Sunday, April 17, 2011

Straightening Hair Bad for Your Health

Out with the curly, and in with the straight.  Straight hair seems to be all the rage in the hairstyle department nowadays, and women are going to great lengths to get it.  Even risking their health.  The recently popular form of straightening hair, known as the Brazilian Blowout, is apparently bad for your health.  According to Time.com, "the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a hazard alert on April 11 warning hair salon owners and workers about potential exposure to formaldehyde from using some hair smoothing and straightening products, including the Brazilian Blowout brand. (Formaldehyde helps bind keratin to hair, straightening it.)"

OSHA, responding to complaints from workers, "found evidence of dangerously high levels of formaldehyde in the air of salons using these hair-straightening products — even though the products are often listed as 'formaldehyde free.' The agency also found evidence of allergic reactions by workers and clients to the products, including nosebleeds and eye irritation."
"OSHA recommends that salon owners use products that do not contain formaldehyde, methylene glycol, formalin, methylene oxide, paraform, formic aldehyde, methanal, oxomethane, oxymethylene or Chemical Abstract Service Number 50-00-0. But that won't always be easy for workers — personal care products sold to salons and other professional hair-care services aren't always required to list their ingredients. 'Workers may not even know what's in the products they're using,' says Alexandra Gorman Scranton, director of science and research at Women's Voices for the Earth and a co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics."

Apparently looking good isn't always as great as it seems.  As someone with curly hair and a greater desire to sleep in in the mornings instead of waking up to look good, I say it's not worth it.  Your health is much too valuable to put at risk just because you want your hair straightened for a couple of hours.

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