WASHINGTON, USA — Washington state is cracking down on so-called “dangerous beauty,” the use of harmful hair chemicals targeting women of color. For many Black women, the pressure to “fit in” increases their risk of cancer.
For some clients at Six17, a salon in downtown Seattle, beauty has always been associated with pain.
“I'll never forget that burning sensation. It felt like my scalp was on fire,” says Dr. Monica Rose McLemore, recalling the first time she used a chemical relaxant to straighten her hair. ” he said.
“I remember when I had my hair straightened, my mom used a hot iron to burn my ears. It was very painful,” customer Jamila Conley said.
“I remember the scabs and the hair and the burns. I didn't get back to relaxing my hair until I went to college,” said Jackie Page Christian, owner of Salon Six 17.
“Everyone was doing it,” recalls Leslie Christian, a Seattle-based makeup artist. “I wanted straight hair. I wanted straight hair.”
McLemore, Conley, and Christian represent generations of Black women who have used hair-straightening chemicals known as “relaxers,” which are painful, expensive, and worse. In particular, it can be harmful to your health.
The women all admitted to hearing that chemical hair relaxers are linked to increased cancer rates, but they knew women who continued to use them despite the risks.
Currently, the state of Washington is taking steps to ban several dangerous chemicals in cosmetics marketed to people of color.
Increased cancer risk
The cancer risks associated with many chemical hair relaxers have been documented for decades.
A 2022 study by the National Cancer Institute found that women who use chemical hair straightening products have a higher risk of uterine cancer than women who don't.
“Every Black person knows a Black person who has had cancer due to some environmental (factor) or chemical,” McLemore said.
As a result, communities of color are at risk from pressure to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards.
Hairstylist and salon owner Jackie Page Christian's clients know this all too well.
“I think we were just like you at a time when society decided that good hair was straight,” client Jamila Conley recalls. She said, “Bad hair was diapers. So I didn't even have a conscious thought of, 'Should I do this?' As much as, “This is what I have to do to be a beautiful black woman,'' she said. ”
“I had to do it no matter what, so there was pressure to always look good, to look neat all the time,” Leslie Christian said.
Natural hair: “Low professionalism and low ability”
The pressure to appear decent was often compounded by workplace discrimination.
In 2020, Duke University researchers found that Black women with natural hair were perceived as less professional and competent than women with straight hair or white women with curly hair. .
“It's based on patriarchy and misogyny. You know, this idea that there's a perfect way to live in the world,” McLemore said.
Cosmetic testing leads to new laws
Finally, safety concerns are taking precedence over public pressure in Washington.
A new product test conducted at a state lab earlier this year found that many cosmetic products marketed to women of color in Washington, including lipsticks, foundations, lotions, and chemical hair relaxers, contain cancer-causing chemicals. It was confirmed that
“Formaldehyde was detected in 26 of these 30 products,” said Marissa Smith, a senior regulatory toxicologist in Washington state. ”Lead was detected in 3 out of 20 products tested. During development, our brains are highly sensitive to lead exposure, so there is no known safe dose, according to the CDC. So if products like lipstick or powder foundation, products known to be used by pregnant women, are found to contain lead, there is reason to be concerned. ”
Smith explained why these dangerous chemicals end up in beauty products.
“Sometimes it has to do with function, so skin lightening creams and hair relaxers are just performing a function that likely contains toxic chemicals,” Smith says.
Salon owner Jackie Christian has a unique perspective on how dangerous chemicals can be found in cosmetics sold and manufactured for Black women.
Jackie Christian said, “A lot of the manufacturing companies are these dark shades and they're not black-owned, so they're not going to join the fray.” Just make money. ”
The results of this test led to new legislation in Washington restricting the sale of personal care products containing seven dangerous chemicals, including lead. Jackie Christian says this is a long overdue move.
“[Businesses] They don't care about our health, they don't care about us burying or burying our loved ones. And I don't care that a young woman has a hysterectomy before starting her own family. they don't care about that. It doesn't upset them. But it is true that you lose money,” Jackie Christian said.
dangerous beauty
Jackie Christian knows that despite the risk of cancer, there are some thoughts that still hold true.
She says her salon doesn't use chemical relaxers, which has caused her to lose clients in the past who don't want to stop using chemicals to relax their hair.
She says part of her job now is affirming the choices of clients who decide to go “natural” with their hair.
“I've seen women go through this journey and take off their wigs and everything else and take off their natural hair. But what I remember is that the first day was like, 'I'm so excited to get up to the house. I was like, 'It's so scary,' to work like this,'' Jackie Christian said. “This is probably what her mother and her mother's mother have been saying for generations, that you have to look good, you have to look right.”
“I think it started with an OK, 'This is not good for our hair, we can't continue doing this,' but then it became an OK, 'This is about reclaiming our culture.'” said Leslie Christian.
To reclaim our culture, protect our health, and break the cycle for our children.
“I never want her to go through what I went through as a child, where I felt like there was something wrong with her hair,” Leslie Christian said of her young daughter. Ta. She added, “It's beautiful to watch them grow up in a world where they don't even have to think twice about whether their hair looks good or not.”
Washington state's Non-Toxic Cosmetics Act would ban PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing agents by 2025. It would also provide incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises to produce safer cosmetics.
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