Beauty brands have focused on health-conscious and eco-friendly trends in recent years, eliminating harsh chemicals from their products to make them safer for human use. Sadly, certain hair care products are still behind in these efforts and are hurting people.
For years, hair care products targeting minorities, in particular black women, have been behind in safety regulations. Harsh and toxic chemicals, including phthalates and formaldehyde preservatives, which have links to deadly diseases like cancer, brain damage, and infertility, are still in use in many black hair products. Hair straightening products, including hair relaxers and perms, are the biggest proponents of this.
These chemicals are often hidden or labeled in terms that most customers, uneducated in the beauty industry, wouldn’t understand. This, among many other circumstances, has led to black women being one of the largest groups susceptible to preventable diseases and other illnesses in the United States. This is, unfortunately, another example of industries catering to black customers being rife with exploitation and mismanagement due to a long history of racism.
Black women should be able to use beauty products without raising the risk of disease. Beauty products should be safe for use regardless of one’s skin tone. For black hair products to improve, there needs to be more regulation, not less. Additionally, beauty brands should develop natural and healthy formulas that cater to black hair textures and offer better alternatives for those who wish to straighten their hair.
