Lawsuits have been filed by women who were diagnosed with endometriosis after using hair relaxers and other chemical hair-straightening products.
Need a Texas Hair Relaxer Endometriosis Lawyer? Collen A. Clark is a true advocate for his clients and is passionate about helping Texans that have been injured or wronged. If you or a loved one used hair relaxers and was diagnosed with endometriosis, uterine cancer, breast cancer, or uterine fibroids, you should contact our lawyers immediately. You may be entitled to compensation by filing a lawsuit.
Hair Relaxer Endometriosis Lawsuit Filed by Georgia Woman
In October 2022, a lawsuit was filed by KeAira G., a woman from Georgia who blames hair relaxers on her endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and other health problems.
According to the lawsuit, she started using hair relaxers in 1994 at the age of 6. She continued using them for the next 18 years.
In 2011, she was diagnosed with fibroids when she was only 22 years old, causing her to suffer “extremely heavy bleeding and excruciating pain during her periods,” according to the lawsuit.
During a surgery to remove the fibroids, she was also diagnosed with endometriosis. Other health problems soon followed, including a cyst on her ovary and fibroids that returned, along with severe pain and heavy bleeding.
Her lawsuit blames endocrine-disrupting chemicals in hair relaxers for causing her to develop endometriosis and uterine fibroids. She accuses the manufacturers of hair relaxers of failing to warn women about the potential risk of exposing themselves to toxic chemicals.
Her lawsuit was filed on October 26, 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia (Savannah Division) against L’Oreal, Strength of Nature Global LLC, Soft Sheen / Carson, and Namaste Laboratories — Case Number 4:22-cv-00256.
What Are Hair Relaxers?
Hair relaxers are products that are used every few months by millions of women to straighten hair that is naturally curly. Most of these products are do-it-yourself kits that women use at home, similar to hair dye kits. They contain a combination of harsh chemicals that are applied to the hair to break down proteins, making the hair smoother.
Many women also go to salons and pay stylists to apply chemical hair-straightening products, which are commercial products that are used in combination with high heat from a flat iron.
Toxic Chemicals in Hair Relaxers
Unfortunately, the chemicals in hair relaxers also commonly cause scalp burns, skin irritation, abrasions, and sores. The broken skin can allow toxic chemicals to get into the body. After years of routinely using hair relaxers, many women have developed severe side effects that studies now suggest may be linked to the chemicals in hair relaxers.
What is the Problem?
The problem is that many hair relaxers contain chemicals like parabens, phthalates, or known carcinogens like formaldehyde.
Some of these chemicals have endocrine-disrupting side effects, which means that they can mimic estrogen in the body. Researchers warn that these chemicals may increase the risk of hormone-sensitive cancers, such as uterine cancer or breast cancer, as well as women’s reproductive health issues like endometriosis and uterine fibroids.
Endometrial Cancer More Common in Black Women
The most common type of uterine cancer is endometrial cancer, which starts in the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus. Black women are more likely to develop endometrial cancer than white women. Black women are also twice as likely to die of endometrial cancer than white women because a proper diagnosis is often delayed until it is too late.
Popular Brand-Names of Hair Relaxers
- Ultra Precise
- Dark & Lovely
- Bantu
- Optimum
- Motions
- Just for Me
- ORS Olive Oil
- African Pride
- TCB Naturals
- Luster’s
- Africa’s Best
- Creme of Nature
- TCB
- Mizani Rhelaxer
- Soft & Beautiful
- Ultra Sheen Supreme
What is Endometriosis?
Endometriosis occurs when tissue that is similar to the lining of the uterus grows in other parts of the body. This commonly causes pain, heavy bleeding, and infertility.
What Causes Endometriosis?
The endometrium is the tissue that normally lines the inside of a woman’s uterus (or womb). Endometriosis occurs when cells that are similar to these endometrial cells grow in the wrong places.
This tissue is very hormone-sensitive and it acts like regular uterine tissue during a woman’s period — it breaks apart and bleeds.
The problem is that when the tissue is not inside the uterus, the blood and tissue have nowhere to go. This causes pain, swelling, inflammation, scarring, or lesions. Endometriosis can cause infertility, abnormally painful or heavy periods, and other debilitating symptoms.
Where Does Endometriosis Occur?
Endometriosis most commonly involves pelvic organs and tissues, such as the ovaries, fallopian tubes, the outside and back of the uterus, vagina, bladder, intestines, or the tissue that lines the abdomen (called the peritoneum). It can also occur in the chest.
Symptoms & Complications of Endometriosis
- Pain or discomfort
- Very painful menstrual cramps
- Heavy menstrual bleeding
- Infertility
- Problems getting pregnant
- Abnormal menstrual cycles or spotting in-between periods
- Pain during sexual intercourse
- Ovarian cysts
- Lesions
- Nodules
- Adhesions (abnormal tissue that sticks organs together)
- Scar tissue
- And more
Need a Hair Relaxer Endometriosis Lawyer in Texas?
Collen A. Clark is a true advocate for his clients and is passionate about helping Texans that have been injured or wronged.
Collen’s amazing success in the courtroom and well known dedication to his clients has earned him the recognition of his peers as one of The Top Trial Lawyers in Texas.”
The Clark Firm has assembled a team of trial lawyers with more than 100 years experience, participation in over 600 jury trials and $260 million in verdicts and/or settlements. Please use the form below to contact our law firm for a free case review.