hair straightening products, risk factors

Hair straightening products would increase the risk of uterine cancer. The US National Institute of Health reveals a study conducted on more than 30,000 women over ten years. The details of Géraldine Zamansky, journalist at the Magazine de la Santé on France 5.

franceinfo: Is the level of danger revealed in the United States really worrying?

Geraldine Zamansky: Yes, because experts from the US National Institutes of Health have followed more than 30,000 women for ten years. And those who straightened their hair more than 4 times a year multiplied by 2.5 times their risk of developing uterine cancer, than those who never used it. A reduced threat when the hair was disciplined less often.

This association between the dose and the level of danger constitutes one of the best indices of a link of cause and effect, as explained to me by Dr Suzette Delaloge, oncologist at Gustave Roussy, one of the largest French centers for the fight against cancer.

But are the smoothing products used in France also dangerous?

So, in all honesty, I haven’t been able, since the publication of this study on Monday, to get a full comparison of the different compositions. But thanks to our colleagues from What to choosewho have evaluated thousands of cosmetic products, I can tell you that problematic ingredients pointed out by the authors of the American study are found in some of the sprays, creams and other smoothing serums sold in France.

At the top of the list of suspects, there are endocrine disruptors, that is to say disruptors of hormonal balances. Like parabens for example, which you may have already heard of. It is even found in leave-in creams, which therefore have a long time to pass through the skin into the bloodstream.

And these disruptors are the number one suspects here, since their role in the development of uterine cancer has already been proven?

Exactly, because it is not cancer of the cervix here, but cancer that develops higher up, if I may say so, at the level of its walls. It can be favored by an excess of hormones such as estrogen, caused by an endocrine disruptor for example. But beware, these are probably not the only culprits, Dr Delaloge told me. The risk would also come from ingredients capable of causing inflammation. In summary, this would weaken our immune defenses in the fight against cancer cells.