Woman, 26, suffers organ failure from HAIR CREAM which caused her kidney to shut down

• Woman also felt nauseous and suffered from vomiting, diarrhea and back pain
• She was treated with hair straighteners that contained glyoxylic acid
• READ MORE: Three women sue L’Oreal claiming straighteners gave them cancer 

A chemical used in hair straighteners sold online could cause kidney failure, doctors warn — after a woman who regularly got her hair done suffered organ damage.

The woman, who was not named, also felt nauseous and suffered from vomiting, diarrhea, fever and back pain just after regularly using products with glyoxylic acid.

She had no health problems before the treatments, but said she would also feel a burning sensation on her scalp whenever the chemicals were applied.

Doctors warned that glyoxylic acid and its derivatives — like glycolic acid — popular in ‘Brazilian’ and ‘formaldehyde-free’ hair straightening treatments, could seep through the skin into the blood and travel to the internal organs.

Once there, they could form crystals — the doctors suggested — which may stop the kidneys from functioning correctly.

Chemical straighteners, typically marketed to black women, break down protein bonds in curly hair using chemicals known to disrupt the body’s hormone balance, leaving the hair permanently straight (stock image)

Pictured above is a hair straightening product that contains glyoxylic acid for sale on Amazon

In the case, revealed in the New England Journal of Medicine, the woman went for treatments three times at the same salon in June 2020, April 2021 and July 2022.

On the same day after each treatment she was diagnosed with acute kidney injury, which is a sudden loss of function in the kidneys — when they stop filtering water and waste products from the blood.

Hospital tests showed levels of creatinine — a waste product — in her blood surged to double their normal measurements.

It was not clear how she was treated, but this may have included intravenous fluids and dialysis — or being hooked up to a machine to filter the blood.

The woman, from Tunisia, had used a cream that contained ten percent glyoxylic acid.

Doctors suggested glyoxylic acid damaged the kidneys because within the organs it was broken down into ‘elongated’ crystals which formed stones and stopped the organs from functioning properly.

Glyoxylic acid works by temporarily altering the structure of hair, allowing hairdressers to change frizzy hair to straight.

Shown here is another hair straightening product which contains glyoxylic acid

And a third product available on Amazon which also contains the chemical

The revelation comes amid three lawsuits against L’Oreal over its hair straightening cream, which women claim gave them cancer.

They include Jennifer Mitchell, 32, from Missouri, who said she had been using chemical products to straighten her hair since she was in third grade in 2000.

But by 2018, the woman said she was diagnosed with uterine cancer and had to have a hysterectomy — robbing her of the chance to have children.

Three MORE women sue L’Oreal 

Rhonda Terrell, 55, Bernadette Gordon, 49, and Rugieyatu Bhonopha, 39, were diagnosed with womb and breast tumors after using the products for decades.

About 60 percent of women who use hair straighteners in the US are black, relying on the products to dismantle their natural frizzy hair.

For the study, doctors also carried out an experiment on ten mice to investigate the risks of glyoxylic acid.

The mice were split into two groups, with half having the acid spread on their backs while the rest received the placebo petroleum jelly.

Tests showed that the mice treated with the chemical had the ‘elongated’ crystals in their urine, unlike the mice that did not receive it.

They said the crystals resembled those seen in people who had ingested the toxic alcohol ethylene glycol, found in many industrial products like antifreeze.

These mice also had ‘significantly’ higher levels of the waste product creatinine in their blood 28 hours after having the cream rubbed onto their back.

The FDA has not banned the chemicals, but says previous studies have linked them to raised sensitivity to sunlight.

They make no mention of whether the chemicals, which are regulated as cosmetics, can cause kidney damage.

The French study comes after a separate paper published last year found 26 Israeli women suffered from kidney failure after using chemical hair straighteners.

The patients, who were recorded since 2019, had been hospitalized for their condition and also suffered from headaches, vomiting and shortness of breath.

They included a 13-year-old girl, a woman who was 15 weeks pregnant and a 42-year-old woman.

Dr Meital Keidar, a nephrologist who led the study, said: ‘The women I’ve treated would all say they wouldn’t wish this trauma on anyone.

‘Women shouldn’t have to pay such a price for a cosmetic treatment.’

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