From the time Deanna Denham Hughes was 5, several times a year she would sit at the kitchen table with a towel around her neck while her mom worked Just for Me cream into her hair. Her mother, a Jamaican immigrant, was sensitive to judgment and wanted her children to be presentable. Denham Hughes didn’t want to stand out either. Once, as her relaxed hair was growing out in the third grade, she wore it in two-strand twists and a classmate called her Medusa. She went back to Just for Me. The relaxer smelled like gasoline and gave her scalp a burning sensation; Denham Hughes would leave it on until the pain became unbearable. That way, she knew it was working.

When Denham Hughes was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer in March 2022, she was confused. She had no family history of the disease. She was 33 and otherwise healthy. Why had she gotten a cancer most commonly found in postmenopausal women? A possible answer emerged in the fall. Denham Hughes was scrolling through Instagram when she saw a video of a bald woman claiming her cancer was linked to chemical hair straighteners. It sent her down a Google hole where she found articles about how relaxers are associated with increased risk of certain cancers, fibroids, and infertility. “I was betrayed,” she says, wiping a tear from behind her glasses. “I shouldn’t have ramifications at 33 from a product I used at 5.”

Read more from @angie_chapin on the cost of straight hair at the link in bio.

Image: Sally Beauty