How safe are braids and synthetic hair extensions? A recent study from the United States is the latest to raise concerns, claiming to have detected cancer-causing agents in 100% of the products tested.
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00:00Imagine having natural hair that is constantly judged.
00:03As a black woman myself, I know a thing or two about the struggles that black women face.
00:08Maintaining an afro is a difficult task, and so many women resort to going for braids.
00:14But synthetic hair is generally woven into braids to make them longer, fuller and more stable.
00:20And that, as it turns out, could pose a problem.
00:22Consumer Reports is a US-based non-profit that works to inform consumers
00:27about the quality and authenticity of goods and services sold in the country,
00:31and it recently uncovered a potential danger to black women in America.
00:35The organization tested 10 popular brands of synthetic hair products
00:39and found they contained heavy metals and volatile organic compounds.
00:43We found a number of the samples had cadmium, but at low levels.
00:47But 9 out of the 10 products had lead, and the lead was at a concentration that concerned us.
00:54Consumer Reports also found benzene, an aggressive chemical that is regulated in the United States
01:00because it's been closely linked to cancer.
01:03But how exactly do these chemicals enter the body?
01:06One is oral, so between you're handling it, it's brittle, it's on your hand,
01:13you touch your mouth, you eat your meals, etc. That's one.
01:17Another one is called dermal or transdermal, where the hair is laying on the skin,
01:24and heat, humidity, etc. can cause, for instance, lead to migrate from that product into your skin.
01:33And then there's inhalation.
01:35The testing was built on a commentary by Crystal Thomas,
01:38a student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
01:42She went to a stylist to have her braids done using a popular brand of synthetic hair.
01:46Then, things grew very unpleasant.
01:49I had trouble breathing, I realized my throat was tightening up,
01:53and it got so bad that I would get up in the middle of the night and wash my hair multiple times.
02:01Experiencing constant discomfort, she removed the braids and set out to research possible health issues
02:07tied to braiding hair as part of her public health coursework.
02:10After learning what ingredients are in braids, I thought,
02:14OK, I don't want to just keep this as coursework, I want to take this to the next level
02:18and publish it in a commentary to have more research into this area.
02:22Because I want a conversation about this now.
02:24The study has had an impact across the country.
02:28With all this stuff coming out, I feel like I need to embrace my natural hair more
02:32so that I can just stray away from all of this chemical stuff.
02:37Do you think that this, at one point in time, will impact black women, even in the workplace,
02:42or black women who have no time to do their hair?
02:45I think it already is. It's already happening.
02:48It's why the study probably was done in the first place,
02:51because somebody noticed that something was wrong.
02:54Maybe they noticed that their hair was itchy whenever they got braids,
02:58or they started to break out whenever their hair touched their face or their body.
03:03We definitely need to do more research.
03:05I feel like we're a group that's been overlooked, or maybe not as researched or studied,
03:11because we're not as valued in the same way in some spaces,
03:14and so I don't know that we know all there is to know.
03:16But at the same time, I have synthetic hair, and it's easier for me to maintain my hair this way,
03:20so I don't know that I'm going to stop tomorrow.
03:22In the wake of the study, many black women in America are now embracing plant-based alternatives.
03:28For our material, the very first step in the process is a plant.
03:35It could be sugarcane, cassava, sugar beets, corn.
03:41That is the very first step of the process. You harvest that.
03:46With the synthetic hair that we have been using for decades on the market,
03:52the very first step is drilling a hole into the ground to extract oil.
03:59For many black women, braids made from synthetic hair have been a popular choice.
04:04However, the new research raises doubts about whether they will continue using it in the future.