A Gentler Way To Relax Hair

Consumers, Beware

Hair relaxers generally fall into two categories: lye and no-lye. Lye relaxers contain sodium hydroxide, which is also used to make soap and strip paint. Most no-lye relaxers contain calcium hydroxide, which is also used to treat water and sewage, and guanidine carbonate, which is also used for hair removal.

When researchers at the Boston University-based Black Women's Health study were looking to understand why black women younger than 45 have a higher incidence of breast cancer than white women, they looked to use of chemical hair relaxers for a possible explanation. But they found no evidence to support that.

The researchers found that between 1997 and 2003, 574 women of the more than 48,000 in the study developed breast cancer, but there was no correlation between relaxer use and the illness. Women who had never used the products were found to have the same breast cancer risk as those who did.

Even as the ingredient lists change for some of the straighteners and other hair and body products, and manufacturers emphasize the words "organic" and "natural," Stacy Malkan of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said consumers should beware.

"We have seen companies reformulating products as natural products, but it is very confusing because there are no legal standards as far as using the words 'organic' or 'natural' in marketing hair and body products," Malkan said. "You have to do your own research."

Toya Smith Marshall, 30, who used chemical relaxers for 18 years, said she has learned that lesson. She no longer chemically straightens her hair; since she began styling it herself, she has begun reading labels closely to find out exactly what she is putting onto her scalp.

"I don't fall prey to the labeling, because in order to straighten your hair, [the product] has to break your hair down," she said. "That's why it stings and burns. There's no way to make that healthy for you."

Smith Marshall, who lives in Baltimore and writes about her hair and cosmetics use on her blog Life of a Lady Bug, said she has learned that her hair does not respond well to products containing alcohols, sodium lauryl or sulfates.

Driven by savvy consumers such as Smith Marshall, the shifts in hair and body products seem to be continuing. Earlier this year, Whole Foods came out with a "Premium Body Care" seal to promote products that do not contain any of 300 ingredients that a group of chemists and body care experts working with the grocer determined could have negative health effects and/or cause harm to the environment. The list of unacceptable components includes many found in traditional straightening products, such as parabens, polypropylene and polyethylene glycols, sodium lauryl and laureth sulfates.

A Personal Choice

At Salon Revive, near the District's U Street corridor, owners Hiwot Aberra and Yodit Girma try to direct customers to plant-based products such as Aveda's hair care line. But they also offer traditional sodium-based relaxers. Customers who hesitate to switch over usually worry that the natural product will not be effective, Aberra said.

"I've seen hair that has been absolutely destroyed by a relaxer," she said. "It's the industry we're in, [so] we don't refuse service to customers who want [traditional] relaxers, but we give them the alternative options first."

Depending on the client's hair, she recommends straightening by using heat from blow dryers and flat irons, relying less on chemical relaxers.

Coney said she likes wearing her hair straight and plans to continue relaxing it, though her boyfriend sometimes nags her about using chemical straighteners. He would rather she switch to 100 percent natural products, but she sees it as a personal preference.

"I probably wouldn't relax my child's hair," she said, "not because of the chemicals, but because I don't want to hear [my boyfriend's] mouth."

Comments: thompsonk@washpost.com.