Question BDO – Dr. Mel:
The question is, is just in general, how can things that we put in our hand and on our skin potentially affect our bodies. Isn’t our skin supposed to be a barrier?
Dr Melanye Maclin, Dermatologist:
Yes, the skin is supposed to be the barrier, but the skin is actually the largest organ. And our skin has tons of little openings called pores and follicles that embrace our entire body except our palms and our souls. So of course, whatever that we’re putting on topically can absorb through those pores. And it’s especially hazardous when it gets on the scalp because a scalp has tons and tons of pores and blood vessels. And so those chemicals whether it’s a lotion grease or ointment, or solution of relaxers, hair dye, those just make it the worst on the scalp. And so that’s really where, where it hits a home run with causing health problems is especially on the scalp, more so than the other parts of our skin. So we really have to be focused on what we are doing to that scalp. It was found that the chemicals from the hair relaxers and the hair dyes specifically affected us women of color, making us a 45% greater risk of breast cancer.
Question BDO – Dr. Mel:
Can you tell us a little bit about what is an endocrine disruptor, and how does that figure into this whole equation with these various products?
Dr Melanye Maclin, Dermatologist:
Our endocrine system is what secretes our hormones. What happens is the chemicals that are in many of these skin and hair products can actually mimic estrogen and actually disrupt what our own estrogen should normally do.There’s a whole list of endocrine disrupting chemicals. The ones that we really wanna look out for are the parabins, the thalates, the bisphenol A, the hydroxide chemicals that’s in the no lye relaxers actually, let me touch on that because there was a big lie in that piece. Um, sodium hydroxide, the, you know, the generic, what we call it is no lie. I mean, it’s is lie relaxer. And those are the relaxers that we typically are in the hands of a certified, um, professional to give those in the beauty, you know, the beauty salons itself, right. Those cannot be done at home. However, the great marketing genius manufacturers decided they were gonna come up with this no lye product, which really was the wlorst thing that could have happened to women of color and their hair. Puting a product on your hair with no base and that hydroxide caused an increase in absorption leading to increased infertility, fibroids and aggressive breast cancer.
Question – BDO Dr. Mel:
Are there skin products that we should be concerned about, for example, when it comes to makeups?
Dr Melanye Maclin, Dermatologist:
A lot of the manufacturers have been made aware of the chemicals that should not be put into skincare products. So the skincare products are not really as much of an issue because the manufacturers have caught up with what they’re not supposed to be putting in. Like, for example, the parabins and phthalates, and the bisphenol A, that I mentioned earlier. You don’t really find those in the makeups. Now they are in skin lotions and moisturizers, there still are chemicals and preservatives that’s in those products. But there, Dr. Mel, they are honestly a lot safer than the chemicals that are in the hair products. And also with the skin products, it’s not really absorbing too much into the skin. It’s really staying at the surface. So it’s really more of like a cleanse and little lotion and it’s washed off. It’s not absorbing deep enough to cause the hazardous health effects that pertain to the hair chemicals. I mean, those are chemicals that’s burning. Everybody has said, if you don’t feel the burn, you’re not gonna have straight hair. Right. Well guess what, yes. When you felt that burn, the nerves run neck and neck with the arteries and the veins in our body. So when you feel that burn, that means your nerves are activated, your nerves felt the burn. So if the nerves are running down the neck, the neck with our blood vessels, then that it’s getting into the blood vessels as well. And that’s the scary factor.
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