed at Black women 'contain at least one moderately hazardous ingredient – and most contain multiple', which is quite disturbing. Among those products were chemical products in hair-straightening formulas linked to health risks such as cancer and damage to the respiratory system, and toxic compounds added to hair conditioners. Such chemicals are linked to health risks that include cancer and damage to the respiratory system.
The list of hazardous products is staggering (pdf), as much for its length as for its range. Among the list are several hair products that I either was familiar with or have used myself, and others that are targeted at children.
My eternal search for the 'miracle' product
My first exposure to the promise of a product was when I was in my early teens, when John Frieda hair care launched what was to become an iconic line specifically for curly hair called Frizz Ease (the elders will remember). I recall loading every product in the line on my head and then, crestfallen, comparing my very Frizz Uneased hair to the bouncy smooth curls on its advertising. But immediately, the takeaway was that it was simply not the right product for me. And so began a lifetime hunt for that magic combination of serums, mousses and conditioners that will finally give me 'good hair'.
By the time I came of age to manage my own hair, older generations were already in the grip of hair straightening. The better off could afford chemical relaxers; the rest had to make do with iron tongs heated on the stove. I would have to go back to my grandmothers' cohort, born in the early 20th century, to find female relatives who never manipulated their hair or used chemicals, simply wearing it in cornrows. The timespan over which Black women have been using such products is now closing in on a century. The health implications of such extended use are only just becoming apparent, with large studies being commissioned primarily during the last decade. But it still feels like the tip of something much bigger, and seemingly gentle and harmless products are now being cast in a new, perilous light.
Too relaxed about the risks
Of all Black hair styling products, chemical relaxers pose the greatest health risk. The treatments alter the structure of the hair to straighten it. The effect cannot be reversed, only grown out, and so roots have to be continually retouched to maintain the style. A landmark study in 2022 found that women who have used hair relaxers regularly (defined as 'more than four times a year') are at an elevated risk of uterine cancer. More than 100 lawsuits have been filed in the United States, with further claims of increased risk of fibroids.
The result is a drop in relaxer use, and a cultural pivoting, most clear on social media, where users chart their journeys 'growing out' their relaxers and accepting their natural hair. But elsewhere, relaxer use is actually rising sharply, particularly in Africa. Across the world, the market is expected to grow by almost 20%. There is no global regulatory body, and so even as health risks are exposed there is limited legal scope to enforce changes to product formulas and bans on hazardous products on an international scale. Even within individual countries regulation is a challenge, as the long path to legislation can be interrupted by changing governments. A US Food and Drug Administration move to ban formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, from hair-straightening products has become stuck under the new US administration, with the legislation caught in the spokes of political transition. There are no signs that it will be implemented soon, if at all, in the current term.
Even braids aren't risk-free
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Braiding has long been seen as a safer styling alternative. The adoption of hair braiding comes with its own virtuous assumption that it was not harmful to the hair as the process involved no chemicals or heat. In fact, braiding has come to be described as 'protective style'. But earlier this month, a study found carcinogenic ingredients in 10 synthetic hair products that are weaved into many braiding styles, hair extensions and wigs. Lead was found in nine of the 10 samples analysed.
This is a particularly grim revelation. Because I would wager that even the most highly informed consumer would not have assumed that simply running a few bundles of synthetic hair alongside your own could put you at risk of cancer. It is also a sad one. Low maintenance but highly diverse in terms of styling, braids have in many ways freed people from that odyssey of the perfect curl or frizz-free blow-dry. But even that, it appears, is not a safe harbour any more.
Strong cultural pressure, poor regulation
Sure, there is a wild west element to the Black hair industry, where poor regulation ensures that research into hazards does not interrupt the profits that can be made in a multibillion-dollar global market. But there is another dimension – that of the cultural, social and racial pressure placed on Black women to conform to a certain aesthetic.
Straight (or more accurately, straightened) long hair still dominates in western popular culture depictions of 'beautiful' Black women. The result is an entire genre of poker-straight wigs and weaves adopted throughout the world, as western beauty standards infiltrate Black-majority countries. There are also bewildering mixed messages that make users feel as if all types of hair are possible and accessible. There is genuinely a case for a health warning on such ads to tell consumers, particularly younger and more impressionable girls, that models' hair is often enhanced, extended, or a wig.
Then there is textural discrimination within Black communities, where even in natural form there is a preference for hair that is what I call 'layable' – that is, finessed away from sight into flat styles rather than bigger, more coiled afros. Even braid styles cleave to longer, fuller designs, such as boho braids, that in the very styles mimic hair and movement that is rarely found in natural form.
Consumers fall at the intersection of complex commercial and social impulses. The marketing is relentless, as is the peer pressure. But as I was reading that study into the thousands of Black beauty products, one quote by a co-author of the study really stayed with me: 'Although we have seen some improvements,' Kristin Edwards said, 'it's still really, really important for consumers to be intentional users.'
Easier said than done. It involves pausing, reading ingredient lists, and even researching before you buys a product. But intentionality also involves digging deeper into what notions of 'good hair' you have come to believe in.
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