L’Oreal Hit With Suit Linking Hair Relaxer to Uterine Cancer

L’Oreal USA Inc. and others were hit with a lawsuit by a Missouri woman who alleges chemicals in their hair-relaxer products—heavily marketed to Black women—caused her uterine cancer, a disease that affects Black women at a higher rate than White women.

Jenny Mitchell began using hair relaxers around 2000, when she was 10, and continued to use them until March 2022, she says.

Her cancer was diagnosed in August 2018, when she was 28. She underwent a hysterectomy the following month, according to her lawsuit, filed Oct. 21 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Hair ...