Black women are highly targeted toxic and estrogen-laden hair products compared to any other ethnic target market group. We all saw Chris Rock’s Good Hair and watched in horror as the scientist dipped a soda can into the chemicals used in relaxers as demonstration of the impact these chemicals have on our hair and our health. Unfortunately, we’ve been exposing ourselves to these hazardous chemicals for years voluntarily, but what if we never had the option to make that decision?

Hair products and cosmetics don’t have to undergo the scrutiny of the Food and Drug Administration unless there’s a color component or risky medical claims made by a manufacturer. What does this mean for the American public? Lack of regulation of personal care products on the market essentially means that anyone can put anything on the market, dangerous or not, without so much as a blink of an eye by the FDA. So much for big brother protecting our health.

One group of U.S. representatives is stepping up, fighting back and urging the FDA to get with the program and start regulating known cancer-causing straightening products. Their first order of business? Calling out the makers of infamous products like the Brazillian Blowout. “The two-hour hair treatments, which cost about $250, transform coarse, kinky hair into soft, smooth hair for two or three months,” writes JoNel Aleccia for MSNBC.

Representatives Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) sent a letter to the FDA yesterday expressing their concerns and demanding action. “The FDA’s inaction on this matter is putting the health of thousands of salon workers and consumers at risk of dangerous formaldehyde exposure from the continued use of not only Brazilian Blowout, but other hair straightening treatments that contain formaldehyde. A November 2011 study published in the Journal of Occupational Environmental Hygiene found dangerous levels of formaldehyde in several other brands of hair straighteners,” the letter stated.

The Brazilian Blowout was made available in salons for professional use only. Known for its incredible straightening products, women flocked to their stylists to tame their mane. The product, created by GIB, made headlines in 2011 when research showed that the Brazilian Blowout released high levels of formaldehyde. Despite this information and slap on the wrist by the FDA with a $600,000 fine, GIB and other makers of the product sold across the country, didn’t clean up their act.

According to Time magazine the Brazilian Blowout Acai Smoothing Solution and Brazilian Blowout Professional Smoothing Solution were being sold as “formaldehyde free,” but both products release formaldehyde into the air when used according to the instructions.

The representatives’ letter continued: “The FDA has an obligation to protect the public health by using its legal authority to ensure cosmetic products such as Brazilian Blowout Acai Professional Smoothing Solution that are clearly adulterated or misbranded are removed from the market.”

We’ll lay in wait for the FDA to respond which could mean chance at greater regulation. In the meantime, should we also be urging our local representatives to take action on behalf of black women’s hair products?

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10 Comments

  1. please girls protect that hair nothing is more powerful or beautiful than a crown of straight lustrous glory and this is from a natural see y’a

  2. Thanks your share. if you want to change your hair, you can apply real hair extensions.

  3. Thanks for posting this info. I just want to let you know that I just check out your site and I find it very interesting and informative. I can’t wait to read lots of your post.

  4. Brazilian Blowout Kills. I am a 50 year old woman. Three years ago, I bought my new home, my fiancé and I were doing invitro, I was planning my wedding, and my life was incredibly amazing.

    I decided to get a Brazilian Blowout at a certified salon that GIB, the manufacturer of Brazilian Blowout, had recommended on their website. It just so happened that it was a salon I had been going to for 10 years.

    I had this amazing, beautiful, long, massive hair. I thought it would make my hair even shinier. All the literature stated that it had NO harsh chemicals and it would wash out.

    A week after getting the Brazilian Blowout treatment, I began getting horribly ill. My hair fell out, my teeth fell out, I got pancreatitis, intestinal damage, I became sterile overnight, and my DNA changed. I was in and out of emergency rooms and hospitals. I saw hundreds of doctors. Because of the false Material Data Sheets that GIB submitted to hospitals and FDA and other entities, I couldn’t get medical help because the doctors kept saying it couldn’t be the product. They told me that there was nothing harmful in the product to explain the severe illnesses I was going through.

    Last August, I settled a lawsuit with GIB, the manufacturer of Brazilian Blowout for damages. My medical bills have been in the millions. I now have to do blood exchanges (plasma phoresis) three times a week; a person can only this treatment if they are critical because it is an extremely risky procedure. I also do IVIG (immunology treatments via IV), blood transfusions, steroids, and many, many other drugs.

    My brain has now severely atrophied, I have parts of my brain that no longer have blood flow, my organs have shrunk, I have kidney, liver, intestinal, stomach, and pancreas failures, I have calcium deposits throughout my whole body that are causing severe blockage, my vascular (blood vessels) are collapsing, quickly losing my eyesight, my nose is collapsing, and my inner ears have shrunk and am losing my hearing. The pain in my head is excruciating. Sadly enough, I am dying, and will be the first person in the US to die from this treatment. (Someone already died several years ago in Brazil, and the product is prohibited in most countries.

    Since the Brazilian Blowout product came on the market hundreds of thousands of people got ill. (Just look at all of the FDA, workmen comp cases, medical facility reports, OSHA, and California State District Attorney case). The original product contained 5-7 times more formaldehyde than embalming solution. (When one drop of formaldehyde is released in a commercial or industrial setting, the business has to be shut down and authorities notified. The person in a commercial setting must wear a complete hazardous material suit to cover ever inch of their body.) Clients and salon workers are wearing no protective gear.

    The new round of Brazilian Blowout products have even more formaldehyde than the original products. (My attorney had the new products tested as well, and we forwarded them to the California State Deputy District Attorney, Claudia Polski.

    The product gets completely absorbed into the body via the head and via inhalation. I had my hair tested two months after the treatment, and I was still off-gassing levels of formaldehyde way above the legal limits. I had to shave off the rest of my hair. I looked like a GI Jane, but my father, Anthony Casamento, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, would have still thought I looked beautiful, and I was being a brave soldier.

    My fiance got a hole the size of a gunshot wound in his liver from sleeping with me and taking care of me. My little adopted doggie, Buddy, is also dying. He absorbed the chemicals from laying on my pillow.

    I can’t change the fact that I am dying from using the Brazilian Blowout, but maybe I could save lives. If just one person is saved from such a horrible fate, then at least what I am going through would not be in vane. I prayer that you will get this information out there to save the lives of others. God Bless.

    • David Marshal

      you should do your homework; Mary Casamento is all over the dance scene on the internet for her fraud and claims of brain cancer and lupus that have lasted decades. She won’t die because she isn’t sick. Its all documented in her bankruptcy of 2002 in Woodland Hills, and her fraud charges at Van Nuys superior court for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from men claiming she needed brain surgery………..this was in 2001 and 2002.

      I have no idea why she turned over the money; She is ripping off the state of california for disability, She fakes her brain injuries and I have seen her first hand lie to doctors to get SSI. She is a con.

      Mary aka Cassie Casamento has been claiming and robbing people for over a
      decade claiming she has brain cancer……….she is a pathological
      liar. She stole over $60,000 claiming she was going to NYC for brain
      surgery, before that she had lupis, she has filed numerous false police
      reports including attempted rape and battery when she in actuality fell
      off a suitor’s son’s electric skateboard. She has scammed so many
      people in the past that she is a public menace. Her story starts in NYC
      where she took 10 percent of her bosses business then made a sex tape
      with him, suing him; it was dismissed since she was waving at the
      camera. She has duped so many men with her BS stories. 2003 she claims
      she was assaulted in her home by another “hitman” hired by her ex
      husband who was in jail for defending himself from her biting him.
      Nothing made sense other than she ran her head into the stove and faked
      injury.

      She has Munchausen’s Disease and you will find at
      Bankruptcy Court all her fraud and deceit. She preys on stupid older
      men who buy her nonsense. Everything is well documented in her 2002
      bankruptcy hearing at the Federal Bankruptcy court in Woodland Hills.. A complete gold digging fraud. She has stolen money from Robert Bergman, Scott McClain and others in her 20 years of sexual blackmail and insanity

  5. I hope that Mary Cassie Casamento is doing OK but I have to say that her story which she has posted everywhere is very suspicious. There is no record of litigation under her name in either the Ventura County court (where she lives) or the federal court for that district. And the claim that even her dog is dying seems over-the-top

  6. Interestingly, Mary Cassie Casamento received the reward for turning in War Machine for nearly beating his girlfriend, Christy Mack, to death. She did not keep the reward because she is dying of cancer and instead forwarded it to an abused women’s shelter. Not sure what this proves, other than she wasn’t lying about dying.

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