Tonight in part two of our in - depth story on the possible cancer causing effects of hair relaxers, we explore the world of black hair care, specifically of the long term usage of hair relaxers and perms may be connected to cancer. When we spoke to an Oncologist his answer surprised us. Jomarie Lanza reports:.
And among that population a number of them do indulge themselves into a number of beauty practices. From getting your nails done, hands in and out from under a UV lamp, to dyeing, perming and relaxing your hair. Yacab says that often when asked about certain restrictions when it comes to patients in remission, they are more concerned about nutrition, exercise, sleep and other factors. Beauty, and product usage is hardly ever discussed.
And when we asked him if patients do consult whether their cancer could be caused by years of perming or not, His answer surprised us. According to Yacab most patients are often concerned about when they can start getting their hair done again.
Ramón Yacab, Medical Oncologist
"No I really don't get that question, what I do get asked is after they've completed the treatment if they are able to use products on their hair but general not as a cause but more of a cosmetic part for them to start using it again."
Reporter:
"What do you tell them? Do you discourage them?"
Ramón Yacab, Medical Oncologist
"No I don't, why? Because we don't have sufficient evidence to say that using hair products causes cancer so I usually don't do that and I do say that because our population here in Belize they read a lot and they are going to come with doc I read that this product causes this, I read that this food isn't good. They come with a list of things that they can and cannot and then we go one on one with them. What's the evidence of this and what's the evidence of that but up to now when it comes to hair products we don't have sufficient evidence to say that it's related to a cancer or a cause of cancer then."
And until we have the data we can only rely on our professional hairdressers in the shop to trust that they know what they are doing. And to make the best judgment for their clients.
Maype Smith, Beautician, Maype's Beauty World
"I know a lot of my friends have cancer but we have never, it might have been in the family, it might have had different reasons but we have never looked at hair or chemicals because of one, safety is first and we practice safety and we got to keep safety. And I'm not saying that a person has not gotten a sting or a little burn or things like that but if I know that only happened to you one time it will not happen again and so the articles are talking about people who continuously get burnt because they want to get straight hair there is no such thing you don't continue to do. Most people would say maybe some people just can't have in a relaxer because the scalp is really delicate no matter how much we treat the scalp they still get irritated or the still get burnt and so we recommend maybe you need to move on to hot comb or, we don't hot comb here we do the flat iron or different things like that so we would recommend to do that kind of chemical instead."
There is a price to pay for beauty, and there are all sorts of unknown risks and health threats to years of exposure and usage. You may see that a number of companies recall their hair products after reports of negative impacts to consumers. And still yet we continue to find ourselves in the hair dresser's chair. It becomes more of a personal choice how and what we choose to do with our hair. To take the risk or not even if we don't know for sure what the outcome may be.
Dominique Noralez, Natural Hair Community
"You try to keep it as simple as possible. You didn't grow up always putting a whole bunch of stuff in your hair. You make sure that it is clean and it is greased and you're alright. but the long-term exposure I mean it's yet to be told and typically in research studies what is studied is what is funded and what society cares about if it is that we do not care about Black people and black care people who have walked this world in bodies that are not Eurocentric and white, then we won't find those things out, but it is of course that the person who monitor the health of these, the health risk of these things would make the population aware but for me it's never been a forethought. I think I just I guess it crossed my mind before the health risks. Obviously it's chemicals so there is something going on there and it changes fundamentally how a part of your body is, but it's never been a super concern of me. Maybe that's a problem."
Indira Craig, News Anchor
"In terms of my hair journey I think for me after about 15 years about 15 years of being on television I had a real longing for wanting to go back to my natural hair and it was hard because you have already created and identity. People already became so accustomed to my look, which was the straight hair Houston big curls, you know luscious luxury hair so it was a hard transition and a hard one, even in the newsroom to get it to be accepted."
"It's something that I think that we have always known what the beauty industry has what it does the fact that it is a really a very scary place because you really never know just what are in products how they are tested, who they are tested on, but I think for the most part, sometimes we turn a blind eye to it is that we are personally affected by it or we have someone that is personally affected by it. We really give it the attention that it probably does require? Great Would be the day that we can really just set aside all the different additives, but it is a billion dollar industry and unfortunately women of color literally spend a ton of money when it comes to hair products and the beauty industry."
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