Brazilian Blowout Smoothing Treatment Products
Yes, it’s true- Brazilian Blowout did drop their lawsuit against Oregon OSHA. In the suit, Brazilian Blowout claimed that the test results that found the Formaldehyde-Free Brazilian Blowout formula to actually contain formaldehyde were false and misleading. You can read the details here: OregonLive.com. This link was sent to me directly from Melanie Mesaros, Oregon OSHA, Public Information Officer.
Brazilian Blowout’s statement to us was this: “The lawsuit has become a distraction, we want to focus on our core business.”
I’m not going to debate the issue here. We’ve had plenty of conversations regarding formaldehyde, the testing of it and the possible reasons that someone might have a reaction while others do not. I think many of the “foods” (read: chemicals) we put into our bodies do more damage than the keratin hair treatment we choose to put on our heads. I’m completely convinced that the stylists’ training and proper application is the main reason why some people have a reaction.
The other reason is that some people are more sensitive to chemicals. Let’s not kid ourselves, a product that changes the structure of your hair has chemicals. Just like your shampoo or your foundation. If you experience a problem, don’t use it. If you are worried you will have a problem, don’t use it. If you are a stylist and have a problem with this or any other keratin treatment, don’t use it.
Bottom line is your health is more important than your hair or your paycheck!
As a reminder, if you choose to comment on this topic keep personal attacks and foul language out of it or your comment will be deleted. Thanks for understanding.
Oh come on now. You can’t be that naive. First Brazilian Blowout, GIB, LLC said and I quote, “We stand firm that our solution is “formaldehyde” / “methylene glycol” free”. Then they said and I quote, “Oregon OSHA wrongfully issued alerts after claiming to have measured high levels of “Formaldehyde” in product testing of Brazilian Blowout solution, when in fact they were measuring and reporting concentrations of a completely different substance called “Methylene Glycol.” Look it up for yourself. The two are one in the same. If not, do you really think they would revamp their website and drop the lawsuit worth millions that would exonerate them when they are themselves facing millions of dollars in lawsuits. I don’t think so. And now they have a new product, ZERO. Check the ingredients. It is nothing more than a sodium hydroxide relaxer. Can’t wait to see the back lash this causes.
Isn’t it interesting how all of the hair stylists who so staunchly screamed that methylene glycol and formaldehyde are completely different, are all very quiet now? Especially after the American Chemistry Council and now even the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel have come to essentially the same conclusion that OSHA was scientifically accurate. Oh, and all of those Ph.D organic chemists said the same thing. And the Ph.D toxicologists. Gosh, maybe the people at OSHA actually know what they’re talking about, since dealing with chemical exposures is something they deal with every day.
But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
@ DC and Mr teatime…I TOTALLY agree with you!!! I for one have become ill from this( I’m a hairstylist),and witnessed/heard from many more stylists /clients on the bad health effects from this product(and others like it).
@ mominredhighheels…puuhhhlleese. I CHOOSE not to do this service…but the 18 other stylists still do! NOT that simple! I seriously have to contemplate what I will do for work now…single mom here…because I cannot find a salon in my area that is not money greedy over the health and well being of clients and employees!
@SMH I completely agree with you 100%…it is definitely not that easy to just “don’t use it” if everyone else around you is using it!!! I ended up quitting a job at salon that I’ve worked at for almost 18 yrs. because of the health effects that not only me, but 9 other people in my salon were having. Thank God we had strength in numbers because we found a salon in our area who was willing to ban the Keratin Treatments to get us in there. We were all sick for about a month when we first got there because the formaldehyde was still lingering in the air. The stylists who still want to do them are simply going to the clients house. It is very easy for them to have the client wash their hair with the shampoo before they get there & then proceed with the treatment as follows.
The only thing is…..this did not solve our problem completely. Problem now?? Everytime one of those clients come in after they’ve had a treatment done recently and get their hair blow dried & flat ironed we all get sick for about 2 weeks or so. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US DOES!!!! My throat and lungs are RAW right now because a client got her hair flat ironed a week and a half ago!!
Starting to really question if my love for hair is worth my health
Do you know other people in your area that get sick from these treatments? My suggestion to you is to try to get people to ban together like we did because there is DEFINITELY strength in numbers!!! Start asking around to see if people are happy with where they are at because even people who weren’t sick wanted to come with us because they were simply unhappy or didn’t want to be left behind. (Only do that if they are willing to give up the Keratin Treatments though!!)
You might be surprised at how willing a salon owner might be to jump through hoops if you’ve got a bunch of people with you ready to give them your money every week. CHA CHING for the owner!!
Also our best defense is to just get the word out there to stop the demand for these treatments altogether!! We all have told every single client the truth about the formaldehyde and how sick we all got & there is not a single client that did not follow us to the new salon. They don’t want to put their health at risk either after they find out the truth. We’ve even had several clients leave the hairdresser or manicurist that they have been going to for the last 15+ yrs. to follow us to the new salon after finding out the real reason why we all left. They don’t want to be around formaldehyde & were really upset that their service provider didn’t tell them the truth!!
Good thing is the media has been catching on & now the clients are seeing it on the news…THANK GOD!!!
The science behind formaldehyde and methylene glycol, including charts and molecular diagrams showing how they are different: http://personalcaretruth.com/2010/10/doug-schoon-responds-to-misleading-claims-by-oregon-osha-that-methylene-glycol-is-a-synonym-for-formaldehyde/
@Jennifer I don’t understand how so many people in one salon can be so strongly affected, when so many more people have had no problems at all. Psychosomatic? Perhaps. Misuse/overuse of product? Quite likely. Very poor ventilation? Almost certainly.
If fumes were lingering in your new salon for days or weeks, there is a serious ventilation problem that is bad for you all, regardless of which chemicals you choose to work with. I am glad you have found a new salon, but I would strongly suggest you discuss this with the owner. Even without keratin treatments, this could be bad for you all as we use various chemicals every day that should be effectively filtered and removed from the salon via HVAC or other systems. A salon’s air conditioning vents should be equipped with appropriate filters, which should be changed regularly to prevent chemical residue from being stagnant in the air. This is true for ammonia in color, dust from bleach, fumes from perm solution, etc.
Jordana, really? You’re trotting out the opinion of one chemist, the only one I have seen that has tried that position? Here’s an answer from another chemist (also an MS, but a Ph.D candidate) http://icanhasscience.com/chemistry/really-we%E2%80%99re-doing-this-again/
Or you could go with an organic chemist with a Ph.D who had some thoughts about it http://blogs.reed.edu/chem201202/2010/11/when-is-a-glycol-not-a-glycol.html
Or you could go with the American Chemistry Council’s position on the OSHA testing methods (here’s a hint: they say. “The American Chemistry Council?s Formaldehyde Panel believes that the measurement of the formaldehyde content of any product should take into account all forms of the chemical, including as a gas and in a solution. Workers and consumers can effectively manage potential risks from these hair smoothing products only if the product label, Material Safety Data Sheet and other product literature convey accurate ingredient and safety information.
After analyzing numerous hair salon products, Oregon Occupational Health and Safety
Division (Oregon OSHA), concluded in its report, “Keratin-Based Hair Smoothing Products And
the Presence of Formaldehyde,” that “it is scientifically correct to measure the „formaldehyde
content? of a solution without excluding that portion of the formaldehyde that has reacted with
the water to form “methylene glycol.” http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_acc/bin.asp?CID=2447&DID=11550&DOC=FILE.PDF
Or you could go with the 6 Ph.D’s who are listed as reviewers in the original OSHA report.
But then, they’re just a bunch of chemists. What do they know?
@Mr. Teatime I am not “trotting out” anything, and would prefer if we could have a respectful conversation without resorting to condescension/sarcasm. What I did was post a link to a statement from an industry chemical advisor. As for calculating formaldehyde based on gas as well as solution, well…
As a gas, the content was measured by OSHA, and the results showed it was within their guidelines: http://www.orosha.org/pdf/Final_Hair_Smoothing_Report.pdf (refer to page 25)
As a solution, the argument is this: “Products containing 5% Formalin (or less) contain less than 0.0025% Formaldehyde. The reason Oregon OSHA (and others) quote a much higher percentages is: The test methods they use actually measure both Methylene Glycol and Formaldehyde together as though they were one chemical, and do not report them separately, or use their proper chemical names. A “10% Formaldehyde” report from Oregon OSHA would be scientifically correct if it reported 9.96% Methylene Glycol and 0.04% Formaldehyde instead.”
Analogy: One ounce of Starbucks espresso contains 75mg of caffeine (.26% by weight, as one ounce translates to 28,350mg.) If you add that ounce of espresso to 6oz of steamed milk, you have a tall latte. The latte is appx. 14% espresso (one-seventh,) but it is certainly not 14% caffeine, as that would be 27,783mg…a lethal dose.
And to the safety standards of formaldehyde, American Chemistry magazine sent me the following article, questioning the EPA’s draft on formaldehyde risk assessment, considering that human breath contains more than it considers safe: http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_acc/sec_news_article.asp?CID=206&DID=11831
@ Jordana
Psychosomatic???? REALLY???? Let me get this straight…so your telling me that all of the Dr. visits, nosebleeds, difficulty breathing, pounding headaches, sore throats, burning eyes, burning lungs, dizziness, coughing, burning sinuses, rounds of antibiotics, and 2 seperate people (who have no history of breathing problems) prescribed with 2 seperate inhalers are all in our heads?? Honestly Jordana, the more evidence that piles up against this company the more RIDICULOUS your comments sound!!
As far as misuse/overuse of the product (because I know this is one of your favorite excuses) I have a little secret for you Jordana….you’re not the only hairstylist in the world that knows how to do hair!!
In fact we were VERY aware not to overuse this product because one of my former coworkers was having problems with her eyes burning & the smoke that the product would give off during the flat iron process. She called the company and they told her make sure there is no residue left on your comb…..so yes we were very aware NOT to overuse Brazilian Blowout and there was no left over residue on the comb.
Now the ventilation. The very first time I came into contact with Brazilian Blowout was when the treatment was being performed on my hair. Within the first 10 minutes we were both having such a bad reaction that we ended up having to do the rest of the treatment outside….CAN’T GET MORE “VENTILATED” THAN THAT NOW CAN WE????
And yes you are right, most salons are not equipped or ventilated enough for…..FORMALDEHYDE!!!!
So how about this….I’m going to continue to listen to warnings from my Doctor, and also the warnings from the Cosmetic Ingredient Review expert panel (who states that even at 0.2% “Panel said it could not conclude” that formaldehyde/methylene glycol is safe in cosmetic products intended to be aerosolized or in which formaldehyde/methylene glycol vapor or gas will be produced under conditions of use.”), the California Department of Public Health, the American Chemistry Council Formaldehyde Panel, California Osha, Health Canada, Washington Department of Labor Industries, Oregon Osha, Connecticut Department of Public Health, the FDA, Oregon Health Licensing Agency, Environmental Working Group, Minnesota Department of Heath, regulators in Wisconsin, the California Attorney General, FEDERAL OSHA, and most importantly…MY OWN BODY!!!
And you can continue to listen to Brazilian Blowout and Doug Schoon.
Oh and uhhh….good luck with that!!
@Jennifer I am sorry to hear of the reactions that you and your co-workers have experienced. It is a shame you weren’t able to attend a Certification class, where you would have seen the treatment performed, thus having contact before buying it, and learned that it was not going to be right for you. I agree that the most important thing to listen to is your own body, and I am glad to hear that you’ve now decided to do that.
I also listen to mine, and have had no such symptoms after performing over 600 treatments. Nor have any of my clients. So I shall continue to do what works for me, and them, which includes using a specialized air filtration system designed and tested for use with smoothing treatments and other hair services.
@Jordana, a couple of things you are neglecting to take into account. First, the testing methods for formaldehyde in solution count “methylene glycol” as formaldehyde. It is formaldehyde in solution. I have seen only one chemist (with a Masters) argue otherwise. Every other chemist (like the Ph.D organic chemists I mentioned earlier) do not agree with that one chemist. There is no real controversy in the chemistry world. The American Chemistry Council backed up the Oregon OSHA testing, which calls “methylene glycol” formaldehyde. Until any other Ph.D organic chemist comes out and publicly states the same argument, the argument for “methylene glycol is not formaldehyde” is pretty much dead. Except for companies and their supporters who don’t understand science.
Second, formaldehyde in solution is measured differently than formaldehyde in the air. Solutions are tested in percentage; formaldehyde in the air is tested in parts per million. If you want a side-by-side comparison, it is actually quite easy: 1% = 10,000 parts per million. The recommended ceiling limit for formaldehyde is 0.3 parts per million. Are you seeing the problem yet?
Third, you are ignoring the fact that federal OSHA did, in fact, find overexposures in salons when they used the product. As the Administrator of Oregon OSHA told you in another thread, Oregon OSHA didn’t “prove” the product was safe. Oregon OSHA proved that formaldehyde as a gas can be present when the product is used.
Fourth, most of what OSHA has been talking about are the requirements for the company to tell their customers what is in their product so the customers can make intelligent and informed decisions on how to use it. If you recall, this company originally didn’t mention anything. If I recall correctly, they said it didn’t have any kind of “hyde” (which also demonstrates their woefully inadequate understanding of the science). In fact, didn’t you mention in yet another thread that you contacted the company months ago and they told you explicitly that their product didn’t contain methylene glycol either?
Fifth, your example that you have not had any problems does not mean that the product cannot cause any for anyone else. I’ve known people who have smoked cigarettes their whole lives without getting cancer or emphysema, but that doesn’t mean that smoking doesn’t cause cancer.
This product contains a known human carcinogen, and it is very well understood by the safety community, but not anywhere near as well as the hair stylist community. The company had a responsibility to tell hair stylists that, and to give information on how to use it safely. When you look at the information initially provided by the company, there was no mention of any hazardous ingredients. There was no mention of gloves. There was no mention of a ventilation system. There was no mention of any kind of precaution of any kind. So I really don’t understand why hair stylists continue to support the company that failed to provide accurate information. It kind of reminds me of the workers that insisted that asbestos was perfectly safe as they installed it in schools, hospitals, houses, nursing homes….
That didn’t work out so well either.
Okie Dokie. I’m not going to argue or try to change anyone’s mind. I will say that when I trained on Brazilian Blowout, I was taught to use gloves and to have a fan going. When I had my first treatment done by the Creator of the product (prior to taking the class, because I wanted to try it out,) this is how he did it and we had no problem.
With time, I found that a fan was not sufficient in my salon situation, so I started looking for other solutions. I found Aerovex Systems, who makes an air filtration unit specifically for use with hair treatments. It vacuums up fumes as they are created, and runs them through three different types of filters, including 10lbs of activated carbon. It wouldn’t surprise me if the outcome of this controversy is that equipment like this becomes standard.
If anyone is interested in learning more about this system and how I use it, please feel free to see it at http://www.SaferBrazilian.com.