SAN DIEGO — Black beauty products are at the center of a legal battle. Particularly, the chemicals being used and whether or not they can lead to cancer.
Black beauty professionals launched the national organization, The Relaxer Advocates on Thursday, to defend hair straightening products, saying the claims in these lawsuits are baseless.
“Relaxers do not cause cancer!,” Lorenzo Griffin said. “We are here today speaking out about the lie on lye,” Ladosha Wright added. “All law firms, take your hands off of our legacy,” Cheryl Morrow said.
The Relaxer Advocates are prepared to step in as expert witnesses in court, against the class action lawsuit, claiming certain beauty products, cause cancer.
These beauty professionals said their claims are false and harmful to Black-owned hair care businesses. They said the allegations are illegitimate and the studies are inconclusive.
“You will not enrich your law firm on the back of generations of African American beauty entrepreneurs who have strived to create the strongest beauty industry in the world,” Morrow said.
She is the daughter of Willie Morrow, a hair care pioneer, who popularized the "Afro pick" and the Jheri curl.
“My commitment is to not see this industry die, under these types of lies. We are all for safety, that's why we were formed. We will not sit back and allow research firms, with no chemical knowledge to lead this conversation forward,” she said.
In 2016, the FDA started efforts to ban formaldehyde, one of the main ingredients listed in the claim that can turn curly hair straight.
“Black women are synonymous with sodium hydroxide, not formaldehyde,” Morrow said.
In 2022, the National Cancer Institute published a study that found the use of hair straightening products is linked with a higher risk of developing uterine cancer, adding these products are more easily absorbed through the scalp.
"I've seen people have a bad reaction because lack of training and education, Theo Garfield said, who is also part of The Relaxer Advocates. Griffin added, "These products should not be sold to non-professionals. They should only be sold to licensed cosmologists."
The Relaxer Advocates said that's because a base cream needs to be applied so that the chemicals never penetrate the scalp. They would also like to see an increase in the number of required hours dedicated to learning about black products, in beauty school.
"When you are talking about hair straighteners, you are not colloquially talking about relaxers, but you are putting the black woman's face on the lawsuit," Morrow added.
The FDA is expected to provide an update on where they stand in terms of certain chemicals in April 2024.
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