Relaxers and Fibroids: Is there a link?

A study in the American Journal of Epidemiology is hypothesising that hair relaxer use increases the risk of developing fibroids and can also provoke early puberty. The article does not come out and say that relaxer use causes it but the researchers believe that as we expose ourselves to harmful chemicals through scalp lesions and burns resulting from relaxer use there will be consequences.

Now I am not going to come out and state the relaxers are the most natural, most gentle things out there. If you read the warnings on the relaxer box you know that you are playing with a strong chemical and just because women have been using them for decades does not mean they are 100 percent safe. However, I choose to do it and I don't really think that they have conclusive evidence. They have found a link, but I also wonder if diet can't have a link as well. People eat so much processed food with ingredients they can neither pronounce nor identify and yet they don't think twice about what these things are doing to their bodies.

People also use products containing parabens and they use them from head to toe without thinking about the fact that parabens can interfere with your hormones and have been even found in breast cancer tumours. This is scary because in the past it was believed that parabens could not be absorbed into the skin.

So for now, I will keep relaxing. I relax only 3-4 times a year and I always have. I guess I was stretching even before I knew what stretching was. However, I am not going to be that extreme and say that if there was conclusive evidence that relaxers could cause severe harm that I would continue relaxing. At the end of the day I just want long hair. I have always wanted long hair ever since I was a child. Now I know it is possible whether relaxed or natural.

So ladies, what do you think? Is there a cause for concern? Would you take precautionary action and stop relaxing or will you continue relaxing until you are certain?