JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Working with chemicals is just part of the job for Gail Carter-Cade, owner of GA LA CAR Beauty Salon in Arlington. In her more than 30 years as a stylist, she has chemically straightened and colored the hair of hundreds of women.
"I love beauty, and I love making women look beautiful," she said.
But new research has her feeling a little worried. A study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which looked at data from about 50,000 women who each had a sister with breast cancer, found women who regularly used permanent hair dye in the year prior to enrolling in the study were 9% more likely than women who didn't to develop breast cancer.
Black women who used permanent hair dyes every five to eight weeks had a 60% increased risk, while white women had an 8% increased risk, researchers said.
And hair dye wasn't the only risk factor.
"We also found women who reported frequently using chemical hair straighteners had about a 30% increase in breast cancer risk regardless of race," said Dale Sandler, who is with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and co-authored the study.
The research did not take into account what chemicals were in the hair products these women used regularly.
"We just asked about hair dye in general, but there've been multiple products on the market. We didn't ask whether women were doing this by themselves or whether a hairdresser was doing. There are many more questions we have," Sandler said.
Dr. Laila Samiian, a breast surgical oncologist at Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center in Jacksonville, said, because all of the women in the study had a family history of breast cancer they were already at a higher risk.
"What I was surprised in reading the article is how many chemicals and carcinogenic chemicals are in these hair products and the hair straighteners. That's the part that really got me, because there's been lab studies that have shown in rats that these chemicals can cause breast cancer in lab animals," she said.
Avoiding exposure to chemicals is helpful, Samiian said.
"You know cancer-causing chemicals can accumulate in your body over time and years and years, but there are lots of other things that cause breast cancer, so one of the main causes we see is obesity, hormone exposure, alcohol, smoking."
Previous studies on the link between hair dye use and breast cancer have been inconsistent and often limited to white women. Not a lot of research has been done on the risk associated with chemical relaxers or straighteners, which are more commonly used by black women.
Elena Pius said she's not surprised salon chemicals have health effects. She's been a stylist for more than a decade. Several years ago, she began to notice a physical reaction to the chemicals.
"I really started noticed breathing effects," she said.
Pius, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor, changed salons and now uses what she considers healthier hair products.
"Granted, I definitely am still using permanent hair color, but I try to find more no ammonia versions of it, and I'm wearing my gloves consistently," she said.
That kind of protection can help, as can knowing more about what is in certain hair products.
"Some of the hair products that are marketed to African-American women have a higher concentration of hormone-disrupting chemicals," Samiian said. "Also hair straighteners have a lot of formaldehyde, so like the Brazilian keratin hair product that's very good at hair straightening, it's full of formaldehyde which is cancer-causing."
The American Cancer Society said studying hair dyes can be complex because they can contain thousands of different chemicals, and over the years, ingredients have changed. Both researchers and those in the medical community agree more studies are needed.
"There are many different things that cause because breast cancer," Sandler said. "There is no one single cause, and so I think that people need to consider our findings when they're making decisions, their personal decisions about their lifestyles. We'd like to see these findings replicated before recommendations could be made."
Carter-Cade said awareness is key. Like Pius, she plans to now always wear gloves when working with chemicals and plans to talk to her customers about the potential risks.
"We're going to have to take all that too into consideration as we're making our clients look beautiful," she said.
If you want to dye your hair but are concerned about safety, the FDA recommends following the directions in the package and paying attention to all warning statements. Also, wear gloves when you apply chemicals and don't leave the dye on your head any longer than the directions say you should.
The NIH study found little to no increase in breast cancer risk for semi-permanent or temporary dye use.
See more on First Coast News tonight at 11 p.m.