By Will Atwater

Krista Morehead, 27, has worked in her family’s business since she was a teenager. She described that business, Personal Treasures Salon and Beauty Supply Store in Greensboro, as a Black-owned business primarily selling hair-related items, including extensions, wigs, conditioners, and some makeup and skin moisturizers.

Judging from her presence on the store’s Facebook page, Morehead has a magnetic personality. 

“I have people come in here just to see me and to buy from me, because I’ve built that relationship with them,” she told a reporter during a 2023 interview.

Black-owned beauty supply stores like the one Morehead’s family owns represent just 2.5 percent of the massive U.S. beauty and personal care industry, even as Black customers contributed 11.1 percent of revenue spent in the sector, according to a 2022 report by McKinsey & Company, a global management and consulting firm. 

Even though Black consumers spent more than $9 billion on beauty supplies in 2023, there are signs that the industry isn’t doing enough to protect their health.

An analysis of more than 4,000 beauty and personal care products marketed to Black women revealed that nearly 80 percent of them contain toxic chemicals, according to a report released by the Environmental Working Group in February.

The latest findings build on an earlier, 2016 report by the organization that examined cosmetics marketed to Black women.

“Almost a decade after our first report, what we found was that Black women are still being exposed to higher hazards in personal care products,” said Alexa Friedman, a senior scientist at the organization and report co-author, during a webinar.

And instead of the situation improving, these customers are being exposed to even more toxins than before.

“There’s been an increase in the use of undisclosed fragrance chemicals in these products,” Friedman noted. “That means that the label only says the word fragrance or perfume, without actually labeling what the ingredients are that make up the fragrance blend.” 

And the lack of ingredient disclosure puts women at risk, Friedman said.

‘Serious health concerns’

The U.S. market is expected to generate more than $100 billion in sales in 2025, according to data provided by Statista. Fragrances, makeup, oils and products to straighten, curl and color hair are just some items available on the market.

“People aren’t using just one product or one type of fragrance blend,” Friedman said. “They’re actually being exposed to complex mixtures of ingredients that can have effects such as disrupting your hormones, interfering with fertility and an increased risk of cancers and other serious health concerns.”

The Environmental Working Group and others continue to lobby for a federal ban on formaldehyde in hair smoothing products. Credit: FDA

One such chemical is formaldehyde, a naturally occurring substance that can appear in  small traces in food. In larger quantities, it’s also an ingredient in hair straighteners that Environmental Working Group has lobbied the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban for at least a decade.

Analysts from the organization expressed concern not just for people who use the products, but for the hair stylists who have occupational exposure to formaldehyde and other chemicals, sometimes over the course of decades.

Aside from hair care products, formaldehyde is used in the funeral industry to preserve bodies and in the manufacturing of plywood and other pressed wood products. It’s also a component of tobacco smoke, which is linked to cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, formaldehyde exposure has caused nasal cancer and leukemia in lab animals, and it has been linked to similar cancer in humans. 

Other potentially toxic ingredients include quaternary ammonium compounds, which can cause skin irritation, parabens that are potential endocrine disruptors, and fragrances that can cause skin and respiratory irritation and allergic reactions. 

State regulatory efforts

Despite the absence of a ban at the federal level, the advocacy organization says that some states are acting to protect residents against this hazardous chemical. 

“We are seeing some encouraging steps taken at the state level, as states like California, Maryland, Oregon and Washington have passed groundbreaking legislation to ban chemicals like formaldehyde and PFAs in cosmetics,” said Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs at Environmental Working Group. 

“These laws are really a significant leap forward in protecting consumers, especially Black women, from exposure to toxic ingredients linked to cancer, asthma, hormone disruption and reproductive harm.”

As work to remove toxic chemicals from cosmetics continues, more Black-owned beauty and personal care businesses have emerged, offering consumers safer alternatives. Credit: Nora Atwater

Benesh points to California’s Toxic Free Cosmetics Act, which goes into effect this year and bans 24 harmful chemicals from beauty products sold in the state. 

Benesh also highlighted New York State’s proposed Justice Beauty Act. Reintroduced this year, she said the act “highlights risk to women of color who use dyes and straighteners like the ones mentioned in our report, and bans additional toxic ingredients like carbon black, benzene, arsenic and cyclotetrasiloxane.” 

And for Black women who choose not to use chemicals on their hair and who wear their hair in more “natural” styles, the environment is improving. 

To date, 27 states have passed laws that prohibit employers from discriminating against Black women and others who choose to wear natural hairstyles, such as braids, dreadlocks and twists. In 2019, California was the first state to establish the CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act).

A shift toward natural

As work to remove toxic chemicals from cosmetics continues, more Black-owned beauty and personal care businesses have emerged to offer consumers safer alternatives.

Kristian Edwards, co-author of the report released by Environmental Working Group, is the founder of BLK + GRN, an online marketplace that sells all natural personal care and beauty products created by Black women entrepreneurs.

“I started Black and Green to make it easier for people to find all natural, non toxic products,” Edwards said during a webinar sponsored by the advocacy organization. 

Reflecting on the report she co-authored, Edwards said the report “contributes to the Beauty Justice Research that emphasizes how racialized beauty standards are leading to the use of hair straighteners and skin fading and lightening creams, which are some of the highest hazard product categories.”

However, buoyed by anti-discrimination laws, media influencers and a greater awareness of harmful chemicals in hair products such as relaxers, nontoxic personal care products are becoming more accessible.

In Greensboro, Morehead said that in recent years Personal Treasures Salon and Beauty Supply has begun carrying more natural product brands. She also mentioned that products such as hair extensions and wigs offer women an opportunity to try different looks without exposing themselves to harmful chemicals. 

“If you wear a wig and you have braids [underneath] you can just put a natural oil on those braids for weeks until you’re ready to take that wig off.”

Edwards acknowledges that sometimes women choose to use relaxers because the products may reduce the time it takes to style their hair. 

“Women have the choice to do that, we just want to make sure that they’re not using products that are going to add toxins.”

To learn more about chemicals in beauty and personal care products, consult Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Database.