BUFFALO, N.Y. — A highly toxic chemical that is used in relaxers to straighten and smooth out hair has caught the attention of the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA wants to ban formaldehyde from hair products next year.
A National Institutes of Health study pointed to an increase in hormone-related cancers in women who have used relaxers with this chemical. Specifically, it pointed to black women who often use these products.
Buffalo stylist, researcher, and developer Steven Daniels at Simply Hair said stylists must be part of this study.
"Clients come in for that relaxer service six weeks to six months. If you really want to know who's going to be exposed, the stylist, I feel should be the ones that are tested more so because we're servicing 10, sometimes 15 clients in a day. We're exposed to that product far more than a client who's getting that service every six weeks to six months," Daniels said.
In his 30-year career, he hasn't had a client who experienced a health concern, like cancer due to chemicals in a relaxer.
Relaxers, according to Daniels, can change the hair. "A person who has a kinky or wavy hair pattern," we apply a cream-based product that will stretch out the curl pattern permanently. Once it's on the hair, the hair will never revert back to its original curl pattern, which makes the hair very pliable and manageable.
While there is concern a ban would cripple part of the hair industry, Daniels believes there are alternatives.
"There's different forms of sodium hydroxide. You have lithium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide. Sodium hydroxide. Ammonium thioglycolate. There's so many different products that are used just as a base product to actually straighten out the hair. It can be considered, you know, changing the formulation. That would be a consideration. You have to be fair, at least give the opportunity to restructure something, if that is a problem that's causing cancer in people."