Hair relaxer.
Uterine cancer litigation.

The hair relaxer MDL consolidates claims against L’Oréal, SoftSheen-Carson, Strength of Nature, Dabur International, Namasté Laboratories, and other manufacturers of chemical hair straightening products. Plaintiffs allege long-term, repeated use of these products led to uterine cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer, and uterine fibroids — injuries the manufacturers allegedly knew about, or should have known about, but failed to warn consumers of.

The scientific basis for the litigation traces to a 2022 NIH Sister Study finding that women who used chemical hair straighteners more than four times per year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer than non-users. Subsequent research, including the Black Women’s Health Study, has reinforced the association. The chemicals at the center of the causation theory include phthalates, parabens, formaldehyde-releasing agents, and other endocrine-disrupting compounds present in many relaxer formulations.

The docket carries a disproportionate impact on Black women, who represent the majority of long-term hair relaxer users in the United States — a reflection of decades of marketing to Black communities and the broader cultural pressure toward straighter hair.

Hair relaxer requires intake screening that goes well beyond a standard product-liability questionnaire. Eligibility turns on product usage history (frequency, duration, brand, age at first use), diagnosis specifics (cancer type, date, treatment history), and the gap between exposure and diagnosis. We have developed docket-specific intake protocols and trained specialists to handle the medical-record retrieval and clinical screening that determine whether a claimant’s case profile matches what bellwether-tier firms are willing to retain.

Acquisition runs across paid social, paid search, and connected TV, with creative built specifically for this docket and compliance review on every iteration. Every claimant flows through our multi-vendor fraud-detection suite — Anura, CHEQ, ActiveProspect, TrustedForm, Blacklist Alliance, and Plaid — before reaching the partner firm. Retained cases land directly in the firm’s case management system in real time.

For partner firms holding hair relaxer dockets, we provide standing operational reporting on retained cases delivered, cost per qualified retention, and case-tier mix against your screening criteria. Strategy sessions cover docket-portfolio decisions: which screening criteria to tighten as Daubert evidence develops, which bellwether outcomes change retention thresholds, and which case profiles drive the highest recoveries at trial.