The newest straightening craze is filling us with formaldehyde

The celebs have raved about it. The fashion magazines haven’t shut up about it. Even your kid’s elementary school teacher is flaunting it.

And now, "Weeds" leading lady Mary Louise-Parker, is saying it made her hair fall out.

It seems the notorious Brazilian hair smoothing treatments have been giving us a lot more than straight, silky locks—they have been exposing us to lofty amounts of formaldehyde.

Alexandra Spunt and Siobhan O’Connor—the chicks behind one of our favorite crack-the-whip beauty reads, No More Dirty Looks —share the latest news on the industry health warnings.

Let’s just say that salons may soon require hazmat suits for stylists.

A Change In The Air

As Alexandra and Siobhan reported, The Department of Labor has now issued an official immediate safety warning about formaldehyde-containing hair-smoothing products like the Brazilian Blowout. This is big news—huge, actually—and speaks to how much things really are (slowly) changing when it comes to the wild west of chemicals used in cosmetics and cosmetic procedures.

The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) is recommending that salons that carry out the procedure follow these specific guidelines:

1. Give workers respirators (huh?)
2. Give employees appropriate gloves and other personal protective equipment (e.g., face shield, chemical splash goggles, chemical-resistant aprons)
3. Post signs at entryways to any area where formaldehyde is above OSHA’s limit*
4. Tell workers about the health effects of formaldehyde

And here’s what they had to say:

Recent reports from Oregon OSHA, California OSHA, and now Federal OSHA should alert salon owners and stylists to look closely at the hair smoothing products they are using to see if they contain methylene glycol, formalin, methylene oxide, paraform, formic aldehyde, methanal, oxomethane, oxymethylene, or CAS Number 50-00-0. All of these are names for, or treated as, formaldehyde under OSHA’s Formaldehyde standard. Products containing them can expose workers to formaldehyde; employers who manufacture, import, distribute, or use the products must follow OSHA’s formaldehyde standard.

The Environmental Working Group also has a new report out called Flat Out Risky  that is loaded with information to sift through. Of some of their findings, the EWG discovered that 15 of 16 companies that claimed their straightening products contained little to no traces of formaldehyde actually contained “substantial amounts;” salons were found laced with powerful formaldehyde fumes; and many tops salons across the country are denying the risks.

The OSHA hazard warning also cited new lab reports in which “formaldehyde-free” products proved to contain formaldehyde, after all.

So in case you were still wondering about whether or not you should go straighter than straight, or whether that “greener” Brazilian blowout is indeed “green,” consider this your answer.

*OSHA’s limit is 0.75 parts of formaldehyde per million parts (or ppm) of air during an 8-hour work shift or 2 ppm during any 15-minute period.

Stay tuned for more features from Alexandra and Siobhan, as they continue to get down and dirty with the beauty industry.

Alexandra Spunt and Siobhan O’Connor, Guest Beauty Bloggers
The authors of No More Dirty Looks, Siobhan and Alexandra are natural beauty experts and consultants who are passionate about safe and sustainable beauty. Siobhan is the senior editor at Prevention magazine, while Alexandra is a freelance journalist and marketing consultant in Los Angeles. Together, they have helped educate consumers on what’s in their personal care products with appearances on the Today Show, The Doctors, Treehugger and the Huffington Post; and features in New York Magazine and TIME magazine. Learn more at Nomoredirtylooks.com.