r/news • u/ArgentineBeauty • 19h ago
Arizona accuses L’Oréal of concealing cancer risks linked to hair relaxers
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/11/loreal-arizona-lawsuit-hair-relaxers167
u/peon2 18h ago
Does anyone from another source have what the problem ingredient is?
Like with the Johnson&Johnson baby powder it was from not removing 100% of the asbestos from the talc.
This article says nothing about what in the hair relaxer is cancerous?
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u/This_Proxy 18h ago
Sister died this year from that from ovarian cancer. Fuck J&J.
This one in particular includes formaldehyde, phthalates and parabens causing reproductive cancer.
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u/Awkward_Silence- 16h ago
Everyone should remember it's more than J&J, they're just the largest & worst offenders of the bunch
Everyone that used fully natural talc, had abestos found in their baby powder to some degree. As it's a by-product of the natural mineral
It's why basically everyone launched alternative powders a decade or so ago in unison (usually corn starch based)
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u/The-Shattering-Light 17h ago
May her memory be a blessing.
The shit that corporations pull is disgusting
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u/SafeKaracter 5h ago edited 3h ago
Use the yuka phone app to scan barcodes before buying stuff . If will tell you what’s in any food and any cosmetic products and it’s free . Theres another one I forgot name of (something with “dirty” in name I think)
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u/peon2 2h ago
The ingredients are on the food/bottles. I was asking which of the ingredients for this particular one were the issue.
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u/SafeKaracter 2h ago
I think you don’t get what I wrote so maybe I didn’t explain well enough . It tells you which ones are bad and why. So if you scan this product barcode it will tell you which one (becuase otherwise you can just look at the stickers but you won’t know what’s bad ). If you scan the bar code it will give you a score and tell you which is cancerous , which is endocrine disruptor, which is bad for allergies or the combination of all and the source /research at the bottom and a text explanation of the issue and so on. So for this product or all L’Oréal or all. What good is a sticker if you don’t know what the ingredients means or why they’re bad ?
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u/peon2 2h ago
If the problem is a known ingredient which is bad, then yes that works.
But as I said like for J&J, talc is a perfectly safe ingredient so that being listed wouldn't help. You'd just scan it, it'd say talc is safe, and buy. But the talc was contaminated with asbestos. They wouldn't be listing that asbestos on the bottle.
If could be a safe ingredient that was the issue.
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u/extraqueso 19h ago
Hold corporations accountahhh fuck it they can just self regulate it's better for business.
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u/KimJongFunk 19h ago
There has been so much damage done to black women’s health due to racism.
And I know that the internet has a problem when things are called racism, but these relaxers and hair treatments are rooted in a long history of systemic racism towards black women and calling natural features like their hair “nappy”.
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u/Material_Fondant_360 10h ago
The Crown Act was only passed a few years ago. I vividly remember my mom, family members, and friends getting relaxers to look more “professional” in the workplace. Heck, I was given my first relaxer at 8 years old and used them until I got pregnant at 27. Prior to 8 years old, my mom used hot combs heated on the stove to straighten my hair so I could look “presentable”.
Fingers crossed I don’t develop any health issues. Silver lining is my daughter is growing up in a world where she’s proud to wear her hair the way it grows out of her head.
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u/waaaayupyourbutthole 16h ago
And not just hair products. The fact that there's even such a thing as skin lightening creams makes it pretty clear that there's a lot of colorism and racism around the world.
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u/skillywilly56 12h ago
Lightening skin has been a thing even among Europeans for centuries, and had little to do with racism and everything to do with rich vs poor.
Peasants and slaves get tanned because they work outside in the fields all day, pale white skin was/is a display of wealth and privilege.
They’d paint their faces in white lead face paint, or ingest arsenic wafers to get their skin as pale as possible to denote high born or wealthy status even painting blue lines to look like veins showing through the skin.
This also applies to people of color who also viewed being paler as a sign of wealth and beauty, from Africa to Asia having a tan meant you were poor.
Being tanned only became popular in the 1920s when most jobs moved to be indoor manufacturing and workers became pale, and so being tanned became a symbol of wealth because you had the leisure time to get a tan and weren’t pale like a peasant factory worker.
But the idea still persists and I’m not saying that racism and Eurocentric beauty standards don’t play some part in the modern era but 54% of all lightening skin products are sold in Asia, half of all skin care products sold in India are lightening formulas and they aren’t doing it to specifically fit in with white people.
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u/waaaayupyourbutthole 4h ago
Peasants and slaves get tanned because they work outside in the fields all day, pale white skin was/is a display of wealth and privilege.
You know, you could have saved yourself from writing that long comment by reading mine properly. That's called colorism and was mentioned by me before the word racism lol
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u/eeyore134 12h ago
Yup, that was my first thought when seeing this. And it wouldn't surprise me if it's on purpose or at least only handwaved and not developed to be safer because of it.
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u/YetiSquish 8h ago
Eh I don’t think it’s race based - Brazilian Blowout was used for all races/types of hair but also had a failure to disclose the use of formaldehyde in their product. It’s mostly a hazard to the stylist anyway since they have the most exposure.
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u/According-Judge-1775 15h ago
When I was 17, back in 2001, I worked doing phone surveys as my summer job. We were assigned to a survey from "The K-Group" and we were asking questions about hair relaxers and follow up questions about cancer. I didn't get a lot of women willing to answer the questions, but I'm Biracial and understood the point being made. You bet I switched to braided styles and I've been fully natural for well over a decade. Hated that job, quit after 2 months, probably saved my life, tho.
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u/YetiSquish 8h ago
As a regular white dude, I think natural kinky black hair is cool and I like seeing people embrace it.
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u/askalotlol 3h ago
I have always wondered if the chemicals in hair relaxers for textured hair are responsible -at least in part- for the disparity of maternal outcomes for black women. Black women are more likely to have serious complications during pregnancy and childbirth, even if they have black caregivers.
We are just now really getting good studies regarding relaxers and they are indicated in more than just uterine cancer. The chemicals are endocrine disruptors.
A growing body of evidence suggests that chemicals in hair relaxers—products aimed at straightening hair—and other hair products marketed to Black girls and women contain endocrine-disrupting substances linked with early menstruation, reproductive health issues, and cancer. But these remain largely unregulated in the U.S.
It sounds like this category of product should be pulled from the shelves completely until some formulas can prove to the FDA they are safe.
https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/uncovering-the-dangers-of-hair-products-marketed-to-black-women-girls/
Shout out to Chris Rock for his phenomenal early documentary on the topic, Good Hair. It is responsible for putting a spotlight on the dangers.
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u/ShakesDontBreak 8h ago
Its not just relaxers. Anyone who gets Brazilian blow outs should be concerned. I got them for nearly 20 years. Apparently its basically formaldehyde. And whats worse is you inhale it (during the blow out).
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u/keznaa 12h ago
Well thats fucking fantastic, I grew up relaxing my hair. For basically 10 yrs and have definitely used their relaxers. Usually used Olive Oil Relaxer, luckily L'Oreal doesn't own it. I also used to use a brand called Just For Kids as a kid and I think that's also late to cancer stuff so yay fucky beauty standards
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u/FirstAccGotStolen 17h ago
What the fuck is "hair relaxer" and why is it allowed to be sold if it is linked to cancer?!?
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u/sweet-tea-13 16h ago
It's a product that "permanently" (until it grows out) relaxes and straightens coarse and curly hair. And it seems like they have been accused of trying to hide or cover up the cancer link.
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u/YetiSquish 8h ago
In the case of Brazilian Blowout, the company intentionally refused to label their product as having formaldehyde. Their argument, which was wholly absurd and shot down in court, was that formaldehyde was a gas and formalin is the liquid (formaldehyde dissolved in water), so they can’t be expected to label their product as having formaldehyde. No chemist would claim formalin isn’t synonymous with formaldehyde.
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u/ArgentineBeauty 19h ago
"The state of Arizona is seeking penalties and damages, as well as a court order forcing L’Oreal to stop selling the products unless it warns of the cancer risk."
Causes cancer? Maybe ban it instead of putting a warning on it.