Hair care company Brazilian Blowout is being sued in Manhattan Federal Court for $5m by a beautician who is claiming she was sickened by using one of its hair care products, although the company has denied the allegations.
According to the article in The New York Post, Dana Lulgjuraj says she suffered ‘physical injuries’ while defrizzing hair with the Brazilian Blowout product last year at a salon in the Flatiron District in New York.
It is not the first time the hair care products have come under scrutiny, following concerns raised last year over the levels of formaldehyde omitted through use of the products. (Formaldehyde is a colorless, flammable, strong-smelling chemical that is commonly used as a preservative in some consumer products including hair care products.)
It was thought those that were most at risk of irritation were those who worked closely with the substance for long periods of time such as salon workers, and earlier this year the US government listed the substance as a carcinogen, although not in direct relation to just hair care products.
Lulgjuraj has not detailed what her ‘physical injuries’ were, and the California-based manufacturer GIB has denied the allegations. GIB was in the spotlight last year for the formaldehyde omitted from its products which it says were due to confusion between the substance and methylene glycol. However, experts from the Cosmetic Ingredient Review panel say that the two exist in equilibrium and that adding methylene glycol to water will create formaldehyde and vice versa.
Formaldehyde was then put under review by the specialist industry panel, and the US government made its announcement in June this year. At the same time GIB also filed a lawsuit against the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration for damages against the company due to the claims being made, but this was later dropped.
