This ‘rare’ form of cancer can increase in risk by three times as a result of hair straightening

According to a recent study, women who routinely use chemical hair straightening appliances are more likely to develop a cancer that is rather uncommon.

The study, which was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, included information from about 34,000 American women over the course of around 11 years (10.9 to be exact). Participants ranged in age from 35 to 74.

It highlights the fact that women who use hair straightening products have an almost three-fold increased chance of developing uterine cancer.

A Reuters report quotes the study’s lead Alexandra White of the US National Institute of Environmental Health Safety (NIEHS) as saying: ‘We estimated that 1.64 per cent of women who never used hair straighteners would go on to develop uterine cancer by the age of 70, but for frequent users, that risk goes up to 4.05 per cent.’

Due to the fact that uterine cancer is a relatively uncommon type of cancer, she continued, it is crucial to put this information into context.

378 uterine cancer cases were found among the 33,947 study participants.

In order to draw this conclusion, the researchers took into consideration other risk variables, but they still discovered that women who used chemical straightening treatments more than four times per year had a 2.5-fold greater risk of developing uterine cancer.