A proposed class action lawsuit against the makers of several chemical hair relaxers will be moving forward. In a court document that was filed on Sunday, Judge Mary Rowland denied most of the defendants’ motions to dismiss, allowing the class action to continue relatively unchanged.
According to Reuters, plaintiffs are seeking economic and punitive damages concerning the hair relaxer products they purchased.
In recent years, research has tied the repeated use of chemical hair relaxers to the development of serious health conditions, including cancer.
Court documents show that “plaintiffs allege they suffered economic injuries when they paid more for defective hair relaxer products manufactured, sold, and distributed by Defendants than they would have paid if they had known about the alleged unsafe nature of the products and risks to their health.”
Also included in the class action would be funding for a medical monitoring program so that plaintiffs can guard against the development of future health conditions linked to hair relaxers.
Judge Rowland is also overseeing the multidistrict litigation that handles the many hair relaxer lawsuits claiming that companies selling hair relaxers failed to warn of the health risks their products may cause.
Hair Relaxer Lawsuits Claim Popular Products Caused Cancer
Plaintiffs have filed thousands of lawsuits over claims that hair relaxers cause serious health conditions like uterine and ovarian cancer.
Popular companies such as L’Oréal, Strength of Nature and Soft Sheen have been listed as defendants, with plaintiffs claiming that they failed to warn customers about the risks associated with their products.
Litigation against companies that sell hair relaxers took off after a 2022 National Institute of Health study discovered that women who use hair relaxer products more than four times a year had, on average, an 80% increased risk of developing uterine cancer.
A study from Boston University’s Black Women’s Health Study also found that women who use hair relaxers more than twice a year or for more than five years had a greater than 50% increase in the risk of uterine cancer.
Uterine cancer is very serious, with most diagnosed people requiring surgery. This can include hysterectomies as well as the removal of ovaries. Patients may also need treatments such as radiation therapy or chemotherapy.
Following the revelations of the serious health concerns linked to hair relaxers, over 8,000 pending lawsuits have been filed in an Illinois MDL. Litigation is still largely in the early stages, with no major settlements reached. Bellwether cases have not been decided yet either.
Editor Lindsay Donaldson contributed to this article.