Arizona Is Suing L’Oréal Over Cancer-Causing Ingredients in Hair Relaxers
The state’s attorney general accuses the company of consumer fraud for selling hair relaxers without disclosing their health risks
On Friday, Sept. 11, Arizona’s attorney general announced that her office had filed a lawsuit against SoftSheen-Carson and its parent company, L’Oréal USA, alleging consumer fraud over its sale of chemical hair relaxer products. The complaint, filed Thursday in state court, argues that the beauty product company has sold hair relaxers like Dark & Lovely, Optimum, Mizani, and others, without disclosing the health risks their toxic ingredients pose.
The complaint cites scientific research going back to the 1990s correlating frequent use of hair relaxers with a higher risk of uterine and ovarian cancer. It alleges that, since the 1970s, L’Oréal has sold hair relaxers it depicted as safe and gentle, without health warnings, “demonstrating a callous disregard for the health of Arizona consumers, particularly women of African descent.”
These products were mainly marketed to Black women, and often to Black children and adolescents. Early exposure to carcinogens and endocrine-disrupting chemicals—like phthalates, parabens, formaldehyde, and heavy metals—has been linked to an elevated risk of harm.
As Consumer Reports and others have reported, L’Oréal is just one of many hair relaxer manufacturers and retailers involved in a massive lawsuit brought by over 12,000 women who say that their use of hair relaxer products led to their ovarian or uterine cancers. Some of the cases were filed or are now being pursued by family members of women who have since died.
