Brazilian Blowout (Creative Commons)

Your health may be feeling taxed too if you’ve shelled out for the popular hair process Brazilian blowout. For ladies battling tumbleweed hair or Shirley Temple ringlets, the Brazilian straightening treatment has been celebrated for its transformative effects.

Except it comes with a little problem. The Oregon Health & Science University's Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology reported that the amount of formaldehyde in the product Brazilian Blowout, the namesake straightening brand, is astoundingly high.

“Stylists were saying they felt lightheaded, or were coughing a lot,” said Claudia Peraza, a hairdresser at Creative Cuts International in Torrance. That’s because Oregon University’s research showed that Brazilian Blowout contained 53 percent times the recommended amount of formaldehyde, between 4.85 percent and 10.6 percent.

According to the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, a research and consumer information organization backed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 0.2 percent formaldehyde in any product is the highest safe amount. Standard cleaning products often contain some of the toxic chemical, but it is the gaseous form of formaldehyde that is dangerous when inhaled.

Hairstylists doing multiple treatments on clients each day started to complain—they were feeling awful.

With the growing popularity of Brazilian blowout thanks to raves from celebrities like Nicole Richie, more salons had begun to offer the service.

Concerns over the product first started in September, when stylists across the country realized it was the hair straightener that was making them sick.

Brazilian Blowout is applied to the hair first. Stylists then straighten the product-soaked hair or blow-dry it, releasing large amounts of steam from the hair in that process. The stream released is toxic since that moisture also contains the evaporated chemicals in Brazilian Blowout—namely, the formaldehyde gas.

Unlike Japanese hair straightening systems, the Brazilian blowout does not permanently straighten the hair. Much like a hair dye eventually washes out, a Brazilian blowout’s effects dissipate in three to four months; for gals uncertain about committing to straight hair, this is another plus to the process.

Additionally, no special skills are necessary for a hairdresser to perform a Brazilian blowout. The obvious downside is that a stylist performing the treatment as many as eight times per day could be inhaling large amounts of formaldehyde; symptoms of the chemical range from dizziness and coughing to severe nose bleeds.

Clients who are only around the chemicals every few months are less likely to be affected, but there is no evidence to show how harmful even one exposure to the product can be. And since Brazilian Blowout itself has a pleasant, non-chemical odor, the toxicity isn’t apparent.

That leaves salons and stylists in a tough spot. “We can’t just stop offering it,” said Peraza. “If we send a client somewhere else just for a Brazilian blowout, the other salon will convince them to cut their hair there too. Then do color, or highlights or something. Pretty soon, the customer is lost,” she said.

xsHairdressers have made the difficult choice to stop offering the services in certain cases. A Brazilian blowout takes only one or two hours on average and earns the hairdresser between $200 and $600; they’re often sacrificing huge portions of their paycheck for their health. To some, it seems a small price to pay.

“A few of our stylists have said ‘I don’t want to be exposed to [the chemicals] and I don’t want to expose my client either,’” said Peraza, who continues to offer the service herself. “Our salon does have three air filters. We just put one of the big ones on turbo next to any stylist doing a Brazilian blowout,” she said laughing.

Canada’s federal health agency thinks it’s no laughing matter, however, and has taken the product off the market; a stylist in British Colombia even filed a class action lawsuit against the company.

Brazilian Blowout has done its best to appease angered stylists and salons by doing their own testing on the product’s levels of formaldehyde. Not surprisingly, their results suggested the straightening product was perfectly safe for repeated use. Bottles of Brazilian Blowout still remain label-less.

“We’ve actually called the company to ask for the ingredients,” said Peraza. “We’ve gone to classes and hair shows, and everyone has the same stories about them,” she said. “They never give out the ingredients.”

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