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APRIL IN GEORGIA ASKS:
A friend confided she’s worried about the safety of a plastic wig her daughter is wearing for Halloween. This is making me question my daughter’s braids. Is this a thing? Are there health concerns with synthetic hair?
Tell EPA: Hands Off Chemical Safety Reviews
MOM DETECTIVE ANSWERS:
Thank you for this question, April. I’ve been following research about health concerns and synthetic hair since stumbling across it when wig shopping a few years ago. My then eight-year-old was going through cancer treatment and lost her hair. A close friend of ours, also being pummeled by chemo, flagged the issue to me when we offered to send her a silly long purple number we thought she’d look fabulous in. I was so emotionally distracted that the safety of plastic hair hadn’t occurred to me of all people.
I snapped out of it and dug into the topic. I’ll get to the concerns below but want to be clear about a few things first.
- Skin contact: Skin is our largest organ, and we can absorb many things, including toxic chemicals, through it. To oversimplify, think about medication patches. Skin’s permeability is what allows meds to sail through it and into our systems.
- Halloween safety: Regarding your anxious friend, Halloween wigs are worn for a few hours one night, usually over hair. I don’t think this is realistically a big health concern—I didn’t see research on this—though it’s surely a landfill trash concern. Most plastic Halloween items are worn briefly and then tossed.
- Most impacted: People without hair—a protective barrier of sorts—are vulnerable to chemicals in wigs. This includes cancer patients and people with alopecia. But research has shown that chemicals of concern in synthetic hair have an outsize impact on one specific community: Black women who use braided hairstyles for protection and versatility, among other reasons. Consumer Reports says that in 2023, the U.S. market for synthetic hair products was valued at $2.79 billion and is expected to reach a value of $6.34 billion by 2029! Products used in braiding are placed right up next to the scalp. A colleague told me she has been getting her hair braided since she was 12, saying, “That’s 30 years of exposure!”
Exposure to what?
Synthetic hair can be made from a variety of plastics. One 2024 study lists some: “polymers and plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate, polyvinyl chloride, acrylic, acrylonitrile, single filament polyester, silk, [and] silicone.” Some fibers are also processed with chemicals that have established health harms, including flame retardants and PFAS “forever chemicals,” to make them appear various ways and so they can be styled with curling irons, blow dryers, and hot rollers. This heat can release the chemical components of plastic, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), into the air. In addition, colorful plastic contains dyes. A bunch of products were tested, and “all of them had different levels of contaminants such as silver, cadmium, chromium, nickel, vanadium and lead, including several pesticides which are hazardous to human health.”
Other studies have found similar. In 2025, Consumer Reports sent 10 of the most popular synthetic braiding hair products on the market to a lab. Carcinogens were detected in all of them. Back in 2023, Chrystal Thomas, a student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the City University of New York, was inspired to research synthetic braiding products after a session with her stylist left her with an irritated throat and trouble sleeping and focusing. Many women also report their scalps itch after braiding. Thomas wrote a paper, noting: “Extensions are typically worn for at least 4–6 weeks, with continuous exposure to carcinogenic ingredients for those who subsequently reinstall their braids throughout the year.” She concluded that further research is required, especially as “this exposure is taking place in a population already plagued with high rates of endocrine disorders, breast cancer mortality, and uterine disease.”
Are there alternatives?
Synthetic fibers are affordable and long-lasting. One alternative, human hair wigs and extensions, tends to be more expensive. Another option is Brazilian wool hair. Even human hair wigs can have plastic components, depending on if they’re machine made or hand tied. And products used to make wigs stay put securely, glues essentially, can also contain questionable solvents and other ingredients.
Given all this, April, I’d normally just say if the possible health harms of hair extensions are worrying you, skip them! You can braid or style natural hair in other ways. But my typical Mom Detective response falls flat when it comes to hair loss in cancer treatment or alopecia, and it’s not only unacceptable to suggest Black women back off braids, it ignores cultural considerations. There’s a long and established history within the Black community of being pressured to conform to harmful Eurocentric hairstyles and beauty standards, or what’s problematically considered “professional.” Even former First Lady Michelle Obama has written and spoken extensively about straightening her hair as Americans were “just getting adjusted” to a Black first family. Unfortunately, many products geared toward Black women for use on natural hair, like relaxers and straighteners, are riddled with toxic chemicals, including endocrine disruptors and carcinogens like formaldehyde. This is disgraceful.
Education is key
Chrystal Thomas calls hair care involving synthetic braids “integral to Black culture.” She wrote that public health practitioners should “educate individuals seeking synthetic braids, braiding professionals, and health care providers about potential exposure to carcinogenic compounds, as well as advocate for regulation of synthetic extension ingredients.” This makes so much sense but also does little to alleviate fear from people braiding or getting braids done for years who weren’t aware there was a safety issue in products widely available for purchase.
If you’re afraid, maybe it will help to know that the Associated Press interviewed experts after the damning Consumer Reports study came out, and several said while the presence of chemicals found was “concerning and confusing,” the data set of 10 products is far too limited. The study also hadn’t gone through the scrutiny to get published in a peer-reviewed science or medical journal.
One expert, Jasmine McDonald, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, who has also studied the health impacts of chemical hair straighteners, hoped the study would increase public knowledge about the potential harms of braiding hair. “I think that in our culture, we sometimes normalize things to the point where we don’t see the harm… The more that we can raise awareness that some of these cultural routines could potentially provide harm [the more we have] the potential to stop that harm,” she told the AP.
As people who need to or want to wear wigs and extensions eagerly await more research—and legislation!—that will protect us from toxic ingredients, I hope you’ll read some of the articles I’ve linked to here. They contain important information you can use to decide about your daughter’s braids going forward, April. This is ultimately, as it was for me with my daughter’s wigs, a nuanced and deeply personal decision.