L’Oréal Faces New Lawsuit from Minnesota Over Hair Relaxer Cancer Concerns

L’Oréal is facing a new lawsuit from the state of Minnesota over claims that its popular hair relaxers cause cancer.

The lawsuit, which was announced on Friday, argues that the beauty giant concealed a heightened risk of uterine cancer tied to the use of its chemical hair relaxers. Advocates claim the straightening products were deceptively marketed to Black women and children.

“It’s outrageous that L’Oréal marketed these products to Black women and girls as safe when they knew they were not and had a duty to disclose they were not,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement.

The lawsuit comes just a month after Arizona filed a similar lawsuit against L’Oréal. Both complaints cite research demonstrating that consistent use of hair relaxers may result in a higher risk of ovarian and uterine cancer.

One 2022 study found that women who used hair relaxers more than four times a year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer as those who didn’t.

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Thousands of Hair Relaxer Lawsuits Claim Manufacturers Failed to Warn of Cancer Risk

While U.S. states are just now beginning to focus on the potential ties between hair relaxers and cancer, individual lawsuits over similar claims have been ongoing for years.

There are currently more than 12,300 hair relaxer lawsuits active in federal court claiming that L’Oréal and other manufacturers failed to warn their customers of a potential cancer risk.

Those cases have been grouped together in multidistrict litigation (MDL), placing them all before one judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings.

MDLs typically culminate with bellwether trials, where several cases considered to be good examples of the wider litigation are selected to go before a jury. The outcome of those trials typically plays a big role in steering settlement talks for all cases.

The first hair relaxer trial is expected to begin in September 2027.