Hey everyone, we’re just stopping by the blog quickly to say a big big thank you to everyone who supported our My Haircare Nightmare crowdfunding campaign. We really appreciate all your support and although we didn’t meet our target we were overwhelmed by all your kind words and encouragement – thank you!

Not only did we get some lovely emails and messages on social media, the media also picked up on our campaign and really got behind it. You can view some of the media coverage below:

• African Voice: Documentary to reveal effects of hair products in black women
• Black Hair Magazine:  Author Tola Okogwu launches campaign to kickstart black haircare documentary
• Natural Hair Weekly: My Haircare Nightmare
• Ariatu Public Relations:  Are Hair Products for Black Women Safe
• FabAfriq: Are Hair Products for Black Women Safe?
• The Voice Newspaper:  Support This Documentary
• Afrocks: Interview Of Blogger, Writer And Hair Coach Tola Okogwu Who Is Crowdfunding To create Documentary About Hair Products For Black Women

In case you missed our crowd funding campaign, we’ve teamed up with Tola Okogwu of My Long Hair Journey and filmmaker Sheila Marshall to answer the question: Are Black Hair Care Products Safe? Through a documentary we aim to highlight the recent research which showed that 80% of black hair products tested contain endocrine disrupting chemicals and ingredients linked to asthma. Although we haven’t raised all the funds we need just yet, we’re still fired up and ready to turn our dream into reality and are exploring other funding opportunities.

We’ll keep you informed of our next steps and for those of you who donated, your perks will be with you in due course.

Have a great week!

 

 

We are absolutely delighted to announce that the My Hair Care Nightmare Documentary Crowd Funding campaign is kicking off on Monday 3rd September, and we’d absolutely love for you to be involved.

We’ve teamed up with Tola Okogwu of My Long Hair Journey and filmmaker Sheila Marshall to answer the question: Are Black Hair Care Products Safe? We aim to highlight the recent research which showed that 80% of black hair products tested contain endocrine disrupting chemicals and ingredients linked to asthma.

Our goal is to educate and empower women caring for Afro textured hair so they can make an informed decision about the products they choose to buy and use. The film also seeks to highlight alternative and safer brands so that consumers realise they have options.

We’d very much appreciate you supporting our crowd funding campaign by making a donation and helping us spread the word so we can raise the funds to make this film a reality.  We want to make a big splash and create a buzz this week.  If you can please post about the campaign on your social media platforms and let your networks know, that would be great. We started a hashtag #MyHaircareNightmare where people can share their hair and product stories.

The link to our Indiegogo Campaign Page is https://igg.me/at/myhaircarenightmare

We’ve included some images and videos in the Dropbox folder below. Please use #myhaircarenightmare and tag us @myhaircarenightmare (Instagram) and @myhaircarenigh1(twitter).

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ek76ijvmyx8hzej/AADUvB3z4Vrz70lLdSkLzrXra?dl=0

Don’t have time to create a post? Have no fear, below are some suggested posts.

• Are your hair care products safe? My Haircare Nightmare documentary aims to find out. Support @myhaircarenightmare (Instagram)/ @myhaircarenigh1 (twitter) Indiegogo campaign to help make this film happen. https://bit.ly/2NwnOJm #MyHaircareNightmare #HaircareNightmare

 

• We’re supporting @myhaircarenightmare (Instagram)/ @myhaircarenigh1 (twitter) indiegogo campaign because 80% of hair products marketed at black women contain potentially harmful ingredients. Be part of the REVOLUTION by giving at https://bit.ly/2NwnOJm. #MyHaircareNightmare #HaircareNightmare

Want to have a bit more fun? Then share your #HaircareNightmare story.

–       Tag your friends, nominate other people. Help us to get the conversation going
–       Your post could make all the difference

What We Know

Research published in April in Environmental Research found that 80% of black hair products in this study contain endocrine disrupting (EDC) and asthma-associated chemicals. A second study published in 2017 by researchers at Rutgers University found a link between breast cancer and the use of hair dyes and relaxers and a research study published in 2012 identified a small link between fibroids and relaxers.

We surveyed 215 black women and 86% of respondents were very concerned and 13% of women were concerned about the main conclusion of the study published in April.

63% of women in our survey stated they didn’t feel able to identify the chemicals, that researchers stated may be cause for concern, and a further 30% stated that they can only sometimes identify these chemicals.

The most recent Nielson Beauty & Personal Care Report stated that black women spend nearly nine-times more than their non-black counterparts on hair products, demonstrating a high quantity of product consumption, which means exposure to any chemicals could be high and long-term.

More Information

We really appreciate your support! Let’s make a difference and once and for all get to the bottom of this issue. For more information please email info@lakehealthandwellebing.com and you can also sign up to the My Haircare Nightmare mailing list here

Looking For Organic Black Hair Products?

Check these brands out:

Afrocenchix
Almocado 
Camille Rose Naturals
Pure Goodnes
Root2Tip
Shea Butter Cottage
Shea Decadence
Yaphene
CARA B Naturally – Natural Products for African American babies

And view some more on Amazon – Organic Black Hair Products

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Disclosure: this post contains an affiliate link. Find out more here

 

We love collaborations and are so delighted to have teamed up with the family business Almocado for our upcoming fibroids self-care webinar series.  As a sponsor of our webinar series Almocado will be offering those who attend our webinars a 20% discount on their hair and body products – yay!

About Almocado

Almocado is a small family-run business based in the UK who we discovered several years ago. Almocado was founded in April 2010 and create artisan hair products for curls, kinks and coils which are handmade with love, you can tell by the way each order is packaged with care – sometimes a surprising free sample is included or a note that expresses that love – we really appreciate their personal touches.

Not only do they create hair products, but their collection includes skincare products and they are certified Sisterlocks consultants.

The founder and CEO of Almocado is the lovely Annette Clark-Headley who is very warm and friendly and has a truly inspirational story.

Annette is a British-Barbadian who graduated from the very prestigious Cambridge University and started her career in the fast-paced world of investment banking. It was during this time that she started exploring holistic therapies becoming passionate about wellness and stress management which led her to receive training in this area.

 

“In a nutshell, the company was birthed to fulfil a desire I have to provide holistic solutions (hair care, skin care, emotional & physical wellbeing) to the community.” – Annette Clark-Headley

Not long after starting Almocado, in July 2010, Annette was diagnosed with Alopecia Totali and by October 2010 she was completely bald. This was a difficult time for Annette personally and professionally, and professionally she was deeply concerned about whether her business would survive – could someone bald succeed in the hair industry? Annette rose to the challenge and refused to let her baldness act as a barrier to her business success and continued to spread the message of love and acceptance as the basis for cultivating healthy hair.

As an Oxbridge graduate she utilised her research and analysis skills to identify effective natural ingredients and by bringing together nature and science she has created products of the highest quality that have made her business an award-winning one.

Why Almocado?

We love Almocado and teamed up with them for a number of reasons. Firstly, they are a brand that truly cares about the health and wellbeing of their customers – their products are hand-made, paraben free, natural and organic.  In addition, their products are safety assessed and meet the stringent EU regulations. All of this means that their products don’t contain endocrine disrupting chemicals which many women with fibroids are keen to avoid.

Furthermore, the genuine interest the team at Almocado have in their customers’ wellbeing means they regularly host open-house events at their studio so they remain attuned to the needs of they customers, we also like that they go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure their customers are satisfied and it’s nice to see that they donate a percentage of their sales to Alopecia UK.

We just really like that love is the foundation of their business, and it’s genuine, as it is evident in everything they do.

Products We Love

We’ve been using Almocado’s products for quite a few years now and our two favourite products are their Avocado Honey Hair Milk and their Cherry Vanilla Moisture Mist

Avocado Honey Hair Milk

The product description states that:

“This luscious easily absorbed treatment is what your precious coils have been crying out for. Rich in moisturising soy lecithin and honey and packed with Pro-vitamin B and Silk Protein, the Triple Treat Moisture Milk strengthens, moisturises, improves manageability and reduces breakage while delivering botanical extracts and nutrients to the hair shaft.”

We can attest to this, this is a great moisturiser leaving our hair feeling soft and hydrated.  Once we purchase it, we pretty much use it daily, but since moving to St Kitts it’s harder for us to get products shipped to us so we’ve been rationing our last order!

Cherry Vanilla Moisture Mist

On Almocado’s website they say about this product:

“Think of this as a conditioning berry-tastic hair tea! Carefully blended with natural Aloe Vera and herbal extracts to refresh and hydrate without feeling sticky or greasy.”

All we can say about this fantastic hair mist is: wow! It smells divine and is perfect for adding some much-needed moisture to kinky hair. It’s just beautiful, we think of this product as a special treat for our hair and try to savour every drop of it. This product has the added benefit, for us at least, of having an aromatherapy effect, the smell just relaxes and soothes us…hmmm.

Thank you

We’d like to say a big thank you to Annette for supporting our webinar series, we’re so grateful. We’d also just like to thank and acknowledge her for being such an inspiration and fantastic role model for black women in business. She does business the right way, with kindness, dedication, excellence and integrity; we applaud her and wish her continued success with her business.

More Information

You can find out more about Almocado on their website here.

You can find out more about our webinar series and sign up to the first session on fibroids, diet and hormones led by Le’Nise Brothers, the founder of Eat Love Move, on our website here

Back in November 2017 we published a blog post where we summarised research on hair dyes, relaxers and breast cancer, and (sigh) we’re sorry to say we’re back here again writing about black hair products and their harmful effects.

A couple of weeks ago the results from another research study was published and this showed that 80% of black hair products contain endocrine disrupting and asthma causing chemicals. Endocrine disrupting chemicals are of concern as some studies have linked these chemicals to hormone-related health conditions including breast cancer and fibroids.

Latest Research

On 25^th April 2018, researchers from the Silent Spring Institute and Battelle Memorial Institute in the USA published the results from their study which investigated the endocrine disrupting and asthma-associated chemical content of black hair products. They tested 18 black hair products that cut across 6 types of products. These included hot oil treatments, anti-frizz/polish, leave-in conditioners, root stimulators, hair lotions and relaxers. Within these products they tested for the presence of 66 chemicals including BPA, phthalates (a solvent) and parabens (a preservative).

What Did They Find?

Researchers found that the black hair products tested contained 45 endocrine disrupting or asthma-associated chemicals. They stated that they found cyclosiloxanes (used for conditioning and spreadability), parabens and the fragrance marker diethyl phthalate (DEP) at the highest levels, and DEP most frequently in these products.

In their study, root stimulators, hair lotions and relaxers more frequently contained nonylphenols, parabens and fragrances whilst anti-frizz products tended to contain cyclosiloxanes.  Worryingly hair relaxers for children contained five chemicals that are regulated by California’s Proposition 65 or were prohibited from being used in the EU.

What we found particularly disturbing was that ingredients lists were incomplete, meaning that the researchers found chemicals in the products that were not listed on product labels. This is disturbing because many women do try to avoid chemicals such as parabens, but researchers found that butyl and ethyl paraben were never listed on labels and 12% of products with methyl paraben didn’t include this on their label. This is extremely misleading and means that women can’t make an informed choice about the products they purchase. Other chemicals that were frequently not included on ingredients lists were fragrance chemicals and cyclosiloxanes.

You can listen to  Dr. Jessica Helm from the Silent Spring Institute and Tola Okogwu from My Long Hair Journey discuss this latest study in the video below.

California’s Proposition 65 and EU Regulation

There are regulations in place to protect consumers and deter manufactures from including chemicals that are hazardous to our health in their products. Two such regulations are Proposition 65 and the European Union Cosmetics Directive.

California’s Proposition 65, more formally known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, aims to “help Californians make informed decisions about protecting themselves from chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.” By law, all businesses selling products to people in California must ensure clear and reasonable warnings are included on items that contain harmful chemicals so that people are aware that they will be exposed these chemicals. Some chemicals that are regulated by Prop 65 are o-phenylphenol, BPA, phthalate, ethanolamine and benzophenone.  Businesses don’t have to include any warnings if the chemicals are at concentrations that don’t pose a health risk. Now, in this current study,  it was found that even though two no-lye hair relaxers for children contained a Prop 65 regulated chemical, no warnings were included, and researchers made the point that these would not meet the Prop 65 labelling requirements.

The EU Cosmetics Directive states that all cosmetic products sold in the EU must be safe and they prohibit the inclusion of chemicals in products that have been shown to cause cancer, female reproductive toxicity and developmental toxicity. Some of the compounds prohibited by the EU include BPA, phthalate, alkylphenol and ethanolamine. In this study, some products were found to contain products prohibited by EU law – BPA, phthalate, nonylphenol and diethanolamine. So these products would not be fit for sale in the EU.

What Can We Do?

Well… ladies, we must demand better from brands. We must see what we can do to get companies to remove these chemicals from their products. In the meantime, we have to be very selective and only buy from brands that sell products that are safe, but this can be hard to do if brands are not listing all the chemicals in their products on their labels.

 Here are some brands that we use, or have used in the past, and we believe are safe, but we recommend that you do your research too.

Afrocenchix
Almocado
Camille Rose Naturals
Pure Goodnes
Root2Tip
Shea Butter Cottage
Shea Decadence
Yaphene

Finally, we are currently in discussions with the team behind My Long Hair Journey to see what we can do to start addressing this problem. We’ll keep you updated and let you know how these discussions go. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts on this topic. How do you feel about this new piece of research and are you concerned about the hair products that you use?

More Information

You can download the full research paper below as well as the study’s supplementary material which lists the brands tested in this study and information about EU regulation and California’s Prop 65. And, you can purchase some of the products from the brands listed above on Amazon below.

 

 

Over the years there have been numerous questions and concern about the impact chemicals in hair products have on our health. This concern has been heightened in the black community for some time, particularly with respect to relaxers (chemical hair straighteners).

Several studies have been conducted exploring if there is a link between hair products and fibroids, cancer and other conditions, but these have been inconclusive. When a link has been shown researchers have been cautious explaining that association doesn’t mean causation – i.e. they couldn’t prove that relaxers actually contribute to the development of fibroids or cancer and therefore they all recommended that more research should be conducted.

Latest Research

In June of this year, researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey published the results from their research into specific hair products and whether their use is associated with an increase in breast cancer risk.  In this study, researchers looked at 4,285 African America and white women; 2,280 had breast cancer and 2,005 didn’t. The study compared those with breast cancer to those who didn’t have breast cancer to determine if differences existed that may  be linked to breast cancer risk.   The women were aged 20-75 and were from New York City and ten counties n New Jersey.

The study aimed to determine if hair dyes, relaxers and deep conditioners containing cholesterol or placenta were associated with an increased risk in developing breast cancer. In order to explore this researchers collected vast amounts of data on the women who took part in the study. This included socio-demographic data and their exposure to known risk factors such as family and personal history of breast cancer, smoking, alcohol consumption and more. They also asked participants about their use of the previously mentioned hair products, what shade of dye they used and  how long they used these products for.

What did they find?

The researchers found that for African American women there was a 51% increase in their risk of developing breast cancer among those who used dark brown or black hair dye. They also found that in African American women there was a 72% increase in oestrogen-positive breast cancers amongst those who used dark brown or black dyes and a 36% increase in oestrogen-positive breast cancers in those who used dyes more frequently.

In white women they found a 74% increase in breast cancer risk in those who used relaxers and a large increase in risk in women who used both relaxers and hair dyes. They also found that use of hair dyes resulted in a 54% increase in risk of developing oestrogen-positive breast cancers whilst relaxer use caused a 2.6 fold increase in oestrogen-negative breast cancers.

There was no link between deep conditioners and breast cancer.

What does this mean?

The researchers concluded that “these novel findings support a relationship between the use of some hair products and breast cancer.”

When speaking about their work, lead author of the research paper, Adana Llanos said

“Just because we found these associations doesn’t mean that if you dye your hair dark, or any colour, you’re going to get breast cancer, but at the same time, the study points to something else we should be mindful of.”

The results exposed a significant association with oestrogen-positive breast cancers so the current hypothesis is that the dyes may contain chemical compounds that are similar to oestrogen or stimulate pathways that cause the production of oestrogen. It was hard to determine this as women in the study weren’t asked what brands of products they used so researchers couldn’t explore the actual chemicals within these products that women were exposed to. But Alana Llanos said:

      “There must be some role for oestrogen for sure.”

Her research team recognise that there were limitations to the study and that further work is needed to truly understand the link between hair products and breast cancer risk.

Our Thoughts

The Lake Foundation is pleased to see more research in this area being conducted and this work needs to continue until we have a definitive answer as to whether hair products affect our health or not. In the meantime, we would advise that women take a look at this research and make an informed decision as to whether they should continue using hair dyes and relaxers.  We always say  people should exercise caution in the use of products where there is found to be a credible association with cancer, or any disease, until a clear answer can be provided on whether that association means that a particular product contributes to the development of a disease.

More Information

You can read the full research paper for this study here

Fibroids are very common in black women with an estimated 55% of black women expected to develop them. This is significantly more common than in white women with black women being 2-3 times more likely to develop fibroids than their white counterparts.

The reason that fibroids are more common in black women is not fully understood but it is thought to be a combination of genetic and lifestyle factors.

The quest to understand why fibroids are more common in black women is an ongoing one, and one area that was explored a couple of years ago by researchers at Boston University was whether relaxers (chemical hair straighteners) increase a women’s risk of developing fibroids.

Relaxers are seemingly a good place to start when it comes to identifying factors that put black women at a higher risk of developing fibroids. This is a product that is specifically used by black women and is used by millions of us worldwide.  But, more importantly, as fibroids can be stimulated by the hormones oestrogen and progesterone and relaxers are known to contain chemicals that behave like hormones (phthalates), then logically we can hypothesise that use of relaxers may have an impact of the development of fibroids.

As part of the Black Women’s Health Study in the US, researchers explored whether relaxers may play a part in the development of fibroids. This study included 23,580 black women from across the US and they found a very slight increase (17% increase) in the rate of fibroids when women who  used relaxers were compared with women who had never used relaxers. They also found that there was a slightly positive trend when they looked at how often people used relaxers, how long and how many relaxer burns they experienced. So for example women who had used relaxers for more than seven years had the highest rate of fibroids, but this was still only slightly higher (23% higher) than women who never used relaxers.

Looking at this we could say that the findings suggest that relaxers may play a part in the development of fibroids but when you delve deeper it is harder to say for sure. Firstly, the study shows an association between fibroids and relaxers it doesn’t actually confirm that relaxers cause fibroids. Also, researchers found through DNA testing that black women with more African ancestry used relaxers more than those with more European ancestry and once they took ancestry into account there was less of a link between fibroids and relaxers. What this means is that the association between relaxers and fibroids in this study may have had nothing to do with the relaxers  playing a part in the development of fibroids but it was actually the degree of African ancestry that is the important factor.

The researchers therefore stated that:

“ We cannot rule out the possibility that greater African ancestry, thought to increase genetic predisposition to uterine leiomyomata  (fibroids), explains part or all of the observed association”.

Additionally, researchers didn’t have any information on the brands of relaxers women used or the exact chemicals that women would have been exposed to and how much they were exposed to. This makes it hard to say if women were in fact exposed to the hormone-like chemicals that are of concern when it comes to fibroids.

The take home message is that relaxers probably do not play a major role in the development of fibroids and if they do their impact is very small.  It would appear that the main risk factor is African Ancestry.

We do know that there are some lifestyle factors that can reduce a women’s risk of fibroids. These include exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, reducing your red meat consumption and eating a diet high in green vegetables.  So, we can all reduce our risk by adopting a healthy lifestyle

You can read the original research paper from the Black Women’s Health Study below.