One day, Ronit (not his real name) started having stomach pain, shortness of breath and fatigue, and went to the doctor for a blood test. However, she never expected that within 24 hours she would be sent to the hospital for dialysis due to severe kidney failure.
She, of course, did not expect that all this was caused by the fact that she straightened her hair the day before.
As with Ronit, 26 women in Israel (an average of one per month) are hospitalized with severe kidney failure after undergoing hair straightening procedures.
Some of these women appear to be able to recover on their own. However, others require dialysis treatment.
Some would say that among the thousands of women in Israel who straighten their hair every year, “only” 26 develop kidney failure. Kidney failure (illustrative). (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
In response, I pointed out that kidney failure requiring dialysis is very serious and life-threatening.
Patients will tell you that they don’t wish medical injury on anyone. This is a price no one should have to pay for a simple cosmetic procedure.
In the 2000s, reports of symptoms caused by hair straighteners containing formaldehyde first began to appear. This is mainly due to the hairdresser inhaling smoke during the straightening process.
These symptoms include eye irritation, breathing problems, facial rash, shortness of breath, and pulmonary edema.
But while modern hair straightening treatments don’t contain formaldehyde, they do contain something else: glyoxylic acid.
This acid is absorbed through the scalp, which is rich in blood vessels. Once in the bloodstream, glyoxylic acid breaks down into oxalic acid and calcium oxalate, which again enter the bloodstream and eventually leave the body through the kidneys as part of the urine.
This in itself is not abnormal, all people go through this process to some degree and it is usually harmless. But when exposed to extremely high doses of glyoxylic acid, oxalic acidosis can occur, leading to kidney failure.
During kidney biopsies of women who developed kidney failure after straightening their hair, deposits of calcium oxalate were found in the kidney cells.
In 2021, a three-year-old girl tried drinking a hair straightening product. She only tasted it and did not swallow it, as it tasted quite bitter, but as a result, the girl absorbed a very small amount into her mouth. The result was only severe kidney failure requiring dialysis, not death.
Following this incident, the Ministry of Health banned the issuance of licenses for all hair straightening products containing glyoxylic acid and having a pH value below 4.
But another problem is that the information on the labels of hair straightening products is not always reliable and completely honest. Back in 2010, a product in Ohio was labeled as formaldehyde-free, but it actually contained 8.5 percent formaldehyde. In 2022, an Israeli product claimed to be formaldehyde-free and contain only 2% glyoxylic acid, but it actually contained 3,082 ppm formaldehyde and 26.8% glyoxylic acid.
Interestingly, with the exception of two cases of oxalic acidosis in Egypt, all global cases of oxalic acidosis originated from Israel.
Is liver metabolism different in Israeli women from what happens around the world? Are Israeli women’s genes that break down glyoxylic acid a little “lazy”? Is there a relationship between calcium oxalate deposits and the prevalence of the genetic disease hyperoxaluria? Can these patients be offered the same treatment as patients with hyperoxaluria type 3?
These questions are still being studied, and we won’t know the answers for many years. Until then, we must not allow any woman in Israel to risk her health.
Also, if you want to straighten your hair, there are other safer products on the market that do not contain glyoxylic acid and are licensed by the Ministry of Health. This will help you maintain straight hair and a healthy body. Because we all know that true beauty comes from within.