Hair Straightening Research Articles

Is lipstick associated with the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)?

Lipstick use has been hypothesized to be a risk factor of developing systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The objective of this study was to investigate the association between lipstick use and risk of SLE. We performed an Internet-based case-control study of SLE with Google users searching on medical key terms as the source population. Cases were diagnosed within 5 years and met > or =4 ACR criteria for SLE by medical record review. Controls were matched to cases on age, gender, race, ethnicity, region of residence, reference year, education, and income using propensity score. Demographic characteristics and lifestyle factors were collected using an online questionnaire. Conditional logistic regression models were used for the analyses with smoking, alcohol consumption, permanent hair dye use, and chemical hair straightener use adjusted. The analysis included 124 cases and 248 matched controls of whom 96% were females and 81% were whites. The median of disease duration was 2 years (range 0-4 years). Using lipstick at least 3 days/week was significantly associated with increased risk of SLE (adjusted OR = 1.71, 95%CI = 1.04-2.82). There was a trend of greater risk with earlier age of initiation of lipstick use (<16 years vs. never use; OR = 1.95, 95%CI = 1.01-3.76, p trend = 0.02) and with increased frequency of use (7 days/week vs. never use; OR = 1.75, 95%CI = 0.89-3.44, p trend = 0.07). Biologic effects of chemicals present in lipsticks absorbed across the buccal mucosa and confounding from unmeasured lifestyle factors could be the explanation of this association. Epidemiologic studies of SLE should include this exposure in exploring its environmental triggers.

Incorporation of peptides in phospholipid aggregates using ultrasound

This study presents the highlights of ultrasonic effects on peptides incorporated on phospholipid aggregates (liposomes). These liposomes or vesicles are known as transport agents in skin drug delivery and for hair treatment. They might be a good model to deliver larger peptides into hair to restore fibre strength after hair coloration, modelling, permanent wave and/or straightening. The preparation of liposomes 1,2-dipalmitoyl- sn-glycerol-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) with peptides (LLLLK LLLLK LLLLK LLLLK; LLLLL LCLCL LLKAK AK) was made by the thin film hydration method. The LUVs (uni-lamellar vesicles) were obtained by sonication, applying different experimental conditions, such as depth (mm) and power intensity (%). Photon-correlation spectroscopy (PCS) and electronic microscopy (EM) results confirmed that the incorporation of these peptides, with different sequence of amino acids, presented differences on the diameter, zeta-potential of membrane surface and shape of liposomes. The liposomes that included peptide LLLLK LLLLK LLLLK LLLLK present an increased in zeta-potential values after using ultrasound and an “amorphous” aspect. Conversely, the liposomes that incorporated the peptide LLLLL LCLCL LLKAK AK presented a define shape (rod shape) and the potential surface of liposome did not change significantly by the use of ultrasound.

Women’s Rights Get a Dressing Down: Mini Skirt Attacks in South Africa

(The Star 2008: 2). She was the fourth woman to be assaulted in this way at the rank on that evening. Three other women were stripped and sexually assaulted at the same taxi rank on the previous day. In each of these cases the fact that the women were wearing mini skirts was cited as the reason for the attack. Sexual harassment of women in mini skirts at Johannesburg taxi ranks has a long history. Police records suggest that the practice has been documented for the last eight to ten years and first-hand accounts suggest a much longer history to sexual harassment of women in South Africa's taxis. But Ngcukana was the first victim to report such an incident to police. Ngcukana's public account of her attack was followed by an outpouring of stories from other South African women about their experiences of having been groped and humiliated by men at taxi ranks and in crowded taxis. Controversy over the clothing choices of African women is not new. In the immediate postcolonial period African leaders across the continent took a personal interest in what women wore and berated them for 'unsuitable' choices. From the late 1960s news reports record widespread incidents of women being 'jeered at, physically assaulted and striped of their clothes in public by youth wingers and college students' (Wipper, 1972: 330). These attacks were not confined to a single country but occurred in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia among others. The justificatory narratives that were invoked had several threads. In some cases the targets of mob violence were the more obviously racialised ones of wigs, hair straightening and skin lighteners which were seen as an indication of blackness being denigrated and regarded as inferior and ugly. But a second thread targeted fashionable clothing in general – bell bottoms, tight pants, jeans and mini skirts were all regarded as 'unAfrican' and those who wore these items branded as having had their minds occupied by western cultural imperialism at precisely the moment when African nations were seeking to throw off the colonial yoke. African leaders like Julius Nyerere and Jomo Kenyatta saw themselves literally as 'fathers' to the nation – indeed they were dubbed the founding fathers of their respective countries. Consciously engaged in a project of nation-building, often involving the unification of different classes and ethnic groups in the service of pressing national developmental needs, these leaders took a personal interest in all aspects of national life which was styled as an extension of family life. As is typical of such projects, nationalist leaders both drew on a local repository of imagery (African culture, heritage, tradition) and sought to present their new nations as able to advance, flourish and succeed on a world stage. The balance was a delicate one between mining Africanness for legitimacy and popular approval while at the same time combating the idea of Africa as a dark and backward place. Mini skirts in particular became, for many African leaders, emblematic of both the

Hair straighteners: A significant burn risk

Background and aim Hair straighteners have become increasingly common household appliances. The purpose of this study was to investigate the temperatures reached by the exposed plates of hair straighteners when switched on, and the length of time taken to cool to a safe temperature after switching off. We also present the case of a child with deep dermal burns caused by a hair straightener, highlighting its potential danger when left unattended. Methods Eight different hair straighteners were tested using a calibrated thermometer. Maximum temperature reached and length of time taken to cool to 40 °C were recorded three times for each straightener. Results Among the eight straighteners tested, the size of the plates varied between 22.5 and 53.9 cm 2. Plate material was ceramic in all but one case. Average maximum temperature was 163 °C (122–210 °C). Mean time taken to cool to 40 °C from switch-off was 26 min (18–44 min). None of the devices tested could be locked closed. Discussion and conclusion Hair straighteners present a significant risk of burn when left unattended, both while switched on and for up to 44 min after turning off. We offer some recommendations to improve safety.

Electric hair straightener burns an epidemiological and thermodynamic study

Hair straighteners are a popular beauty product in the UK. An alarming rise in admissions to the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery, for burns caused by hair straighteners has led to this study. A thermodynamic study was also performed to look at temperature range and cooling profiles of these devices. Thirty-one cases were identified over a 32-month period, January 2003 to August 2006. Ninety-three percent (29 cases) were children with an average age of 4 years. The majority of burns were partial thickness to hands and feet, but 23% (seven cases) required admission and 10% (three cases) required surgical intervention. The hair straighteners reached a maximum temperature of 145 °C within 2 min of activation and took up to 7 min to cool below a temperature that would burn adult skin with a 1 s contact. Children and crawling babies are at particular risk from preventable burns from hair straighteners. The frequency of burns from hair straighteners is rising and even small burns to the hand can have serious sequelae and need to be treated in specialist centres. Health promotion and discussion with the industry is required to stop this new and increasing problem.

Relaxing/straightening of Afro‐ethnic hair: historical overview

Afro-ethnic hair, when compared with naturally straight hair, presents some important variations such as differences in diameter in many points of the thread, ellipsoidal threads, and low trend of hydrating the scalp thus turning the hair drier, because the natural sebum distribution is irregular along the thread. This kind of hair may be straightened through both chemical and thermal methods. Straightening is a chemical process by which excessively curly hair is straightened in an irreversible way. Generally, the products used are formulated in a cosmetic emulsion with high pH. In this review, we present the historical development of hair straightening or relaxing through the evolution of the product categories.

The application of polymethylene waxes as conditioning agent in hair relaxers

Hair relaxers are harsh chemical treatments that leave the hair dull, dry and limp. There is a constant need for improvement of these products to make them milder and incorporate conditioning properties. Because of the high pH of relaxer or hair straightening systems, most quaternized (conditioning) ingredients are unstable and slowly break down to release ammonia over time, having no conditioning effects by the time the consumers use them. This paper discusses the partial substitution of the fatty alcohols that are traditionally used in relaxer systems with polymethylene wax and the benefits derived from using them. The study included the investigation of synergies among the ingredients, the stabilities of the various systems and comparisons with commercially available systems. The polymethylene wax, used in combination with the mineral oil gel and phosphate salt, coats the hair during the relaxing process, leaving it shiny, soft and conditioned as opposed to the poor condition of the hair relaxed by traditional, commercially available NaOH and LiOH relaxers. An additional benefit of using polymethylene wax in relaxer systems is that the conditioning agents that are normally added to the neutralizing shampoo to repair or mask the damage as a result of the relaxing process can be omitted.

Analysis of structural change in keratin fibers resulting from chemical treatments using Raman spectroscopy

In order to investigate the influence of chemical treatments (reduction, heating, and oxidation) on keratin fibers, the structure of virgin white human hair resulting from a permanent hair straightening process at various depths of cross-sectional samples was directly analyzed without isolating the cuticle and cortex, using Raman spectroscopy. The band shape of the cuticle was different from that of the cortex, and the cuticle had a more amorphous structure, compared with the cortex. The S-S band intensity existing in the hair surface remarkably decreased, while the S-S band intensity in the hair center was not changed by performing the reduction process. In the case of heating the keratin fibers after the reduction process, this tendency was unchanged. On the other hand, the amide III (unordered) band intensity in the cortex region increased, indicating that proteins existing throughout the cortex region caused a change to the random coil form. Moreover, approximately 95% of the disconnected -SS- groups were clearly reconnected by performing the oxidation process after heating (the degree of reconnection of -SS- groups was about 90%, in the case of oxidizing after reduction). From these experiments, we concluded that the heat treatment process in the permanent hair straightening treatment caused the randomization of proteins existing throughout the cortex region, thereby contributing to the acceleration of the reconnection of -SS- groups during the oxidation process.

Medical and surgical therapies for alopecias in black women.

Hair loss is a common problem that challenges the patient and clinician with a host of cosmetic, psychological and medical issues. Alopecia occurs in both men and women, and in all racial and ethnic populations, but the etiology varies considerably from group to group. In black women, many forms of alopecia are associated with hair-care practices (e.g., traction alopecia, trichorrhexis nodosa, and central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia). The use of thermal or chemical hair straightening, and hair braiding or weaving are examples of styling techniques that place African American women at high risk for various "traumatic" alopecias. Although the exact cause of these alopecias is unknown, a multifactorial etiology including both genetic and environmental factors is suspected. A careful history and physical examination, together with an acute sensitivity to the patient's perceptions (e.g., self-esteem and social problems), are critical in determining the best therapy course. Therapeutic options for these patients range from alteration of current hair grooming practices or products, to use of specific medical treatments, to hair replacement surgery. Since early intervention is often a key to preventing irreversible alopecia, the purpose of the present article is to educate the dermatologist on all aspects of therapy for hair loss in black women--including not only a discussion of the main medical and surgical therapies but also an overview of ethnic hair cosmetics, specific suggestions for alterations of hair-care practices, and recommendations for patient education and compliance.

Permanent Waves: The Making of the American Beauty Shop

Throughout the twentieth century, beauty shops have been places where women could enjoy the company of other women, exchange information, and share secrets. The female equivalent of barbershops, they have been institutions vital to community formation and social change. But while the beauty shop created community, it also reflected the racial segregation that has so profoundly shaped American society. Links between style, race, and identity were so intertwined that for much of the beauty shop's history, black and white hairdressing industries were largely separate entities with separate concerns. While African American hair-care workers embraced the chance to be independent from white control, negotiated the meanings of hair straightening, and joined in larger political struggles that challenged Jim Crow, white female hairdressers were embroiled in struggles over self-definition and opposition to their industry's emphasis on male achievement. Yet despite their differences, black and white hairdressers shared common stakes as battles were waged over issues of work, skill, and professionalism unique to women's service work. Permanent Waves traces the development of the American beauty shop, from its largely separate racial origins, through white recognition of the ethnic market, to the present day.

Ocular angioedema

Angioedema is a vascular reaction representing localized tissue edema resulting from dilation and increased vascular permeability of the capillaries. The loose subcutaneous tissue of the eyelids or lips are most commonly affected. Ocular and periocular manifestations of angioedema may include eyelid edema, conjunctival chemosis, and periorbital hives. This essay discusses a patient who presented with marked angioedema of the conjunctiva, lid and orbit presumably secondary to conjunctival contact with a chemical hair straightener.

Chemical hair treatments and adverse pregnancy outcome among Black women in central North Carolina.

Several studies suggest that toxic chemicals in hair products may be absorbed through the scalp in sufficient amounts to increase the risks of adverse health effects in women or their infants. This case-control study of 525 Black women from three counties in North Carolina who had delivered a singleton, liveborn infant examined whether exposure to chemicals used in hair straightening and curling increased the odds that the infant was preterm or low birth weight. Cases consisted of 188 preterm and 156 low birth weight births (for 123 women, their infant was both low birth weight and preterm). Controls were 304 women who delivered term and normal birth weight infants. Women who used a chemical hair straightener at any time during pregnancy or within 3 months prior to conception had an adjusted odds ratios (OR) of 0.7 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.4-1.1) for preterm birth and 0.6 (95% CI 0.4-1.1) for low birth weight. Exposure to chemical curl products was also not associated with preterm delivery (adjusted OR = 0.9, 95% CI 0.5-1.8) or low birth weight (adjusted OR = 1.0, 95% CI 0.5-1.9). Despite this failure to find an association, continued search for risk factors to which Black women are uniquely exposed is warranted.

パーマネント・ウェーブ用剤の製品評価技術

Permanent waves belong to quasi-drugs and function as wave-forming agents or hair straighteners. However, merely having these basic function is no longer sufficient to meet today's consumers' needs. The modern permanent waves must be mild to hair and skin, have little oder, easy to use and allow easy styling.To develop products that will fulfill these needs, it is important during the formulation stage to use objective evaluation methods which correspond to a real situation. In this report, rapid and simple-to-use instrument evaluation methods for permanent waves based on thioglycolic acid will be presented. Determinations of the effectiveness of formulations, effects on hair and oder problems will be discussed.

Permanent waving and hair straightening

Modern permanent waving began in the 1940s, with the introduction of thioglycolate waving lotions, which allowed the perm process to be conducted at room temperature in a relatively short amount of time. Previously, the hair had been waved with a combination of alkali and heat, which was time-consuming and dangerous. Today, almost one half century later, thioglycolate lotions are still by far the most popular method of hair waving, although bisulfites and cysteine have achieved some commercial success in specialized circumstances. It is not the purpose of this chapter to provide a comprehensive review of all the research and patent literature about permanent waving. Excellent reviews of the historical development of waving systems and the interaction of reducing agents with hair keratin already exist. 1,2 Rather, this chapter provides an overview of permanent waving and hair straightening as it is practiced today, focusing on the most accepted interpretations of research data and commercial compositional information.

The Black Anti-Utopia

September 6, 1977: Today's newspaper brings notice of the death of George S. Schuyler-conservative journalist, reactionary scourge of the Civil Rights Movement, defender of European colonialism in Africa, and author of novel about American racial attitudes that is almost ignored by critics of Black literature. Schuyler's political views require no comment. History has made them irrelevant. His novel Black No More, I however, deserves to recalled, for it is rare example in Black American literature of the minor genre of the anti-utopia. The classic form of utopia in literature presents comprehensive model of the good society, usually represented through the device of visitor's inspection of institutional arrangements. The author's motive for imagining the utopian social world is simply the desire to show how life might organized according to the principle of ought to be rather than is. Through the comprehensive representation of social life, writers of fully-developed literary utopias attempt to account for historical contingency at its source by applying functional rationality, according to principles of universal justice and psychological consistency in human beings, to the organization of experience so that human life may set on predictable course. The obverse of the literary utopia derives from common sense conservatism that dreads the plan for order because it mistrusts the power of rationality. Yet anti-utopians do have faith in predictable behavior, demonstrable, they believe, in their certainty that human beings possess core of strivingslove or envy, truth or dissemblance-that must always frustrate the conditioning utopians prescribe. In formal literary terms, the anti-utopia may as comprehensive as the utopia, providing detailed portrayal of the whole range of human social life; but the conservative motive of anti-utopia colors the representation with tone of ridicule. In short, whereas the literary utopia is idyllic prophecy of the promised land, anti-utopia is akin to the satire of Jonathan Swift's flying island. 2 The quality of ridicule in Black No More was blatantly apparent when the book appeared at the close of the Harlem Renaissance. Though the artistic achievements of the period are not explicitly introduced into the narrative, many proponents and institutions of racial advancement appear in thin disguises. There are Dr. Shakespeare Agamemnon Beard (DuBois), head of the National Social Equality League; Napoleon Wellington Jackson (James Weldon Johnson); Walter Williams (Walter White); various presidents of colleges, such as Dunbar University and Dusky River Agricultural Institute; and one Dr. Joseph Bonds (Horace Mann Bond). Ali of these characters are pretentious or possess minds befuddled by the social scientific learning Schuyler despises. Then, too, there is Sisseretta Blandish, who specializes in skin whitening and hair straightening, until Dr. Junius Crookman's formula for whitening skins makes color socially desirable, whereupon she goes into the business of staining skins, under her new name of Sara Blandine. Understandably, such ridicule, in the context of narrative in which Blacks eagerly deny their * visible identity, raised hackles, but what is one to make of the book, taken as whole? Is it, as Charles R. Larson (who provides an introduction for the Collier paperback reprint) says, a plea for assimilation, for mediocrity, for reduplication, for faith in the (white) American dream? 3 Certainly the premise of Schuyler's satire is that color has no reality apart from the socially created one, and to that extent culture is an historical accident that would modified if color-

The Black Culture Movement and the Black Community

The problem of defining a coherent cultural identity is one that has confronted generations of Afro-Americans. As part of the justification and defence of slavery and the slave trade many whites rationalized their actions by arguing that all Africans were cultureless savages. The same combination of guilt and arrogance induced them to attempt to suppress and denigrate surviving elements of a culture whose very existence they had already denied. Most black Americans responded to these pressures by rejecting Africa and their African heritage as a source of shame and by trying to deny and to erase their blackness. Malcom X clearly understood this when he proclaimed in 1965: ‘ We have been a people who hated our African characteristics. We hated our black heads, we hated the shape of our noses …, we hated the color of our skin.’ Identification with the dominant white culture took many forms. For some Blacks it involved the use of hair straightening and skin bleaching; for others it meant the elimination of any ethnic quality in their speech, dress, cuisine and religion; for many more it meant a life of morality and hard work lived according to the dictates of the Puritan ethic. The loss of any distinctive cultural identity involved in this process was made worse by the unwillingness of white society to recognize and accept the Afro-American as part of the dominant culture. In these circumstances many blacks found themselves in a cultural limbo without an adequate self-image. White domination of the media meant that they sometimes felt literally invisible. James Baldwin drew attention to this dilemma in a speech delivered in June 1963, when he noted that:A black child born in this country … discovers two terrifying things. First of all he discovers that he does not exits in it, no matter where he looks – by which I mean books, magazines, movies – there is no reflection of himself anywhere … [if] he finds anything which looks like him, he is authoritatively assured that this is a savage, or a comedian who has never contributed anything to civilization.

Corneal Alkali Burns Arising From Accidental Instillation of a Hair Straightener

A patient sustained mild bilateral alkali burns of the cornea following ocular exposure to a commercial hair straightening preparation. This compound and three other products all had an alkaline pH which was not reduced to neutrality by the neutralizer provided. Corneal alkali burns similar to those seen in our patient were produced in experimental animals after brief exposure. Histologic changes were primarily limited to the cornea. The warning against ocular exposure printed on the containers or package insert is not sufficiently emphatic to protect the consumer.

Alopecia and dermatitis venenata following hair straightening.

I wish to report a case of alopecia and dermatitis venenata following hair straightening, which is similar to the one reported by Anderson. 1 REPORT OF A CASE The patient, a married Negro woman aged 32, was referred to me because of loss of hair and irritation of the scalp. The patient gave a history of having had a hair-straightening treatment at a beauty institute, Oct. 1, 1951. She stated that a hair dressing was placed on her scalp for a half-hour and that this application was followed by combing with a heated heavy metal comb. She remarked that she observed a mild painful stinging reaction of the scalp while receiving the treatment. The following day, the patient noticed that her hair and scalp felt stiff, and, commencing Oct. 4, the hair began to fall out in patchy areas. She also noted itching of the skin of the front and

Alopecia from hair straightening.

Dermatologists in the South and other areas with a large Negro population are seeing increasing numbers of a curious type of alopecia, which, for lack of a better term, I have been calling straightener alopecia.'' As I was unable to find any reference to it in the literature, I thought it might be worth while to describe it. Many Negroes are resorting to a hair-straightening process consisting in the application of a hair dressing followed by combing with a hot comb. A check on several brands of the dressing showed these preparations to be essentially a mixture of sodium hydroxide in some greasy base, usually petrolatum. This dressing is liberally applied to the hair and scalp, and then the hair receives a brisk combing with a heavy metal comb which has been heated to a rather high temperature. A typical case of hair straightener alopecia consists in a variable

Report on Hair Straighteners

Journal Article Report on Hair Straighteners Get access J F Armstrong J F Armstrong Associate Referee U. S. Food and Drug Administration, Los Angeles, Calif Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, Volume 25, Issue 4, 1 November 1942, Pages 932–933, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaoac/25.4.932 Published: 14 February 2020