ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2023
Use of Chemical Hair Straighteners and Fecundability in a North American Preconception Cohort.
Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Use of Chemical Hair Straighteners and Menstrual Disturbances.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2026Article
- Use of hair straighteners and chemical relaxers and incidence of non-reproductive cancers.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2026Article
- Racial and ethnic differences in prenatal exposure to environmental phenols and parabens in the ECHO Cohort.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2025Article
- Experiences of discrimination across the life course among pregnancy planners in the United States and Canada.SSM - population health · 2025Article
- Validating the Black Identity, Hair Product Use, and Breast Cancer Scale (BHBS) Among Black Breast Cancer Survivors.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Chemicals of concern in select packaged hair relaxers available on the Kenyan market: an examination of ingredient labels and measurement of pH.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Hair Straightener Use in Relation to Prevalent and Incident Fibroids in the Sister Study with a Focus on Black Women.Environmental health perspectives · 2025Article
- Asking Why Is Necessary to Address Health Disparities: A Critical Approach for Solution-Oriented Environmental Epidemiological Research.Environmental health perspectives · 2024Article
- Hair product use and urinary biomarker concentrations of non-persistent endocrine disrupting chemicals among reproductive-aged Black women.Chemosphere · 2024Article
- Associations between use of chemical hair products and epigenetic age: Findings from the Sister Study.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2024Article
- Hair relaxer use and risk of uterine cancer in the Black Women's Health Study.Environmental research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Chemical hair straighteners ("relaxers") are used by millions of North Americans, particularly women of color. Hair relaxers may contain endocrine-disrupting compounds, which can harm fertility. We evaluated the association between hair relaxer use and fecundability among 11,274 participants from Pregnancy Study Online (PRESTO), a North American preconception cohort study. During 2014-2022, participants completed a baseline questionnaire in which they reported their history of relaxer use and completed follow-up questionnaires every 8 weeks for 12 months or until pregnancy, whichever came first. We used multivariable-adjusted proportional probabilities regression models to estimate fecundability ratios (FRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Relative to never use, fecundability was lower among current (FR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.64, 1.03) and former (FR = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.81, 0.98) users of hair relaxers. FRs for first use of hair relaxers at ages <10, 10-19, and ≥20 years were 0.73 (95% CI: 0.55, 0.96), 0.93 (95% CI: 0.83, 1.04), and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.74, 0.98), respectively. Fecundability was lowest among those with longer durations of use (≥10 years vs. never: FR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.54, 0.91) and more frequent use (≥5 times/year vs. never: FR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.60, 1.11), but associations were nonmonotonic. In this preconception cohort study, use of chemical hair straighteners was associated with slightly reduced fecundability.
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