BLACK AND mixed-race women are at a greater risk of developing health problems including diabetes and cancer from the harsh chemicals found in their everyday hair products as hair experts call for long-lasting change in the black hair industry.

Research has shown that 78% of products on the black hair care market contain toxic ingredients that can cause life-altering conditions such as hormone disruption, allergies and reproductive damage.

Parabens, a chemical which is most commonly found in black hair products, was revealed to adversely impact cancer cells in black women.

While hair relaxers containing the ingredient lye were also discovered to be linked to a 30% increase in breast cancer in black women, according to the Oxford University’s Carcinogenesis Journal.

Ikamara Larasi and Seyi Falodun-Liburd, who are spearheading the We Level Up campaign against this harmful chemical, say that unless a change is made black women are facing life-altering health consequences or even death while taking care of their afro hair.

“I’ve had my hair relaxed and almost every black woman I know has had their hair relaxed and that immediately puts up our antennas, because this feels like a systemic thing rather than an individual thing.

“And so, we are demanding that L’Oreal and Revlon remove toxic ingredients like lye from their hair relaxers,” says Seyi.

“It’s also about the lack of transparency in terms of making choices. There might be a couple of types that say if you feel any burning to rinse your hair immediately, but in terms of the long term impacts like breast cancer and fibroids, that’s not on any packaging.”

The choice for black women to make healthy decisions about the treatment of their hair whether it is relaxed or natural is being taken away from them, says Seji, as big name brands fail to properly inform their customers about their buying choices. 

She adds: “When black women are relaxing their hair, they are not knowing if it’s a possible side effect, so it doesn’t feel like a real choice that people can make. 

“Especially when you link to some of the reasons why black women are relaxing their hair, it becomes less and less about the individual choice and much more about the company’s responsibility not to make a product that is harming us as well.”

Lye, also known as sodium hydroxide, is a heavy-duty chemical used to unblock drains but also is a staple in hair products for black women and girls.

Even though some products that are marketed to consumers as containing “no lye,” they still contain harmful hydroxides like calcium hydroxide and lithium hydroxide which have been linked to hair loss and scalp burns.

Knowledge

Rachael Twumasi-Corson is the CEO and co-founder of Afrocenchix, a new brand of black hair products whose sole purpose is to ensure black women’s hair and health is protected through the ingredients they use.

Since the launch of a new £420,000 crowdfunding campaign, Rachael is striving for more black and mixed race women to have access to safe hair products and fill the knowledge gap that is so commonly missing in the black hair industry. 

“When I studied trichology, I was only one of two black people in my class within two years. My trichologist at the time said he was really glad to see more black people doing trichology, because most of his patients, most of his clients, those people he treats are black,” she says. 

“What he said and what some of the other teachers and lecturers said is that there are certain ingredients that we use in our hair, things like relaxers that they genuinely think would be banned if white people were using it.

“But the people doing advocacy, the people doing research, the people pushing the safety standards, they often don’t even know that these dangers exist.”

Afrochenix, the brand behind the UK’s first afro hair TV advert, hopes to generate new consumers and private investors through crowdfunding that will help widen the marketing for healthy hair products.

Toxic

Rachael tells The Voice that a unique selling point in her range of products is that they “put health first” throughout. 

“We never use any parabens, we don’t use sulphates, we don’t use fire lights, we don’t use artificial fragrances or artificial colours,” she explains.

“Those are some of the most common allergens and some of the most problematic ingredients. Every ingredient we use, we check that it’s good for people and environmentally friendly as it comes.”

“With some of the health effects, we’re aware that black women are more and more likely to have fibroids. We don’t talk about why it’s not because of a genetic predisposition, it’s because of behaviour, it’s because of the kind of products that we use. 

“When it comes to our hair, one of the saddest things I see is we’ve got tens of thousands of customers, we’ve sold products to people worldwide. 

“But, there’s still a huge confidence crisis when it comes to black women in our hair. We’re told that our hair is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to beauty standards. If it’s not straight, sleek or with the edges laid, it’s not seen as acceptable.”

Seyi and Ikamara’s petition against toxic ingredients like lye in black hair products has already amassed over 5,000 signatures and says their campaign will be a “community effort” until a long-lasting change is made among big beauty giants that cater to black women. 

“We spoke to one woman who said that her hair was relaxed and at the time she could feel it was burning in three different spots, and that was when she was a child, and she lost hair in those three different spots,” says Ikamara.

Condition

“Until now, she is still not able to grow hair in the area or feel any kind of sensation in that area and now has seborrheic dermatitis [a skin condition that causes scaly patches, red skin and stubborn dandruff].

“If you start relaxing your hair or if someone does your hair for you from like the age of five and you’re still relaxing in your thirties or forties, what does that look like for you in terms of your health outcomes? And we already know how black women are treated in health care services.”

Rachel says that the money generated from crowdfunding efforts will go back into developing more condition and styling products for black women to cater to all hair types, whether relaxed or natural, as well as pouring into charities and beauty banks as part of their journey to making black hair products safer. 

“There’s been some progress there [in the portrayal of black hair in the media]; it’s mostly for people who have a particular type of hair. 

“So, if you’ve got quite naturally long hair or if you’ve got looser curls, textures that are seen as quite palatable in the media, then those things are prioritised. 

“Those things are held up as the ideal. And it means that many people with standard African looking hair, feel like there’s something wrong with them and that they need to cover up.”

She adds: “A lot of the work we do is to just help women to have confidence in their hair, to show them other people with similar textures to them, and to showcase the beauty of all hair types. 

“So I think all hair types can be beautiful. It’s all about how you style it, how you wear it. We go out of our way to showcase tighter curls on dark skinned women.”