Sheila Bush was sitting in her chair in her St. Louis-area home last winter when a legal firm’s advertisement appeared on her television screen, inviting viewers to call a toll-free number if they or anyone they knew had used hair relaxers and been diagnosed with uterine cancer. She said she called Bush after seeing the commercial four times. The commercials Bush saw were part of a nationwide effort by plaintiffs’ law firms to sign up Black women to file lawsuits alleging that at least a dozen cosmetic companies, including L’Oreal and Revlon, sold hair relaxers containing chemicals that increased the risk of developing uterine cancer and failed to warn customers.
NIH discovered a connection, but not a causal link, between the frequent use of chemical hair relaxers and uterine cancer
The recruiting push began in October, only days after research conducted by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) discovered a connection, but not a causal link, between the frequent use of chemical hair relaxers and uterine cancer. Some advertisements depict Black women applying hair products before listening to a synopsis of the NIH study’s findings. According to Reuters, L’Oreal and Revlon have comprehensive safety checks on their products and do not feel current science supports the allegations in the complaints. The other companies either declined to comment or did not reply to requests for comment. Reuters’ requests to interview L’Oreal and Revlon lawyers were denied.
According to the US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, around 6,000 lawsuits have been submitted thus far, with over 5,700 of them filed since mid-August. However, the cases encounter obstacles: The NIH study found a connection but not causation. Plaintiffs are suing several firms, but many women lack receipts and may struggle to show that they used specific goods. The civil claims’ success will be determined by proving that the corporations were irresponsible in failing to warn customers about allegedly harmful items. Marketing hair relaxers to Black women is not prohibited in and of itself.
Ben Crump, who represented the family of George Floyd, the Black man murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, and another lawyer, Diandra “Fu” Debrosse Zimmerman, filed the first hair relaxer lawsuit on behalf of a Missouri woman, Jenny Mitchell, in October last year. Crump has sought to cast the cases as “essentially civil rights issues.” For Black women, “it’s projected on them that they have to live up to some kind of European standard of beauty,” Crump, who represents plaintiffs in high-profile racial discrimination cases and is a regular on cable news, said in an interview.
A master complaint filed alleges the companies took advantage of “centuries of racial discrimination
A master complaint filed in a proceeding consolidating the lawsuits alleges the companies took advantage of “centuries of racial discrimination and cultural coercion that emphasized—both socially and professionally—the necessity of maintaining straight hair.” Bush, 69, a cosmetologist who worked in salons favored by white customers, admitted to using hair relaxers every six weeks for the majority of her life. When she was in her late 50s, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer. She joined the complaint in August, which had been consolidated in a federal court in Chicago as part of a multidistrict litigation proceeding (MDL), a mechanism designed to manage lawsuits filed in several jurisdictions more quickly.
She hopes that her case will aid in determining if hair relaxers cause cancer. “I want to know for sure,” she explained. According to the NIH, uterine cancer is the most frequent type of reproductive system cancer and is on the rise in the United States, particularly among Black women. The NIH research of 34,000 women discovered that those who used hair straightening products more than four times in the previous year were more than twice as likely as those who did not get uterine cancer. According to the study, black women utilized the products more frequently than others.
According to Alexandra White, head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ Environment and Cancer Epidemiology group and lead author of the October study, hair relaxers contain phthalates, parabens, cyclosiloxanes, and metals and may release formaldehyde when heated. She denied any interview requests via a spokeswoman. According to the World Health Organization, formaldehyde is a recognized carcinogen that has been linked to nasopharyngeal cancer and leukemia. According to the NIH study, phthalates and other chemicals are potential endocrine disruptors, which can interfere with the body’s hormones and may contribute to cancer risk.
According to L’Oreal and Revlon, the NIH study did not draw clear findings concerning a causal link between hair relaxers and uterine cancer, and its authors stated that more research is needed. “We do not believe the science supports a link between chemical hair straighteners or relaxers and cancer,” Revlon said in a press release.
In July, the companies named in the litigation asked the presiding judge to dismiss the lawsuits, claiming that the study was the first to raise the possibility of a link between hair straightening products and uterine cancer, undermining plaintiffs’ claim that the companies were aware of or should have been aware of any risks associated with the products. The firms also mentioned that the NIH study included sisters of women who had already been diagnosed with breast cancer, “who may therefore have a genetic predisposition.” According to lead author, White, there is currently no convincing evidence associating a family history of breast cancer with an increased risk of uterine cancer.
“These cases are no guarantee of success,” said Rene Rocha, a Morgan & Morgan attorney
The plaintiffs “rely entirely on vague allegations that the products, generally, contain ‘toxic chemicals,’” the companies’ defense lawyers at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind & Garrison, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, and other firms said in a court filing. The brands named in the lawsuit are intended for use at home and include L’Oreal’s SoftSheen Carson’s Dark & Lovely, Revlon, Dabur’s Namaste ORS Olive Oil, Godrej’s Strength of Nature’s Just for Me, Sally Beauty Holdings’ Silk Elements. In an August court filing, all the companies said that plaintiffs often failed to identify specific products they used or how individual products harmed them.
If the plaintiffs survive the firms’ effort to dismiss the lawsuits, the defendants will almost certainly ask the judge to award them summary judgment or a verdict in their favor without the cases going to trial. If the claims proceed, the firms’ lawyers may try to remove experts or evidence that plaintiffs’ lawyers expect to use at trial. Future trials would determine whether the corporations face any liability and how much they must pay in a settlement if one occurs.
“These cases are no guarantee of success,” said Rene Rocha, a Morgan & Morgan attorney who represents hair relaxer claimants, adding that he believes the cases will withstand the firms’ early legal battles “because the science is clear.” Photos demonstrate Patrice had a pageboy cut while she was a writer in Baltimore in the 1970s and a shoulder-length bob when she became a realtor in San Diego in the early 2000s. She continued to straighten her hair after being diagnosed with uterine cancer in late 2021, despite the fact that her three daughters urged her to quit while she was fighting cancer, they alleged. Patrice’s hair was freshly relaxed when she died in November, according to Ariana. She was 68 years old at the time.
The Hester sisters have contacted a law firm and stated that they intend to join the litigation against the companies that manufactured the hair relaxers their mother used, such as Godrej’s African Pride and Dabur International’s ORS, boxes of which still sit in the bathroom of the home she shared with Ariana and another daughter, Nakisha.