Toxic Hair Products Are Being Marketed To Black Women | Unpack That

Black woman on any given day put tons of products in our hair do conditioners and leave-in conditioners, relaxers gel edge control. We don't just wake up like this, but looking this good could come with a steep price and I'm not talking about money, honey. Today'S baggage hazardous hair products, if we're talking black hair products, we got to talk about chemicals. No, this black folks have tremendous spending power. In fact, we spend about 1.2 trillion dollars a year on average y'all. This is 1.2 trillion dollars that we have to spend on stuff and when it comes to the ethnic hair market, we've got that one. A lot. In 2017, African Americans were responsible for 54 million of the 63 million dollars spent in the ethnic hair industry, and the black dollar is valued at 473 million dollars in the general hair care industry. But this should be no surprise. It'S pretty well known that for better or worse black women love to maintain their mane. Maybe it's because we've been indoctrinated with Eurocentric standards of beauty from before we could even comb our own hair straight hair was deemed beautiful. So for decades, black women spent much of their time and resources making sure that their hair met the standards fried dyed and laid to the side. But in the 1970s, the Black Power movement spread ideologies of Pride and self-love black woman, moved away from chemically straightened, hair and wear their hair, naturally, as an act of resistance. Today, you'll notice that there's a resurgence of the natural hair movement, we're embracing an array of textures and styles, but Garnier ain't cuttin it and we can keep the curls poppin. Hence then never-ending: hunt for the perfect haircare product with all the money that we pour into haircare and the shells of products we lather into our scalps. What does this mean for our health? Black women are the most overexposed and under protective to toxic chemicals and personal care products. This is more Sachin she's, the Environmental Research and policy manager at black woman wellness la a nonprofit that aims to promote the health and health services of her organization partnered, with the Silent Spring Institute for a 2016 study looking at 18 different hair products, their findings were Disturbing there are a lot of toxic chemicals in black women's hair products. To name a few one would be formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a carcinogen or a cancer-causing agent, and it is found quite often in Brazilian blowouts, as well as its off gassed from a lot of preservatives. Sodium calcium hydroxide are found in hair, perms or hair relaxers, and they can cause burns or lesions and let other toxic chemicals in your body through the burns regions. And lastly, I would say: ballots are a toxic chemical. These phthalates are hormone mimickers and they can impact your reproductive health depending on time of exposure. The study also found high concentrations of endocrine disruptors or chemicals that mimic hormones that naturally occur in our bodies in the various products. Endocrine disruptors are linked to health effects. Like reproductive disorders, early puberty, birth defects, asthma and cancer, some of the biggest offenders have been around forever and even have a sing in their jingles. Tell me if you know this one just for me is a hair relaxing kit, that's marketed to black girls and through the study we found that there were over nineteen, endocrine disrupting chemicals, fourteen developmental toxics and four carcinogens in these products marketed to black girls. According to black woman Wellness, girls, who used chemical hair oils, perms and even detanglers, were more likely to experience early puberty and get. This is not just the creamy crack. That'S toxic. The same study found that it's the baby bottle shampoos. It comes with a just for me, relaxer that had all the chemicals it's especially egregious because when you walk into stores just for me is found on the bottom shelf, which is easily accessible for young black girls. The packaging is really bright and colorful and it draws girls in the route we shot suggest for me for comment. They didn't respond. Hello does FDA, know anything about this. Yes, the FDA is well aware of all of the toxic chemicals found in these personal care products. The FDA doesn't regulate because they don't have the power or authority to determine what goes into products. So the FDA doesn't require manufacturers to register their products and they legally don't have the authority to approve cosmetic labels before they hit the market, but they do regulate. Products through a voluntary cosmetic registration program contains no sodium hydroxide. The hair care industry is well aware of black woman's desire to look good and buy up all the products. Black hair care is booming, but what happens when the industry doesn't have our best interests at heart when the products that our mainstay in our communities are layton? With Oxygen's, when companies to which we've been so loyal, betrayus, the reality is that were human beings and we're being taken advantage of there has to be a way to look good without putting our health at risk. After all, our hair is our crown, but our body is our temple, but my hair has been fried dyed and blow dry, I'm faithful years up here to wear and tear oh girl. What happened to your hair, oh girl, what happened to your hair? Oh girl,