Synthetic braiding hair used by Black women contain dangerous chemicals
A host of dangerous chemicals, including carcinogens, lead, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), have been found in some of the most popular synthetic hair brands used in braided styles.
The findings were detailed in a Feb. 27 article in Consumer Reports.
Synthetic braiding hair is widely used by Black people, mostly women. Some people experience skin issues such as redness, swelling, and rashes while wearing braids. And while there is a lack of research on the long-term risks posed by synthetic braids, the chemicals they contain have been linked with a number of serious health harms.
Consumer Reports tested ten synthetic braiding hair products—and found toxins in all ten. For example, three products contained benzene, a carcinogen which has been linked with acute myeloid leukemia. Nine out of ten products contained unsafe levels of lead, which in adults can cause kidney damage, cardiovascular problems, reproductive damage, and brain damage, and in children can lead to brain and nervous system damage, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and developmental delays. The VOC found at the highest levels in the hair products was acetone, a respiratory irritant.
Tamarra James-Todd, Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Reproductive Epidemiology and lab director of the Environmental Reproductive Justice Lab, was quoted in the Consumer Reports article. She said that chemicals in synthetic braiding hair “look like endocrine disrupters—they look like things that can mess with our body’s normal hormonal system.” James-Todd noted that Black women have been found to have much higher blood and urine concentrations of these chemicals.
“These [chemicals] don’t operate in isolation; they’re operating together,” she said. For people who wear the synthetic braids, the chemicals are “sitting on your scalp and … can be dermally absorbed. [They] … can be inhaled. Somebody touches their hair and they eat something, it’s hand-to-mouth, so it can enter the body that way as well.”
Given that synthetic braiding hair is largely unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration, James-Todd recommended that consumers limit its use.
Read the Consumer Reports article: Dangerous Chemicals Were Detected in 100% of the Braiding Hair We Tested
Learn more
Uncovering the dangers of hair products marketed to Black women, girls (Harvard Chan School news)
