Price of Beauty: The Link Between Women of Color and Carcinogenic Chemicals

The U.S. is behind the rest of the world when it comes to regulating toxic chemicals in beauty products: At least 80 other countries have enacted more stringent regulations on chemicals in cosmetics than the US. For example, the European Union has banned or restricted more than 2,400 chemicals in cosmetics, while the US has banned or restricted just 9 chemicals. As a result, harmful chemicals that are banned in cosmetics elsewhere regularly show up on ingredient lists for products sold here, including substances that can raise our cancer risk.

Studies have shown that women of color use more products on their hair and skin each day than their white counterparts, and that products marketed to women of color tend to be more toxic, and are more likely to contain chemicals associated with increased cancer risk compared to products marketed to white women.

This is particularly true for hair straighteners and relaxers. A study by the National Institutes of Health found that women who used chemical hair straightening products had a higher risk for uterine cancer compared to women who did not. Hair straighteners have also been linked to increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer.

Relaxers and hair straighteners often contain endocrine disrupting chemicals — substances that interrupt our bodies’ natural hormonal processes and are linked to numerous health problems, including reproductive health issues and increased cancer risk.

Harmful chemicals found in hair products that are marketed to women of color include formaldehyde, heavy metals, phthalates, parabens, bisphenol A, ammonium thioglycolate, dimethyl sulfoxide, cyclosiloxanes, and diethanolamine. Harmful chemicals found in cosmetics and other types of hair products include asbestos, hydroquinone, polyethylene glycol, and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a.k.a. “Forever chemicals”).

There are a few simple steps women of color can take to avoid exposure to these chemicals.

The first is shifting away from professional straighteners and relaxers to more natural/traditional hairstyles that require fewer products containing harmful chemicals to maintain.

The second is upgrading to nontoxic beauty products at home. If it feels overwhelming to throw everything away and start over, a more gradual approach may be helpful: Whenever you’re about to run out of something you use regularly, like hair gel or makeup, use that as an opportunity to make a nontoxic upgrade.

Scanning ingredient lists can be tricky because not all harmful ingredients are listed. For example, carcinogenic formaldehyde isn’t always listed, but it can form when other common ingredients in hair products combine and are heated during styling. Rather than trying to meticulously check ingredient lists, it’s generally easier to find products that a trustworthy third party has verified as nontoxic.

BLK + GRN is an online store featuring only non-toxic products made by Black-owned businesses. Other tools that make it easy to find nontoxic products include the Healthy Living App, Clearya, and MadeSafe.

Common ingredients in sunscreen can also raise our cancer risk. One quick, easy switch is skipping sunscreen with oxybenzone, homosalate, and avobenzone. These are endocrine-disrupting chemicals get absorbed through our skin. It’s also important to get a sunscreen that protects against both UVA and UVB rays. UVB rays cause visible sunburns, but UVA rays can still cause wrinkles and skin cancer. That’s especially true for anyone with darker skin. If you don’t burn easily, you might not need UVB protection, but you still need UVA protection.

While these tools and swaps can help, it isn’t fair to put the burden of figuring all of this out onto women of color. We also need to address the social and cultural norms that are driving this problem.

The lingering effects of systemic racism contribute to the ongoing popularity of these products. Historically, white colonizers and enslavers used real or perceived racial differences like skin color and hair texture to treat Black women as less than human, so having hair that more closely resembled the natural hair texture of many white women became a survival tool.

Later, workplace bans on traditional hair styles for Black women became common in workplaces. In 2022, a federal law prohibiting workplaces from banning these hairstyles was proposed, but it didn’t pass. Nearly half of all US states still allow these types of policies, and because of lingering systemic racism, even when there’s not an official ban, it’s often considered “more professional” for Black women to have straight hair in the workplace.

Ultimately, we need to challenge these harmful beauty norms and push our lawmakers to develop better chemical regulations in the US. It’s long past time for America to catch up to the rest of the world — we all deserve to feel confident that any product we can buy at the store is safe.

Contributor and Expert:

Kristina Marusic is an award-winning journalist at Environmental Health Sciences who covers environmental health and justice at EHN.org and DailyClimate.org. Her research into cancer-causing chemicals and exposures lead to her new book, A New War on Cancer: The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing Prevention (Island Press / May 11, 2023 / $28). Kristina holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of San Francisco, and her personal essays and reporting have been published by outlets including CNN, Slate, Vice, Women's Health, The Washington Post, MTV News, The Advocate, and Bustle, among others.