Opinion | An NIH cancer study casts a scary shadow over our 90s perms -

Happy Friday!

If you’ve been reading my newsletter from the beginning, you know I like to take trips down ’90s memory lane. And for two weeks I’ve been thinking about Black women and girls and the lengths so many of us would go to back then to straighten our hair.

I think I was about 10 when I decided I wanted a perm. I don’t know why or where I got the idea that straight hair would be better than my natural hair. All I knew was that I wanted to have long hair like the models on the front of the perm packaging. My mom asked me if I was sure, but for her, managing my thick natural hair every day for school was a lot. Did I understand that a relaxer meant I would have to go to the salon every six weeks to relax the new growth? I was sure.

So my mom bought an at-home chemical relaxer kit, and she got to work over the kitchen sink. The chemical perm was a white, lotion-y goop with a harsh smell. Some of the relaxer got into my eye and started to sting, leaving a blister on my inner eyelid. But my hair was straight! Not long, but straight(ish) and flowy. I felt grown.

For the next decade, we would go to our hairdresser, Ms. Lena, every week to get the perm. She would apply the cream and leave it on my natural growth — sometimes for too long. My scalp would itch and burn, which would leave scabs. Even then, I wondered whether the chemicals were safe.

But the salon became the ritual. Anything for hair that looked longer, silkier, more “manageable.”

Follow this authorKaren Attiah's opinions

Now, over the past two weeks, chemical hair relaxers have come back into the spotlight, and not for any good reason. A large new study from the National Institutes of Health found a link between their use and increased rates of uterine cancer. Given that Black women and girls are more likely to use relaxers, and to start them at an early age, we are more at risk, the study authors reported. Jenny Mitchell, a Black woman in Missouri, filed a federal lawsuit this month against the makers of some of the relaxers, alleging that they knew, or should have known, that the products presented a cancer risk but sold them anyway. Mitchell believes the chemical relaxers contributed to her uterine cancer, which led to her hysterectomy. (In a statement, the Personal Care Products Council, a cosmetics industry group, said that the NIH study did not prove that hair relaxers caused uterine cancer.)

The NIH study suggests that White beauty standards are literally life-threatening for us. Black women and girls have long been told that our natural hair is “nappy,” “unprofessional” or otherwise not acceptable at school or in the workforce. We were told by well-meaning friends and relatives to straighten it, to be more acceptable in society.

In the mid-2010s, many Black women ditched the relaxers and started wearing their natural hair, me included. In some states, we now, in theory, have legal protections against hair discrimination, in the form of Crown Acts barring race-based hair discrimination in education and employment. But Black women, in the spotlight and out, still face pressure to not wear their fully natural hair, and some have been going back to relaxers.

Personally, I think Black women should do whatever they want with their hair. But we deserve to be informed about any chemicals in products that we are putting on our bodies. We should demand that companies use safer ingredients.

Oh, and as for those perm-box girls I wanted to look like?

Many of them also decided to go for the natural-hair look.

Home Front: Stop making serial killers cool

Speaking of spreading poison ... I’ve never really understood our culture’s obsession with serial killers. The endless stream of TV shows, podcasts, movies, novels and other works about killing sometimes makes me wonder if as a society we are truly sick.

Netflix recently released the limited series “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” It’s about one of the most well-known serial killers in American history, Jeffry Dahmer, and his journey from youth to disturbed, murderous adult who raped, killed and often dismembered vulnerable gay men (many of them of color). It become the No. 1 series streamed on the platform.

But it didn’t stop there. The show has inspired newfound glorification of Dahmer, who was beaten to death in prison in 1994. Social media users, especially on TikTok, have made videos about how handsome they think Dahmer was. A restaurant here in Texas created a “Jeffry Dahmer special" pizza display. It’s gone so far now that eBay has banned Dahmer Halloween costumes from its platform.

Who would dress up their kid as a real-life serial killer?

It’s all hard to fathom. So many questions. Do other countries and cultures do this? Are mass-shooter costumes next? Is the morbid fascination connected to the elements of fetish in his story? Or is it an especially troubling facet of White privilege? Not something I want to spend a lot of time thinking about, other than to speak up for the victims’ families: Not only do they have to relive yet another documentary project, but now, thanks to social media, they also will see their loved ones’ killer become a celebrity, again.

I can’t think of a more ghoulish thing than to wear this man as a Halloween outfit. But if you are planning to, here’s some advice:

Don’t freaking do it.

For the Culture: Kanye’s Kan-cellation

For this week’s column, I wrote about corporate fallout from Ye’s anti-Black and antisemitic outbursts.

Kanye West, who changed his name to Ye, was dropped from deals and associations with Adidas, Gap, Balenciaga, Vogue, and talent agency CAA. Then Foot Locker said it will no longer carry Yeezy merchandise. Online reseller the RealReal said it would not carry Yeezys. Peloton has said it will not use his music in its classes. Even TJ Maxx jumped in, saying it would not carry the rapper’s merch. LOL. The internet has started to chuckle a bit, making fun of the fact that brands are jumping on the chance for a brand enhancement.

It’s not that I am against consequences for Ye. I am all for them. For far too long, Ye has been allowed to get away with bigotry and buffoonery. It’s just that I am so deeply skeptical of corporate America when it comes to social justice. Big business does what is good for its bottom line and stock prices. Full stop. Is it such a brave statement for re-sellers and retailers to say they won’t carry Yeezys when Adidas is terminating the deal anyway?

I’ll be curious to see whether the reckoning will spread to Ye’s music: Variety had an interesting look this week at the current status of his recording deals. It compares and contrasts Ye’s situation and the push for consequences with R. Kelly after he was convicted of sex crimes. It’s worth a look.

Cat’s Corner: Happy Birthday, Artemis!

Okay, that’s enough doom and gloom ... so here’s my cat! They grow up so fast! Artemis the Birman turns 2 on Halloween. He’s not a big fan of costumes, I thought he would consent to wearing a spooky glow-in-the-dark bow tie, but I was wrong. This was the best I could do

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