Keeping your hair looking good in Florida’s heat and humidity is a constant battle, so many folks turn to chemical hair straighteners to get rid of the frizz. 

“Florida: You walk out the door, the humidity hits you. Your hair frizzes,” said Joyce Panapa, owner of The Salon at Carrollwood.

While these keratin hair smoothers — as they’re called — can help make your hair easier to manage, they’ve been plagued by controversy ever since OSHA and the FDA warned of health risks from a key ingredient-- formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a known cancer-causing agent that can also cause severe eye, nose and throat irritation.

Stylist Mikel Sandoval, owner of Mikel’s The Paul Mitchell Experience, is concerned enough that he won’t do straighteners in his salon.

“We don’t want the risk,” he said.  “It’s just those carcinogenic gases that are released that would be my biggest concern.”

Stylist Joyce Panapa, though, still does chemical smoothers all the time.  

“I’m not concerned at all,” she said. “It’s about knowing your product and knowing what causes that so-called fume to come from a formaldehyde base.”

Since OSHA put out its first warning several years ago, most keratin smoothing brands have reformulated their ingredients and now claim to contain less formaldehyde or to be formaldehyde free.

When you get a keratin smoother, the solution is applied to your hair, it’s dried with a blow dryer, and then a hot smoothing iron is used to seal the cuticle.  Before the formula changes, the sealing process used to give off a pungent odor and steam, which has been a key concern.

Panapa says she sees a big difference in the popular Brazilian Blowout, which she uses.

“They’ve come so much farther now,” she says. “You don’t create the fumes or the odor.  I don’t even smell it at all when I’m doing it.”

OSHA, however, warns some companies’ claims to be “formaldehyde free” are misleading.  They’ve put out a “Hazard Alert” saying many of the reformulated products still contain chemicals such as methylene glycol, formalin and methylene oxide, among others, which can turn to formaldehyde when heat is applied.

Panapa says in her experience, you only get the fumes when you use too much product. 

“With heat and too much solution, it can cause fumes from formaldehyde. It’s like a chemical reaction,” she explained.

She said you must apply the solution when the hair is wet so it doesn’t absorb too much product, and only use about a half-ounce for a full head of hair.

“Knowing your product, how much to use, and how much heat to put on that individual really eliminates any fear,” she said.

Still it’s not a chance Sandoval is willing to take for himself, his clients or the other stylists at his salon.

“Any time it would say ‘Hazard Alert,’ I don’t think I want to touch it,” he said.

Sandoval says he would rather teach clients how to use hair products and styling tools like the blow dryer and hot smoothing iron to make their hair sleek and shiny.  (Click on the video link above to hear Sandoval describe alternatives to chemical hair smoothers.)

The greatest concern with these keratin smoothers is for stylists who are exposed most often, but there’s also concern they can damage hair if over-used. 

The straighteners generally last about three to four months, sometimes as long as six, depending on how coarse your hair is and how often you wash it. And they aren’t cheap. They can cost between $150 and $500, depending on where you get it done.

The bottom line: There is no truly, long lasting keratin-based straightener that is considered completely safe.  If you plan to do it anyway, go to an educated stylist who knows his or her product well.  That’s your best bet to be as safe as possible and prevent damage to your hair.

Link for OSHA info on keratin hair straighteners: https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/hairsalons/

OSHA Hazard Alert:  https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/formaldehyde/hazard_alert.html