AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The hair salon might seem like a safe space socially speaking, but unfortunately, not when it comes to dangerous chemicals lurking in popular treatments. There's been a number of studies on the toxic chemicals in some hair straighteners and relaxers, but a new study shows that some hair extensions also contain harmful chemicals in higher levels than previously thought. Research scientist Elissia Franklin is the lead author of that study at the Silent Spring Institute, and she joins me now. Welcome to the program.
ELISSIA FRANKLIN: Thank you so much for having me.
RASCOE: Tell us a bit about what you found in these hair extensions.
FRANKLIN: Yeah. So we started off with just wanting to understand the chemical composition of the hair extensions overall. So across all the samples that we tested, we found over 900 chemicals in total, but we did want it to narrow down and understand how many of these actually can potentially cause harm in humans, and so we identified 48 chemicals of health concern. For example, we found multiple phthalates. So this is a category of chemicals that is often found in consumer products, and they are known hormone disruptors and have been associated with things like reproductive issues or infertility and birth defects.
RASCOE: Silent Spring Institute focuses on researching the links between chemicals and women's health, so you've likely seen a lot of things like this may be uncovered, but were you surprised by any of the findings in your study?
FRANKLIN: Yeah, so the larger idea of there being chemicals of health concern in these hair extensions did not surprise us. But one category of chemicals that did stand out to us was this category called organotin compounds, and these stood out to us because they are not typically found in consumer products generally. And so to find them in a product that's used so intimately - it's sitting on your scalp, it's on your neck - and these are chemicals that have been associated with cancer and endocrine disruption.
RASCOE: And so when you talk about hair extensions, are you talking about human hair extensions? Are you talking about the kind that you use to braid into your hair? There are different kinds - the clip-ins, the sew-ins.
FRANKLIN: All of the above. So we...
RASCOE: All of the above. OK.
FRANKLIN: We expanded our study beyond synthetic braiding hair, which I know especially Black women have been really raising concern about for a while just because of some of the labeling. Like, it's - it'll say something like flame retardant. And we know that flame retardant chemicals are associated with different bad health outcomes, right? But we expanded this study to look at human hair, and even we tested a silk-based eyelash, right? - and we identified multiple chemicals of health concern in these type of products.
RASCOE: In the eyelash extension too?
FRANKLIN: In the eyelash extensions, yes (laughter).
RASCOE: OK. OK. Well, is there a regulating body that looks at what goes into hair extensions and weaves?
FRANKLIN: I am no regulation expert, but what I do know is that as of now, there is no requirement for these hair extensions to have any labeling on it or to tell us exactly what chemicals are in it. You know, now there are more efforts to regulate these products. So I know the state of New York and the state of New Jersey are trying to put forth and have introduced bills to better regulate synthetic braiding hair. But for now, these products have largely gone without any scrutiny or without regulation.
RASCOE: In your study, you point out that around 70% of Black women in the U.S. wear some kind of hair extension - wig or weave - at least once a year. I got my wig on right now.
FRANKLIN: I had mine on last week (laughter).
RASCOE: Yeah, you know. So, I mean, are there safer alternatives? And what do you say to those people who are like, look, y'all can have it because you said we can't do the relaxers. We can't put too much heat on our heads. What can we do?
FRANKLIN: The products that were labeled as nontoxic did have lower hazards. Now, there is a caveat to this, right? That label is not regulated. Companies can slap that label on there, and so that's why I'm, like, hesitant about sharing that. But also knowing that that was what our study suggested is that some had none of the hazardous chemicals that we identified, but then some had - were on the lower end of that. We also have limited evidence that the rinsing that I know I've seen on YouTube and that folks have been doing for a while - we do know anecdotally that it does help with reducing irritation, but it does remove some of the chemicals that we identified in these samples as well. So there's that.
RASCOE: So will you be doing more studies on this, and if so, what will you be focusing on?
FRANKLIN: Yeah. So we are intending to follow up on multiple of these studies. We really hope that from this work, that there is more effort to regulate these products and consider what are some of the other products that we should be looking out for that have avoided scrutiny for so long.
RASCOE: That's research scientist Elissia Franklin of the Silent Spring Institute. Thanks so much for speaking with us today.
FRANKLIN: Thank you so much for having me. It's been a joy. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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