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Hormonal activity in commonly used Black hair care products: evaluating hormone disruption as a plausible contribution to health disparities

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 31, pages 476–486 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Certain types of hair products are more commonly used by Black women. Studies show hair products contain several endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are associated with adverse health outcomes. As chemical mixtures of endocrine disruptors, hair products may be hormonally active, but this remains unclear.

Objective

To assess the hormonal activity of commonly used Black hair products.

Methods

We identified six commonly used hair products (used by >10% of the population) from the Greater New York Hair Products Study. We used reporter gene assays (RGAs) incorporating natural steroid receptors to evaluate estrogenic, androgenic, progestogenic, and glucocorticoid hormonal bioactivity employing an extraction method using bond elution prior to RGA assessment at dilutions from 50 to 500.

Results

All products displayed hormonal activity, varying in the amount and effect. Three samples showed estrogen agonist properties at levels from 12.5 to 20 ng/g estradiol equivalent concentrations All but one sample showed androgen antagonist properties at levels from 20 to 25 ng/g androgen equivalent concentrations. Four samples showed antagonistic and agonistic properties to progesterone and glucocorticoid.

Significance

Hair products commonly used by Black women showed hormonal activity. Given their frequent use, exposure to hormonally active products could have implications for health outcomes and contribute to reproductive and metabolic health disparities.

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Fig. 1: Estrogenic activity of hair products.
Fig. 2: Androgenic activity of hair products.
Fig. 3: Progesterone activity of hair products.
Fig. 4: Glucocorticoid activity for hair products.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded in part by the March of Dimes, the American Diabetes Association Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the National Institutes of Health (R01ES026166, T32ES007069, and Black Women’s Health Study R01CA058420). We would like to acknowledge Erika Rodriguez and Victoria Fruh for facilitating parts of this work.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Tamarra James-Todd, Lisa Connolly

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Tamarra James-Todd, Emma V. Preston, Marlee R. Quinn, Bharathi Gandi & Shruthi Mahalingaiah

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Tamarra James-Todd

  3. Division of Women’s Health, Department of Medicine, Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Tamarra James-Todd

  4. Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

    Lisa Connolly, Monika Plotan & Yuling Xie

  5. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Shruthi Mahalingaiah

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Contributions

TJ-T jointly conceived of the study, assisted with data interpretation and wrote the manuscript; LC jointly conceived of the study, designed and implemented the hormone assays for testing of hair products, interpreted the data and edited the manuscript; EP assisted with data interpretation and editing of the manuscript; MRQ assisted with editing and preparation of the manuscript; MP conducted the hormone assays for testing of hair products and assisted with data interpretation and editing of the manuscript, YX assisted with data interpretation and editing of the manuscript; BG assisted with data interpretation and writing of the manuscript; SM assisted with data interpretation, writing and editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tamarra James-Todd.

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James-Todd, T., Connolly, L., Preston, E.V. et al. Hormonal activity in commonly used Black hair care products: evaluating hormone disruption as a plausible contribution to health disparities. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 31, 476–486 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-021-00335-3

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