Source: EURweb.com

Sistas, we may all be in trouble according to a new report. It says that fibroids and some cancers may be the result of the products we use in our hair. I mean, who hasn’t at one time had a perm? Even women wearing their hair natural use Black hair care products, don’t they?

L. A. based advocacy and research group, Black Women for Wellness, released a 60-page report entitled, Natural Evolutions: One Hair Story on Tuesday. The report is based on five years of research around the topic and information was gathered from “literature reviews, focus groups, data collection and interviews with African-American beauty professionals to determine chemical exposure and correlating health status, of hair care products directed at Black women.”

The results are astounding.

For example, did you know that many of the products marketed to and used by Black women are rarely researched for toxic health consequences? And in the rare cases that they are, Black hair products are found to be some of the most toxic beauty products on the market.

And you already know its a multi-billion-dollar industry.

While the report doesn’t mention any specific brand names or products, it focuses on the ingredients found in more than 50 products and shared a list of ingredients. They include fragrance, DMDM hydantoin, linalool methylparaben and propylparaben. These ingredients are in products used or recommended by hair care stylists.

“Several of these compounds have been found to disrupt the endocrine system, among other health effects. DMDM hydantoin has been found to be a skin toxicant and allergen, as well as a formaldehyde-releasing agent,” states the report.

The report lists uterine fibroids, which will reportedly affect 80 percent of Black women in their lifetime, as a major health concern.The American Journal of Epidemiology recently found a link between the use of hair relaxers and the condition.

The report also states, “Girls who reported using chemical hair oils and hair perms were 1.4 times more likely to experience early puberty after adjusting for race, ethnicity, and year of birth. In addition, other studies have linked early puberty to hair detangler use by Black girls.

In one of the studies African-American girls as young as two years old started showing signs of puberty after using products containing animal placenta found in many detanglers and conditioners.”

To look more closely at the full report, click www.bwwla.org.