Cosmetics company L’Oréal has come under fire over claims that its chemical hair-straightening products caused a woman uterine cancer. Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and others filed a lawsuit on behalf of 32-year-old Jenny Mitchell. They claim Mitchell’s uterine cancer “was directly and proximately caused by her regular and prolonged exposure to phthalates and other endocrine disrupting chemicals found in Defendants’ hair care products.” On Monday, counsel stated that this marks a “watershed moment” for women of color who used products such as relaxers.
During a press conference, Mitchell recalls getting relaxers at around eight. She was diagnosed with uterine cancer on August 10, 2018, and underwent a complete hysterectomy on September 24th, 2018. Mitchell continued using chemical-based hair-straightening products from 2000 until March 2022. According to Mitchell, there is no family history of cancer or uterine cancer.
At that time, at the age of 28, my dreams of becoming a mother were gone. As most young African-American girls, chemical relaxers AND chemical straighteners were introduced to us at a young age. Society has made it a norm to look a certain way in order to feel a certain way. And I am the first voice of many voices to come that will stand, stand up to these companies and say, ‘No more.’
Increased Risk from Hair-Straightening Products for Black Women
This isn’t the only lawsuit type out there. Two other individual cases have been filed in California and New York against cosmetic companies. All claimed a connection between chemical hair-straightening products and cancer diagnoses. In addition, Mitchell’s lawsuit comes just days after a published study about women who hair-straightening products have an increased risk of uterine cancer.
Unfortunately, Black women use these hair products more frequently than white women. “Black women have long been the victims of dangerous products specifically marketed to them,” Crump stated. “Black hair has been and always will be beautiful, but Black women have been told they have to use these products to meet society’s standards. We will likely discover that Ms. Mitchell’s tragic case is one of the countless cases in which companies aggressively misled black women to increase their profits.”
