Hair relaxer - carcinogenic

[notanaturalmum]

I'm in a bit of a quandary.
Has anybody been following these stories.

www.bumc.bu.edu/camed/2023/10/11/first-large-study-of-hair-relaxers-among-black-women-finds-increased-risk-of-uterine-cancer/

www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/21/loreal-urged-to-withdraw-hair-relaxers-after-studies-find-cancer-risk

Here's the thing.
I've been using dark and lovely about 5/6 times a year on average for the past 35 years. I like having relaxed hair. I feel smarter with it (I know this is sad but I guess this is due to years of believing the narrative that natural afros are unprofessional )
We are where we are.

Now, I'm not sure I can just stop having relaxed hair and go natural to reduce my risk of getting cancer.
If I continue to relax my hair and I end up getting ill then I'm always going to wonder if it was the relaxer that caused it.
But if I stop, then what am I going to do with my hair going forward. I don't want to wear wigs or weaves and wearing it natural isn't an option.

How seriously should I be taking these news articles. Is anybody else worried?

I appreciate this may be a first world problem but I'm due to relax my hair soon and I'm now having second thoughts about it.
But also my hair is well overdue and currently I'm just scraping it back in a bun with a massive headband and hoping nobody will see my regrowth.

Please be kind.

@LadyKenya in the past I've been to white salons for a deep conditioning treatment and after a bit of gentle encouragement, they often wheel out a trainee and as long as they blow dry my hair in sections then it's absolutely fine.
More often than not, everyone acts surprised at the fact it hasn't taken an obscene amount of time and I've left feeling like I've changed people's perceptions of afro hair.
Granted this is when I've had only about six weeks regrowth though so my hair is more pliable.

Completely understand, my mum straightened her hear for the majority of my childhood. There were very few natural hair actresses, who were usually playing prostitutes. For that reason Josette Simon stood out. I still thing she is stunning. I am not sure if I have ever seen here with anything other than a fro or close cut hair. She now perms it. Ironically when she was younger she rocked an amazing afro. We didnt have the array of great products you have now. Our hair product were lanolin, Dax, Vaseline or some other pomade. We never wore our hair out and I could not wait to have my hair relaxed. I was a fully paid up member to the 'straight and shiny is great club'. Once I did relax it, I hated how restrictive it was! Any moisture and it reverted, too much oil and it clumped. ugh! Worse still it only looked glossy and sleek when the hairdresser did it which meant fortnightly trips to a black hair salon in the west end to have it washed and blow dried, which was a pain.

The more you take notice of those with natural hair around you, the more you seek out videos and blogs of those transitioning and wear more importantly wear your hair naturally, the more comfortable you will feel. It doesn't happen over night, but it will happen. Find people with you hair pattern and look at the styles they rock. There are bound to be a few transitioning with a similar curl pattern. The only down side of natural hair is that some people love to tell you how lovely it is and to try to touch it.

What is your curl pattern?

That is good advice from Socrateswasrightaboutvoting . It is really important that when looking at youtubers, that you look to people with a hair type that is very similar to yours. I wasted quite a lot of time looking at women's hair, that was nothing like my own. At the time I did not really know what my hair was like. Suffice to say that the videos I was drawn to, they all had looser curls 🤨 (yep, that good ole brainwashing in action). As time went on I got into a ecostyle habit (them curls need popping!). Phew! This stuff is a journey. Now I am just myself, I wear no makeup, and my hair is natural, cut short. I love seeing black women with their hair. The styles, the textures, beautiful. We need to see the beauty in ourselves, because society at large has been giving us a different message (an untrue one).

I’m glad to see this thread is still going, I am enjoying following and reading other’s perspectives, there really is value in shared experience.

Op are you beginning to feel more comfortable at approaching your hair journey?

In terms of products I began using Afrocentrix as I was getting to know my hair and I find their products light and moisturising on my hair, so I’d recommend them, they are a black owned brand as well.

I personally was shocked when I started to notice school age girls, wearing weaves, and wigs. I actually feel sad tbh, that their elders find it acceptable at such a young age. It is so widespread now, and almost seems to be normal. How on earth did we get to this stage? It is not just the physical damage, but psychological as well. And don't even get me started on the monetary side of things. Usually purchased from shops, run by people who are only to happen to take our money, whilst being quick to disrespect us. I despair. I buy all my hair products from a black owned business, Akoma Skincare UK. This is very important to me.

Any Black woman who has DD's should especially think about the image they are portraying to their DD's, given they look up to the Mum as a role model.

Growing up in the 80's my first generation DM initially took me to straighten my hair at the age of 8 in a salon. I can still remember my scalp burning and the eggy smell of those powerful chemicals on the many occasions we visited, today.

I don't want any of my DD's to feel ashamed of their natural hair, that they have to hide it under someone else's/manmade fibres/dangerous chemicals or otherwise. At primary age they have healthy, thick natural hair to their shoulders, which I plait or twist each week.

I have seen this too and it’s really sad. Thankfully I only have boys so I’m glad that’s not an issue I have to handle (no doubt there are plenty other worries!) but I feel for those parents buying the hair because it is not cheap.

This was in response to @LadyKenya

No the hair is not cheap, and if they are starting so young down that road, well, by the time that they reach womanhood, it does not bear thinking about how much money they would have forked out. I think that it is worth saying though, that black boys will get accustomed to seeing the girls wearing their hair like that, and even some of their elders, and that in turn affects how they will view natural hair as well.

I agree! 'll never forget when I was going through my wig phase my eldest son asked me why I was wearing a wig over my lovely hair and I didn't have an answer for him, of course I couldn't tell him the truth! but it has definitely made me think twice about how they view women and what they deem is beautiful

Ahh bless@Supamum3 . Your son sounds lovely. He appreciated your natural hair, and was saying so. It is so important that sons can see the beauty in natural hair too.

OP I think it comes down to do what you are comfortable with and what is healthy for your hair long term and the risk you want to take.
I think it’s very easy to glamorise natural hair and relaxed hair. We all know people who have natural hair that still looks dry, damaged and not healthy. The same can be said for relaxed hair. Also, we know people who have thick healthy long relaxed hair and natural hair.

Whichever route you go down you need to still take care of your hair, have a routine and stay on top of it.
There are so many risks to cancer from the simple products we use in the house, on the body, in the hair and in the air we breathe! Even being overweight increases your risk to various cancers. Live ad well and healthy as you can in all aspects and trust in God.

@DM29 that's so very true.
I've done a lot of soul searching over the past month and honestly, I'm not ready to go natural. I think the reason I've had relaxed hair so long is that because it works for me and my hair. It's thick and healthy and doesn't cause me any problems.
This past month has been a learning experience but my hair hasn't looked as good as it usually has. I had my deep conditioning treatment on Friday and all it took was a bit of rain this morning and it's pretty much back to how it was before. A waste of £50.
I think I've been trying to convince myself that I can look the same as I would do without relaxing and that's not true.

So I think when I do go natural, I'm going to have some sort of close cropped style with a longish fringe. Something completely different than my long bob.
For now, I'm going to grow out my relaxer a bit more so I've gone past the twa stage and then get it cut. And live natural for spring/summer

And then when it grows out of that, I'll probably relax it again.
I think there will always be relaxer in my life. I don't know how often but I know that for me and my lifestyle, it's easier than weaves, wigs or braids.

So this is where we are.

Also.
This video.
Brings back memories - it's so accurate with the blowing too

vm.tiktok.com/ZGekDjHM3/

A bit of lighthearted comedy lol!! The things we black women go through! But, I would not have it any other way, we are built different lol, love it!

So true. The one and only time I had my hair relaxed in someone's living room that was my exact experience...😂

This!

One thing about keratin also is you end up using less products on an everyday basis.

So in the end I see it as balancing out the risk!

Wow! @Alabasterbox I thought I was safe as I stopped relaxing my hair in 2017 and switched to knotless braids, single plaits and canerow. I'm shocked that there are now carcinogenic concerns with synthetic hair. How is it that we're being sold unsafe products in 2024?

@Alabasterbox @4cHairhelp
I had no idea synthetic hair is toxic. I am literally shocked. I've gone to great lengths to cut out chemicals and now this.

Sitting in actual shock.

@bouncydramatics same!

If anyone knows a synthetic hair brand that doesn't use acrylonitrile and vinyl chloride, please share

@4cHairhelp I have recently found the ideal texture which I've been happy with and now I feel like I just need to immediately stop.

So if I switch to human do I avoid this problem? I stopped using human after I saw Jamelia's documentary years ago and started worrying about bad energy from stealing hair from temples. It was something like that I really can't remember now it's been so long.

@bouncydramatics I have no idea which brands or hair would be best - it's such a minefield!