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Hundreds of Women Blame Smoothing Kit for Hair Loss
by Alexandra Kilpatrick
Hundreds of women across the United States recently sued the manufacturer and designer of a hair smoothing product that allegedly caused severe hair loss.
Suave Professionals calls their Keratin Infusion 30-Day Smoothing Kit a hair treatment product for women who want smooth, shiny manageable hair with zero frizz.
However, Josephine Wells and Catherine Reny, along with other plaintiffs in a California federal court, claimed in a lengthy complaint that the manufacturer Unilever failed to disclose that the product contains an ingredient or combination of ingredients causing significant hair loss with proper application.
The California case, which was filed last week and represented by the Law Office of Jana Eisinger, PLLC as well as Morgan and Morgan PC, is simply one of many multimillion-dollar pending lawsuits against Unilever and partners LEK and Conopco. Unilever, LEK and Conopco face such claims as personal injury, negligence and false advertising.
The complaint read that Unilever used deceptive marketing strategies and failed to warn consumers of the smoothing kit’s risks to their scalp. Unilever claimed that the product was based in keratin, a natural protein found in hair with no dangerous chemicals. However, the photos attached to the complaint showed women suffering visible bald spots, broken discolored hair and burned scalp.
Amy Davis, an attorney with Dallas-based law firm Christiansen Davis Bullock LLC representing women in a New Jersey state court, said that although the product Unilever was discontinued last year, it could still be for sale at some retailers. According to the United States Food and Drug Administration, more than 380,000 units were recalled.
According to the United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the plaintiffs claimed that the product deceivingly used an ingredient releasing the cancer-causing substance formaldehyde, which leads to symptoms like irritation, skin sensitivity and breathing difficulties. Unilever claimed that the product was formaldehyde-free.
“My beautiful Italian hair is damaged from this product like hell!” one woman wrote on a Facebook campaign page launched last year to collect evidence of the damages. “Like I don’t have enough grief in my life, now I have had to cut off about five inches of my hair. I’ve been having to condition it every day. This product from hell needs to be removed from the market. It’s false advertising/misleading advertising and ruins women’s hair!”
“The company takes these claims very seriously,” Unilever spokeswoman Anita Larsen wrote in an e-mail to CNN, while declining to comment on the pending litigation. “The safety of all of our products is of paramount concern to Unilever.”
Larsen also stated that no other Suave Keratin Infusion products were affected.
If you or someone you know would like to learn more about hair loss and how to treat it, please feel free to schedule a consultation or contact one of our representatives today!
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