Episode 345 - Is there still formaldehyde in Brazilian Blowout?

Valerie George (0:00)

Hi, I'm Valerie and you're listening to The Beauty Brains.

Welcome to The Beauty Brains, a show where real cosmetic chemists answer your beauty product questions and give you an insider's look at the cosmetics industry. This is episode 345 I'm your host, Valerie George, and with me today is Perry Romanowski. Hi Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:27)

Hello, hello, hello, Valerie. How are you?

Valerie George (0:30)

Oh, I'm doing okay. On today's show, we're going to answer questions about, how does Kerastase Therapiste Hair Serum make your hair feel so good? Is there still formaldehyde in Brazilian Blowout?

And, how is it possible to reverse two years of hair damage in just one treatment, but first, that chit chat?

Perry Romanowski (0:52)

Yeah, it sounds like both of us have our voices altered a little bit, and it's not just the audio quality. I'm recovering from a bit of a cold, so my voice sounds a little off, and you're just getting one, huh?

Valerie George (1:05)

Well, I'm also recovering from one. I've had one for about a week with this annoying cough where all I do is hack to get everything out of my throat, and it's been extra inconvenient because I've honestly had a couple terrible weeks. I was in a car accident two weeks ago. Yeah, I hit my head really hard, was taken to the hospital, they thought I had a brain bleed. Thank goodness I didn't.

I just had a nasty concussion, a lump on my melon, and then I get this cough where every time I cough, I just get this stabbing pain in my head. Yeah.

Perry Romanowski (1:43)

That sounds like no fun.

Valerie George (1:45)

Yeah, my car is totaled.

Perry Romanowski (1:48)

It does make me wonder, should we just drive around in cars wearing helmets?

Valerie George (1:53)

Yeah, you know, they kept asking me, are you sure your airbags didn't go off? And I'm like, I'm positive.

I think they were broken because I was hit really hard by this person who turned in front of me. Or I should say I hit them really hard because they turned in front of me and the car smashed, my head got smashed, but those airbags didn't deploy.

Perry Romanowski (2:16)

Wow, that is, that's too bad. So you know, I hope they're, I'm sure they're afraid of a lawsuit or something.

Valerie George (2:26)

Yeah, anyway, so I've been taking it easy, but it's hard for me to, to rest.

Perry Romanowski (2:34)

Yeah.

We, we and I in the audience appreciate you being a trooper and continuing on with the show. So thank you for that.

Valerie George (2:48)

Well, what have you seen in Beauty Science News this week? To be honest, I really haven't been on the computer or my phone too much. So I haven't seen a whole lot. But I, I did see this one I think you'd be interested in.

Perry Romanowski (3:00)

Yeah. Speaking of lawsuits, the J&J talc lawsuit, there was some movement on this.

I saw this, but also listener Vivian pointed this one out too. It turns out that that $223 million talc verdicts against J&J has been overturned because of junk science.

Valerie George (3:22)

A victory for science, huh?

Perry Romanowski (3:25)

Yeah. And victory for J&J. So, I mean, I thought this, the link between J&J talc and cancer has always been a little tenuous.

It's never been definitively proven and it's very difficult to prove a negative, right? You can't say no, this definitely did not cause cancer because you don't know what caused the cancer. So, it's always very difficult to prove a negative. So the times that J&J has been, has lost in these talc lawsuits, it's usually based on some science and, you know, anybody can do whatever they call science. And this case here was determined to be junk science.

And so I guess they got out of it, right? And now I imagine the, with the amount of money that it is, I imagine this is going to get appealed, right?

Valerie George (4:21)

Can you appeal an appeal?

Perry Romanowski (4:23)

I think any side can appeal up to the Supreme Court until it's been decided, right?

Valerie George (4:30)

Maybe one of our attorney listeners can tell us what's next because I'm definitely not a lawyer in that sense. But I would, I'm sure because the plaintiff lost on this appeal, I'm sure they probably get one more try.

Perry Romanowski (4:44)

I would think so. And you know, if you are looking at, you know, 200 plus million dollars in damages, I don't think you're just going to take the word to one judge and say, oh, we're done with that. So there are people that people that firmly believe that talc causes cancer. There is no good evidence for that, but they would disagree.