Hair straightening products containing glyoxylic acid increase the risk of suffering from acute kidney failure, according to a team of French doctors.
- French researchers warn against hair straightening products that contain glyoxylic acid.
- They would increase the risk of suffering from acute kidney failure.
- They carried out research after meeting a 26-year-old Marseillaise who suffered from kidney failure after going to the hairdresser 3 times.
If you are a fan of hair straightening products, be careful. French researchers have linked one of their components, glyoxylic acid, to an increased risk of acute kidney failure. They made this discovery after following the case of a young woman who presented several kidney lesions one year apart.
Kidney failure: episodes after straightening at the hairdresser
Dr. Thomas Robert of the Conception Hospital (Marseille) began to wonder about the effects of hair care after caring for a 26-year-old young woman with acute kidney failure. With no medical history, she experienced three episodes one year apart. By questioning her, he discovered that her problems began each time shortly after having straightened her hair in a Marseille hair salon.
The patient whose case is mentioned in the reviewNew England Journal of Medicine on March 21, 2024, said he felt a burning sensation during the treatments. She had other symptoms afterward like scalp irritation, vomiting, diarrhea, fever and back pain. The cream used to straighten the hair was collected from the hairdresser and then analyzed. It contained a significant quantity of glyoxylic acid, a substance increasingly used in cosmetics to replace formaldehyde, suspected of being carcinogenic.
The healthcare professional and his colleagues decided to test the product on rodents to see if it could be the cause of the young woman’s health problems. “The results on the mice are spectacular. They develop extremely severe acute renal failure within 24 hours after application of the smoothing cream. The samples show the presence of calcium oxalate crystals in all the renal tubules”explained Professor Emmanuel Letavernier who worked on this research, to Medscape French edition.
Smoothing products: glyoxylic acid may be involved
This is not the first time that hair straightening products have been suspected of being dangerous for the kidneys. In July 2023, Israeli scientists claimed to have identified twenty-six patients suffering from acute kidney injury after straightening in hair salons. A biopsy confirmed that these patients had calcium oxalate crystals in their kidneys. The researchers then suspected glycolic acid.
After carrying out a second study, Professor Letavernier ruled out this hypothesis: “glycolic acid does not pose a problem. Unlike glyoxylic acid, the application of glycolic acid to the skin of mice does not induce the formation of oxalate crystals in the kidneys, nor does it cause ‘renal failure”assures the researcher to Medscape.
Thus, faced with the various data collected, the French team concludes in its writings: “Given the potential nephrotoxicity of glyoxylic acid through topical application, products containing this compound should be avoided and, ideally, removed from the market”. She alerted the Cosmetovigilance and Tattoovigilance department of the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) of her discovery.
