Arizona Sues L'Oreal Over Alleged Cancer Risks in Hair Relaxers

L'Oréal faces a new lawsuit claiming the beauty giant hid evidence that its hair relaxers could cause cancer in women. Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes filed the suit against L'Oréal USA, Inc., its parent company L'Oréal S.A., and SoftSheen on Thursday. This action makes Arizona the first state to sue over alleged cancer risks linked to hair relaxers. The lawsuit accuses L'Oréal of violating state consumer protection laws by marketing products without warning consumers about possible links to ovarian and uterine cancers. Chemical hair relaxers are powerful, alkaline products that straighten curly hair by breaking and reshaping the bonds giving strands their natural shape. They have long been marketed to and are primarily used by Black women. The ingredients in these relaxers contain potentially toxic chemicals, including hormone disruptors, phthalates, parabens, and substances classified as known or probable human carcinogens, according to the complaint. 'L'Oréal knew or should have known about the dangers associated with these toxic hair straightening products,' Mayes said in an official statement echoing what is in the complaint. 'Yet, instead of warning their consumers, they put profits over the safety of women and children. That is unacceptable and we will hold them accountable for it.' The state seeks penalties, damages, and a court order forcing L'Oréal to add cancer warnings or pull products from shelves. The lawsuit states the cosmetic giant marketed and sold toxic chemical hair relaxers to women and girls of African descent while concealing devastating carcinogenic risks associated with those products. 'In doing so, [L'Oréal] exploited centuries of social pressures and discriminatory beauty standards affecting people of African descent, all while prioritizing profit over consumer safety,' the suit added. Products sold under names including Dark and Lovely advertise their ability to permanently straighten textured hair. This is just one of thousands of lawsuits brought against the company by consumers who used its hair relaxer products. L'Oréal has faced more than 12,000 similar cases from women and their families now bundled together in Chicago federal court to handle them efficiently. In a statement to the Daily Mail, a company spokesperson said: 'L'Oréal's highest priority is the health and wellbeing of all our consumers.

Our products are subject to a rigorous scientific evaluation of their safety by experts who also ensure that we strictly follow all regulations in every market in which we operate." A spokesperson for SoftSheen-Carson pushed back hard against the claims, stating with absolute confidence that the allegations made in this lawsuit have neither legal nor scientific merit.

The company pointed to a specific study as proof of their stance. "The study upon which this lawsuit is based recognized the need for further research and it made no finding of a causal connection between the use of those products and any conditions alleged by the plaintiffs." They went on to highlight a telling detail from that very document. While the text clearly states that more research is warranted, one of the lead researchers has acknowledged there could be other potential contributing factors to the health outcomes observed.

The trouble started after a 2022 National Institutes of Health study found something alarming: women who used these products several times a year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer. The lawsuits now seek money for the women's alleged pain and suffering, medical bills, product costs, and other expenses. These cases are still moving through the courts, with trials potentially starting next year.

The specific brands caught in this web include Optimum hair relaxer, which the lawsuit states L'Oréal marketed and sold. Dark & Lovely hair relaxer was also flagged as a product L'Oréal marketed and sold. Mizani hair relaxer appeared in a lawsuit stating that L'Oréal marketed and sold this item in Arizona.

Experts have long been concerned about the presence of the carcinogen formaldehyde in chemical hair-straightening and relaxing treatments, such as Keratin treatments and Brazilian blowouts. And in a bid to see the long term health consequences of this chemical, researchers from Emory University in Georgia analyzed data from a long-term health study involving more than 50,000 US women.

The Sister Study enrolled participants who were between 35 and 74 years old, had no personal history of breast cancer, but had at least one sister who had been diagnosed with the disease. Enrollment took place between 2003 and 2009, and participants were followed through September 2021. For the final analysis, researchers included data from 46,287 women who were followed for an average of 13.1 years. The study focused on cancers with at least 100 reported cases during the follow-up period and examined whether participants had used hair straighteners or relaxers in the 12 months prior to joining the study. Use of these products was linked to significantly higher cancer risks.

Women who apply hair straighteners or relaxers face a stark reality compared to those who do not use these products. Their risk of developing pancreatic cancer jumps by 166 percent. This specific form of cancer remains one of the deadliest killers because doctors lack a standard screening test, making early detection almost impossible for many patients.

The data reveals other dangerous patterns as well. Users showed a 71 percent higher chance of thyroid cancer and a 62 percent increase in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma compared to the general population. These numbers are not small margins; they represent significant health burdens that can alter life trajectories unexpectedly.

Frequent users face even grimmer odds, particularly when defined as applying these chemicals more than four times per year. In this high-exposure group, the risk for pancreatic cancer more than doubled. While thyroid and lymphoma risks remained elevated in these frequent users, those specific figures did not reach statistical significance in the study.

Researchers also spotted a potential connection between straightener use and kidney cancer. However, they described this association as positive but imprecise, meaning the link exists yet needs clearer proof to be fully understood by scientists. The uncertainty adds another layer of concern for anyone using these products regularly over long periods.

The danger lies in the chemical itself known as formaldehyde. Manufacturers add it as a preservative, but the substance can escape into the air as a gas over time. This process is called off-gassing and happens especially fast when the product touches heat from a flat iron or dryer. If people inhale these fumes repeatedly during their daily routine, they risk anything from mild eye and respiratory irritation to severe outcomes like head and neck cancers.

Official warnings back these findings up. The American Cancer Society points out that both animal and human studies connect formaldehyde to various cancers in the nose, upper throat, and stomach. It has also been shown to increase leukemia risks in people exposed to high levels of this chemical.