As a little girl, I was told a relaxer would make my hair more manageable. Decades later, science is asking whether the convenience came at a cost. By the time I was six years old, my natural hair reached the middle of my back. Most evenings, after tea and homework, my brothers raced outside to play while I sat between my aunt's knees as she patiently braided my thick curls. By the following afternoon, after swimming or roughhousing with my brothers, they had escaped their protective style. ALSO READ: Why many women live with uterine tumors without knowing it When my mother returned from her studies in the United Kingdom, she brought home what she believed was the answer: a children's hair relaxer. This will make your hair more manageable, she said. She was right. ALSO READ: When to worry about uterine fibroids I remember staring into the mirror as my hair fell long and silky, catching the light in a way it never had before. Older girls admired its glossy finish. For a little girl, it felt magical. Like many women of my generation, I embraced the convenience without ever questioning the chemistry. Why would I? No one spoke about ingredients or long-term exposure. The conversation was about manageable hair, not molecules. ALSO READ: Women can now self test for cervical cancer Years later came the breakage that accompanied chemically treated hair. By 13, I had learned to care for my own hair and abandoned relaxers altogether. Today, I avoid products that permanently alter my hair's natural texture. That decision is personal. The reason for writing this is not. WATCH: Redefining women’s health: Dr. Subira on menopause and healing For generations of Black women, another sentence accompanied almost every salon appointment: Don't scratch your scalp before your appointment. We accepted that if our scalp tingled or burned, the relaxer was simply working. The question was never why it burned. The question is why we accepted that it should. Science is finally examining what generations of women accepted without question. A landmark 2022 study by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which followed nearly 34,000 women for almost 11 years, found that women who frequently used chemical hair straighteners had more than double the risk of developing uterine cancer than women who did not. The study found an association, not proof of causation, but it intensified scientific scrutiny of chemicals commonly found in relaxers. Researchers continue to investigate links with other hormone-related conditions, while recent studies have examined products sold in East African markets, reminding us that this conversation belongs here too. The irony is difficult to ignore. We read food labels. We debate preservatives, pesticides, and artificial ingredients. We spend more on organic produce and cleaner skincare because we have become increasingly conscious of what enters our bodies. Yet many of us think little of applying highly caustic chemicals directly onto one of the body's most absorbent surfaces: the scalp. Somewhere between the supermarket shelf and the salon chair, our standards for safety seem to change. My mother was not negligent. Like countless mothers across Africa and the diaspora, she acted on the best information available. Relaxers were marketed as modern, convenient, and safe. The studies raising today's concerns were not yet published. Parents cannot act on evidence that does not exist. Today's parents can. This is not an argument against straight hair. It is an argument for informed consent. Beauty is a choice. Exposure to unnecessary risk should never be one. Women deserve transparent information about the products they use, just as they expect honest labelling on the food they eat and the medicines they give their children. Parents deserve access to the latest science before making decisions for their daughters. And little girls deserve to grow up believing that caring for their hair should never require accepting pain as part of the process. I do not blame the little girl who fell in love with silky hair or the mother who wanted to make caring for it a little easier. I believe today's daughters deserve something we did not have: the benefit of evidence. Perhaps it is time we stopped treating those four words as ordinary. The writer is a communications specialist and strategist.
