Politics
Years of hair treatments could have harmed our fertility – we used it to strengthen our hair but now we’re terrified
IT’S the hair brand with more than two million Instagram followers, but Olaplex has horrified its legion of female fans over its use of an ingredient that has been linked to infertility.
The product favoured by Kim Kardashian, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jennifer Lopez uses butylphenyl methyl-propional, which has been banned in beauty products in the EU.
Faye said: ‘When brands lose trust, it’s tough to win back’
SuppliedJade says she will now check ingredients list[/caption]
And while the UK is expected to follow suit, a ban has yet to be finalised.
Also known as lilial, the fragrance has been branded “reprotoxic”, meaning it can, in large doses, have adverse effects on reproductivity.
TikTok videos about the ingredient — found in Olaplex’s No3 Hair Perfector — have amassed millions of views and led some worried customers to ditch the brand after fearing it could affect their fertility, although the amount used is small.
It has also sparked concern in pregnant women, after claims the ingredient could also be harmful to foetuses.
Hospitality worker Jade Palmer, 24, from Potters Bar, Herts, was left horrified after reading about the controversy.
She says: “I was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) when I was 15 and endometriosis last year.
“Both conditions can cause problems with fertility, which is out of my control.
“So when I saw the controversy about Olaplex, I felt uneasy. It made me worry straight away, as all I could think about is how it might affect me long term.
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“I felt scared, as I already have problems as it is.”
Online content creator Faye Dickinson, 29, from East London, also had concerns. She says: “I’ve been using Olaplex for six years.
“My hair is quite dark and I bleach it often — Olaplex helps me keep it hydrated and in good condition.
“When I first read about the ingredient being linked to infertility, I panicked. It put me off using it altogether.”
Since its launch in 2014, Olaplex has built a reputation for repairing dry and brittle hair — and was hot on the lips of every beauty enthusiast.
Its signature bottles, No1 Bond Multiplier and No2 Bond Perfector, became famous due to a patented single active ingredient, bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate, which appeared to magically repair damage commonly seen in bleached hair.
An instant success, Olaplex went on to launch at-home products and its No3 Hair Perfector, which strengthens bonds and costs £26, went viral — clocking up a colossal 30.5million views on TikTok.
Its huge following prompted fashion marketing student Julie Desmond*, 24, from Bromley, Kent, to try it earlier this year.
She says: “Everyone has always raved about Olaplex and a lot of my friends have recommended it to me. So I finally decided to try it. I bought a bottle of Olaplex No3 from Look Fantastic around mid-January.
But then only a month later I saw people’s reaction to lilial and it scared me — all I saw on TikTok was ‘Olaplex makes you infertile’.
“I contacted Look Fantastic and asked them why my product had lilial in it. I would never have known if it wasn’t for TikTok.
“They issued a full refund and told me that the products with lilial in had been recalled and Olaplex no longer makes products containing it.”
Beware other nasties
ZINC PYRITHIONE – in anti-dandruff shampoo
DR Marie Drago, founder of Gallinee, says: “This historic anti-dandruff ingredient has just been banned by the EU – but not in the UK – for its potential to possibly cause cancer. It’s quite safe at the concentrations used in shampoos, but better alternatives exist.”
SODIUM LAURYL SULFATE (SLS) and SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE (SLES) – in shampoo, toothpaste and body wash
Dr Marie says: “These foaming ingredients are efficient and cheap, so you will find them in most shampoos.
“They tend to strip your scalp and can lead to itchiness and redness. Your scalp microbiome doesn’t like it either, it prefers more gentle cleansers.”
TRICLOSAN – in shampoo, toothpaste and deodorant
Dr Osman Bashir Tahir, from Halcyonaesthetics.co.uk, says: “It was an important antibacterial agent in soap bars until recently.
“It is a known hormone disruptor – it has the ability to interfere with oestrogen (female hormone), androgen (male hormone) and thyroid systems.
“Triclosan is believed to accumulate in fat cells and keep the body in a state of toxicity.”
ALCOHOLS – in skincare
Dr Osman says: “Ones such as ethanol, isopropanol, and propanol are infused with toxic and/or bad-tasting additives, making it unsuitable for human consumption and are most irritating for the skin.
“These types of alcohol are usually found in toners, soaps and cleansers, tend to be very harsh and overly drying for your skin.”
POLYETHYLENE/PEGs – in skincare
Dr Osman says: “The tiny beads in face or lip scrubs and exfoliating washes are made from polyethylene (because they’re gentler on the skin than natural exfoliators like walnut shells).
“Polyethylene is noted as a skin irritant and should never be used on broken skin.”
Olaplex pledged to have the ingredient removed from No 3 by January 2022 — two months before the EU ban came into effect.
Olaplex’s chief scientist Lavinia Popescu says: “At Olaplex, lilial was previously used in small amounts as a fragrance in No3 Hair Perfector. It is not an active or functional ingredient.
“While this phase-out is limited to the EU, out of an abundance of caution, Olaplex proactively removed lilial from our No 3 Hair Perfector globally. Since January, Olaplex no longer sells products using lilial in the UK or EU.”
But as a hair care giant with annual sales of more than £280million, the scandal has been a blow to its reputation.
So should you be worried?
Dr Michelle Wong, an expert on beauty ingredients and known as @labmuffin on Instagram and TikTok, says: “This ban has been taking effect for a while — the safety assessment that concluded lilial was ‘not safe’ was released in May 2019.
“It doesn’t mean you’re likely to become infertile if you’ve previously used lilial-containing products.
“Toxicologists calculated what would happen if you used 15 products with lilial every day, and worked out that your exposure would still be 80 times less than the amount expected to have a negative effect.
“Hair products are relatively low- risk, due to the nature of hair formulations and how you use them. From hair products, it’s estimated you get 10,000 times less than the amount expected to give a negative effect.
“They estimated that you’d get 70 times more lilial from fragrance than hair care products. So this is very much a precautionary ban.”
Colour technician Tyler Moore from Live True London salon, says: “I was surprised when I heard about this ingredient controversy.
I’m exposed to Olaplex daily, as being a colour technician it’s a treatment which has worked wonders on dyed hair.
This ingredient hasn’t been used in our salon since January and we still recommend Olaplex for coloured hair.
“Since the knowledge around lilial has grown, most major brands have reformulated their products to remove this ingredient.”
While products containing the ingredient are now prohibited from sale in Europe, the UK’s regulatory process to implement similar restrictions is ongoing.
And you can still pick up items containing the ingredient from other popular brands sold on sites including Asos and Beauty Bay.
Mehmet Goker, a dermatology specialist at Vera Clinic in Turkey, adds: “Lilial has been used in cosmetics and household care products for many years — the chances of it affecting fertility are very low.”
Faye remains unconvinced. She says: “I will not be using Olaplex because when brands lose customer trust, it’s tough to win it back.”
And Jade agrees. She says: “I don’t think I’ll ever be going back to the brand.
“I know how good Olaplex is but this has made me aware that we need to care more about what we are using.
“I don’t often have time to check the ingredient lists and for massive, hyped brands, I often feel like I don’t need to — but now I will start.”
*Some names have been changed.
GettyOlaplex has divided fans over its use of an ingredient that has been linked to infertility – pictured Rosie Huntington-Whiteley[/caption]
pierresnaps/Skims/InstagramThe Californian company is also favoured by Kim Kardashian[/caption]
TikTok videos about the ingredient — found in Olaplex’s No.3 Hair Perfector — have amassed millions of views and led some customers to snub the brand
