STUDY: Hair relaxers raise black women's risk of fibroids - Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5: ATLANTA, Ga. -
At Hair Rox Salon in College Park, owner Dana Roxette has witnessed a kind of hair "revolution." Ten years ago, she says, 95% of her African-American clients chemically-relaxed their hair.
Today, only a quarter do.
The rest are going "natural." Roxette says, "So, they can wear their hair curly like mine, wavy like mine, and go to the gym. And on the weekend, if they want to go out, they can go out and press their hair like it's relaxed."
But stylist Maya Cooper tried "natural" hair, and found it hard to keep up. Cooper explains, "I sweat easily, and because it was longer, it was just a little more work than I wanted it to do."
Cooper has been chemically-straightening her hair for 25 years.
So, she was intrigued, and a little alarmed by a 2012 Boston University study that found Black women who use hair relaxers are at slightly higher risk of developing uterine fibroids:
They're non-cancerous tumors that grow in the wall of the uterus, causing heavy bleeding, painful periods and are a leading cause of hysterectomies.
