Hair

More Bad News for Brazilian Blowouts

The latest issue of Essence magazine features a new warning for the hair straightening system known as the Brazilian Blowout. I recounted my introduction to Brazilian Blowouts in my video, Thanks & Brazilian Blowouts, and even discussed my reservations about the process. Now thanks to new data, my reservations and skepticism about the safety of the process have been confirmed.

According to the article, "Osha Warns About Brazilian Blowouts,"
the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a hazard alert to hair salons about potential formaldehyde exposure from working with Brazilian Blowout and othr hair-smoothing products. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, and although some may follow the old adage, "Beauty is pain," is having straight hair worth risking one's health? For those of you who have yet to pick up the September issue of Essence, here are snippets of the article:

The warning confirmed an initial investigation done by Oregon OSHA last fall, in which they sampled 105 various hair-smoothing products from 54 salons. Thirty-seven samples came from Brazilian Blowout Acai Professional Smoothing Solution, and they were found to have formaldehyde levels averaging 8.8%, even though they were labeled formaldehyde-free.

Protect yourself by banning straighteners with these: methylene glycol, formalin, methylene oxide, paraform, formic aldehyde, methanol, oxomethane, oxymethylene, or CAS Number 50-00-0.

So, to those of you who swore that there was indeed a formaldehyde-free version, you may want to rethink how you go about achieving straight hair. Your health is the most valuable thing in the world, and no beauty treatment is worth risking it.