Toxic Braids? Study Finds Synthetic Braiding Hair May Pose Serious Health Risks to Black Women

Synthetic hair for braiding and Black hair care products contain dangerous chemicals, research shows. Black Iowans should consider their hairstyle choices — especially in light of the state’s rising and disproportionate cancer rates and deaths. 

Niyo Saba has been braiding hair for more than 15 years. Originally from East Africa, she brought her heritage and skills to Bettendorf, Iowa, and opened Niyo’s Beauty & Hair Braiding Salon in Davenport, where she dedicates her days to making the hairstyles her clients desire. She honors her family and upbringing through her craft, and her clients always leave her salon happy with the final results. Which is why after a study about the carcinogens found in synthetic braiding hair came to light this year, Saba was taken aback.

“I’m from Africa. I grew up in the community that we have here,” Saba said. “I never saw anyone else who got cancer, and then nobody since I [started braiding] here.”

Saba, and others, were unfamiliar with the study. Multiple braiding salons, ranging from Davenport, Waterloo and Des Moines, were either unaware of the harmful chemicals in synthetic braiding hair or did not respond to Black Iowa News’ inquiries.

Those braiding hair and those getting their hair braided are participating in what some deem as a form of social art — cultivating community in a variety of ways during the hours-long process of creating the popular braided hairstyles. 

While the origins of braiding in Africa cannot truly be traced back to a certain date, early art provides evidence of braids. In 1908, an Austro-Hungarian archaeologist Josef Szombathy discovered “Venus of Willendorf” which is traced back to between 24,000 and 22,000 B.C.E.

While some dispute the evidence of braids, according to The Center for Public Art History, “others suggest that these forms may represent braided or beaded hair.

During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, braids were used for survival. Practicality and safety was needed over aesthetics to seek refuge. Cornrows are most notable due to the ability to convey messages, hide grains and plan routes. Though noted by Dope Black CIC, “They often faced restrictions on their hairstyles and grooming imposed by slaveholders.”

Following the end of the Civil Rights Movement in 1968, the Black Power Movement was still in full force, inspiring a declaration of hair creativity. This set into motion the professional braiding industry and thus, the industrialization of braiding.

But said industry may be facing a major roadblock since the release of the study, published by Consumer Reports. It details how, after testing 10 of the most popular synthetic hair brands, carcinogens were detected in all of them. From extensions to wigs, brands such as Sensationnel and Shake-N-Go appeared to have harmful ingredients within the hair strands, such as metals, man-made chemicals, and cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens) that have significant impacts on health. Nicole Jenkins, assistant professor in the department of sociology and criminology at Howard University, explains the gravity of this problem.

“In terms of the health and the risk of a product specifically used by Black people, this is less of a concern for industries. This is why the study is so important,” she stated. Another research study, conducted by Environmental Working Group, showed that personal care products targeted towards Black women — whether it’s shampoo, conditioner or even styling products — contain higher levels of hazardous ingredients such as retinyl palmitate, triethanolamine and stearalkonium chloride. Jenkins emphasizes the social implications of what this means for the industry.

“This is not a light industry, this is a moneymaker,” Jenkins said. “So the fact that products are not being vetted to accommodate and ensure that there are no health concerns is —I believe — deliberate.”

Conversations about Iowa’s high cancer rates have become routine. Concerns are growing, and many Iowans want to know what’s behind the increase.

According to the Iowa Cancer Consortium, Black Iowans have the highest rates of cancer between the ages of 50-79.

The Cancer in Iowa-2025 report, from the Iowa Cancer Registry, found that Iowa’s cancer rate is 491.8 cases per 100,000 population. Within the same report, Polk County has an estimated number of 2,835 new cases for 2025.

An article from Black Iowa News detailed how Adam Shriver, director of Wellness and Nutrition at The Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement, mentioned: “As for the state of Iowa’s cancer rates, in comparison to other states, Iowa has the second-highest cancer rates in the U.S. and accounts for only one of three states where cancer rates are rising instead of dropping.”

Amid concerns about environmental protection, air pollution, water contamination and agricultural regulations, the cancer rates are increasing, though health experts have not pointed to a definitive explanation for the rates.

The news about carcinogens in hair products provides Iowans, specifically Black women in Iowa, something else to consider.

After the Consumer Reports study was published, a multitude of reputable news outlets picked up the data and began drawing their conclusions and highlighting the lack of awareness which encapsulates a larger issue.

For Philadelphia scientist and co-founder of organic and natural hair care brand Nuele Hair, Christine Martey-Ochola, Ph.D, using her background in chemistry, biochemistry and molecular sustainability, has given her hope in her mission of promoting advocacy for women’s health.

“There’s this saying about a person might plant a seed, but not necessarily get to sit under the shade of that tree,” she said. “And I just see this as being something that I hope can have broader impacts in the long term, and that I may not necessarily be the full beneficiary of it, but that the future generations can be, because I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s easy work, but it’s what needs to be done.”

Martey-Ochola pointed to the financial sacrifice and health sacrifice while also igniting the larger issue at hand, saying, “Good health does not drive the economy. I mean, sound minds and sound health do not drive the economy. 

And so we’re, in a sense, fighting something or working against a machinery that’s been in place for 200, 300 years. It’s going to take time.”

“What we’ve been sold is that it’s okay to compromise our short and long-term health for a specific look, for a specific idea of what beauty is. And I think that if we can, as a community, celebrate our wholeness and our beauty in all of its diverse ways, it’ll minimize that perception that I have to look a certain way in order to be deemed as beautiful.”

Moving forward to reach a goal of health and prosperity, and education, both Jenkins and Martey-Ochola say awareness and activism are needed.

Jenkins said the community speaks with how it spends its dollars.

“. . . if this is a product that is going to harm me, I am not going to purchase it, and this also extends to, because we are leaving out a player here and that is the manufacturers. These manufacturers are international,” she said.

“They also have an opportunity to know their product and make it safe,” she said. “And I hope that happens as well.”

When speaking of the work still left to do, Martey-Ochola pointed to more research that’s palatable for a wider range of audiences. 

“Let’s put research dollars behind professors that want to do this work so that they can have scientific data to support these claims,” she said. “And then that scientific data can be cobbled into news, news pieces, into social media, into maybe even TV shows or to meet people where they are.”

No matter how thorough and gradual it may seem, the importance is clear, and Martey-Ochola can already see the progress.

“Yeah, I know it’s happening, and it’s going to continue to happen, but we have to have a lot of intentionality behind it.”

This story appeared in the October edition of the Black Iowa Newspaper.