JOIN US
DONATE
JOIN US

Contact Level Up​

Get in touch with the Level Up team


We’re a UK-based feminist campaigning organisation working to end bodily and systemic violence. If you’re a journalist, supporter, potential partner, or someone with a campaign idea — we’d love to hear from you.

Level Up’s Submission to The Science and Regulation of Hairand Beauty Products and Treatments
Level Up
dec 2025

This written evidence submitted to the UK Parliament examines potential health risks linked to chemical hair relaxers. It highlights research suggesting that some ingredients may act as endocrine disruptors and could be associated with higher risks of conditions such as uterine cancer and fibroids. The document also raises concerns about racial health inequalities and calls for stronger research, regulation, and public awareness.

Briefing note for Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-Sentence Reports Bill)
Level Up
2025
Sentencing Council submission 2024
Level Up
2024
Sentencing Council submission 2023
Level Up
2023
Media Guidelines
Level Up
2022
Families report
Level Up
2020
Sentencing Review submission 2024
Sentencing Review submission 2024
Level Up
2024
2022 open letter to the Sentencing Council
Level Up
2022
Abortion Media Guidelines
Jade Hammond and Ikamara Larasi
2024

The guidelines share tips on how to report with accuracy, compassion, and sensitivity. Most importantly, they encourage journalists to treat abortion as a public health issue, not a debate.

  • Black Women And Beauty, Uk
Unbothered UK

A COMMUNITY CELEBRATING BLACK VOICES & BLACK FOLX IN THE UK

  • Black Women And Beauty, Organisation, Uk
Treasure Tress

TreasureTress is Europe’s first and largest natural hair product discovery box, where sisterhood connects over kinks and curls.

  • Black Women And Beauty, Organisation, Uk
Project Embrace

Project Embrace creates positive visual media representation of Afro textured hair and challenges the lack of and mis-representation of black women and their natural hair in the media, workplace and society at large. We are here to champion a more diverse beauty representation.

  • Beauty, Influencing, Instagram
Curlture UK

Created by influencers Jay & Trina, Curlture UK is the place to love your culture and your curls.

  • Endochrine Disruption, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Uterine Cancer
While many Black women in US abandon hair relaxers linked to cancer, sales climb in African countries
Susan Smith Richardson and Agatha Gichana
10th April 2024

The companies at the center of thousands of U.S. lawsuits produce some of Africa’s most popular chemical straighteners like Dark & Lovely and TCB Naturals.

  • glyoxylic acid, Kidney failure
Hair-Straightening Products Entail Acute Kidney Failure Risk
Vincent Richeux
26th March 2024

The use of hair-straightening products containing glyoxylic acid is associated with a risk for acute kidney failure because of the accumulation of calcium oxalate crystals in the kidneys.

  • #Nomorelyes, Black Women And Beauty, Burns, Endochrine Disruption, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Lye, Sodium Hydroxide
Majority of Black British women suffer side effects from hair relaxers such as burnt scalp, study finds
Nadine White
May 24, 2023

Exclusive: Major study into impact of products containing lye, a harsh chemical used in drain unblockers.

  • Allergies, Breast Cancer, Burns, Free To Read, Ovarian Cancer, Uterine Cancer
Injuries That Can be Caused by Hair Relaxers
May 23, 2023
  • #Nomorelyes, Breast Cancer, Ctpa, Endochrine Disruption, L'Oréal, Uterine Cancer
Hair relaxer may double the risk of womb cancer, should we be worried?
Sheilla Mamona
May 5, 2023

A study found that women who used hair relaxers several times a year were almost twice as likely to develop uterine cancer.

  • Breast Cancer, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Lye, Uterine Cancer
Campaigners call on L’Oréal to remove lye from hair relaxers due to cancer risk
April 27, 2023

Campaign group Level Up are urging for research into lye-based products affect Black women’s health

  • Breast Cancer, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Lye, Uterine Cancer
Activists Demand L’Oréal To Recall Hair Relaxing Products Following Cancer Risk Findings
April 26, 2023
  • #Nomorelyes, Endochrine Disruption, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Lawsuits
‘Beyond our business’: L’Oréal ramps up eco investments, but faces further backlash over chemicals in hair products
Gary Scattergood
April 26, 2023
  • Advertising, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Lawsuits, Packaging, Uterine Cancer
“UK Feminist Group Calls for L’Oréal to Withdraw Hair Straightening Products Linked to Increased Cancer Risk:
April 25, 2023

Level Up’s Campaign Raises Concerns Over Chemical Hair Straighteners Containing Sodium Hydroxide, Found to Cause Cervical and Breast Cancer According to Studies by US National Institutes of Health and Oxford University”

  • Free To Read, L'Oréal, Lawsuits, Uterine Cancer
Why people are suing L’Oréal over hair relaxers
Kamilah McInnis, Paige Neal-Holder
April 24, 2023

Campaign groups are concerned about ingredients in hair relaxers – but the science isn’t conclusive on the issue

  • Advertising, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Lawsuits, Packaging, Uterine Cancer
Open Letter Calls for L’Oréal to Withdraw Hair Straightening Products
April 24, 2023

Organized by UK feminist group Level Up, the letter was prompted by an NIH study that linked hair relaxers to an increased risk of cancer.

  • #Nomorelyes, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Lawsuits
L’Oreal Urged To Recall Hair Relaxers Due to Cancer Risks
Irvin Jackson
April 24, 2023

Consumer group urges maker of Dark & Lovely and other hair relaxers to make its products safer for use or remove them from the market entirely

Hair straighteners drive consumers to sue companies
April 24, 2023
  • Free To Watch, L'Oréal, Lawsuits, Uterine Cancer
L’Oréal Urged To Withdraw Hair Relaxers From Possible Link To Cancer
Black Report
April 22, 2023
  • Breast Cancer, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Lye, Uterine Cancer
L’Oréal urged to withdraw hair relaxers after studies find cancer risk
April 21, 2023
  • Endometrial Cancer, Lawsuits, Ovarian Cancer, Uterine Cancer
Hair Relaxer Cancer Lawsuit
Ronald V. Miller Jr.
April 21, 2023
  • Breast Cancer, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Lye, Uterine Cancer
Campaigners urge L’Oreal to stop selling hair relaxers after studies find cancer link
Sami Quadri
April 21, 2023

Female activists also asked the company to invest in research on the long-term use of chemical relaxers, which make hair easier to straighten

  • Breast Cancer, L'Oréal, Lye, Uterine Cancer
Advocates Demand L’Oréal Stop Selling Hair Relaxers—Why?
Trish Andrada
April 21, 2023

Chemical hair straighteners allegedly raise serious health risks.

  • Breast Cancer, Formaldehyde, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Lawsuits, Ovarian Cancer, Revlon, Uterine Cancer
Thousands of Black women claim hair relaxers gave them cancer
Kristina Cooke, Mike Spector, Richa Naidu
April 11, 2023
Dignity for dead women
Janey Starling, Jade Hammond
06 April 2023
  • Free To Read, Regulation
Regulation 2009/1223 and the Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013: Great Britain
Office for Product Safety & Standards
April 5, 2023
  • Ctpa, Free To Read, L'Oréal, Regulation
CTPA Welcomes New Chair and Vice-chair
March 23, 2023
  • Advertising, Breast Cancer, Fertility, Free To Read, Hair Discrimination, Uterine Cancer
Why some Black women won’t or can’t quit hair relaxers – even as the dangers become clearer
Deborah Douglas
December 12, 2022

Studies show the products may double the risk of uterine cancer, but tradition, societal pressure and personal taste create obstacles to change

  • Free To Read, Racial Trauma, Wellness
How Black women are redefining wellness in the face of racial trauma and injustice
Lola Christina Alao
December 10, 2022

We’re setting boundaries and being kind to ourselves, just because.

  • Benzene, Breast Cancer, Leukemia, Ovarian Cancer, Regulation, Uterine Cancer
Is Your Hair Giving You Cancer?
Pandora Dewan
November 21, 2022
  • Black Women And Beauty, Breast Cancer, Endochrine Disruption, Hair Discrimination, Uterine Cancer
Are Hair Relaxers Really Causing Cancer? Everything You Need To Know
TAYO BERO
November 17, 2022
  • Fertility, L'Oréal, Lawsuits, Uterine Cancer
US woman files lawsuit against L’Oréal, claiming chemical hair straightening products are linked to her cancer
Jacqueline Howard
October 24, 2022
  • Breast Cancer, Endochrine Disruption, Free To Read, Ovarian Cancer, Uterine Cancer
Hair-straightening chemical products linked to increased uterine cancer risk in new study
Jacqueline Howard
October 18, 2022
  • Breast Cancer, Endochrine Disruption, Free To Read, Ovarian Cancer, Uterine Cancer
Use of Straighteners and Other Hair Products and Incident Uterine Cancer
Alexander P Keil, Alexandra J White MSPH, Chandra L Jackson, Che-Jung Chang PhD, Dale P Sandler, Katie M O’Brien, Symielle A Gaston
October 17, 2022
  • Advertising, Black Women And Beauty, Children, Free To Read, Hair Discrimination, Relaxer Boxes
Wait, Were The 90s Hair Relaxer Girls Natural All Along?
ADAMA MUNU
October 14, 2022
  • Advertising, Black Women And Beauty, Children, Free To Read, Hair Discrimination, Relaxer Boxes
These old-school relaxer boxes are reminding Black ’90s babies just how far we went to straighten our curls
Kumba Kpakima
October 14, 2022

So many of us strived for this unrealistic, unattainable beauty standard.

  • Black Women And Beauty, Free To Read
Is A Healthy Hair Relaxer Ever Possible?
KEDEAN SMITH
June 30, 2022
  • #Nomorelyes, Black Women And Beauty, Breast Cancer, Free To Read, L'Oréal
#NoMoreLyes: the campaign that wants to put an end to toxic hair products marketed towards Black women
Niellah Arboine
August 13, 2021

In light of studies showing the link between long-term lye use in hair products and breast cancer in Black women, Level Up wants big beauty brands to take these harmful items off shelves.

  • Breast Cancer, Free To Read, Lye
Hair product use and breast cancer incidence in the Black Women’s Health Study
Julie R Palmer, Kimberly A Bertrand, Lynn Rosenberg, Patricia F Coogan, Yolanda M Lenzy, Yvette C Cozier
May 20, 2021
  • Free To Read, Hair Discrimination
Afro hair bias is not a vanity issue, it’s a human rights issue and here’s why
Adwoa Darko
May 20, 2021

Hair discrimination… let’s talk about it!

  • Black Women And Beauty, Free To Read, Hair Discrimination
Halo Collective: It’s time to end hair discrimination in British schools
Thalia Papanicolaou
December 17, 2020

Through policy change and education, this collective aims to create a future without hair discrimination in the UK.

  • Black Women And Beauty, Breast Cancer, Free To Read
Hair relaxers and dyes aren’t the only cosmetic products disproportionately harming black women
Niellah Arboine
January 17, 2020
  • Endochrine Disruption, Free To Read, L'Oréal
L’Oreal: No More Cancer Chemicals in Cosmetics
June 27, 2017
  • Burns, Fibroids, Free To Read
Hair Relaxer Use and Risk of Uterine Leiomyomata in African-American Women
David Reich, Julie R. Palmer, Lauren A. Wise, Lynn Rosenberg, Yvette C. Cozier
January 3, 2012
  • Burns, Children, Free To Read, Ingestion
Hair relaxers: a benign caustic ingestion?
Gisela Chelimsky, Herbert D Aronow, Stefanie P Aronow, Steven Czinn, Thomas Blanchard
January 1, 2003

Although the health care system has done much to reduce the incidence of ingestion of such alkalis as drain and oven cleaners, in recent years we have seen an overwhelming increase in the incidence of hair relaxer ingestion.

Hair Relaxer Ingestion: A New Trend
Harlan R. Muntz MD, James W. Forsen MD
January 10, 1993

Registered Address

Level Up
New Derwent House
69–73 Theobalds Road
London
WC1X 8TA
United Kingdom