Last month, A Black woman filed a class-action lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, alleging that their OGX hair care line has certain products that use a certain ingredient or “combination of ingredients” that can cause “significant hair loss and scalp irritation.”
Larissa Whipple, the plaintiff in the case, sued the conglomerate because she “purchased the products because of Johnson & Johnson’s uniform false representation that the Products would smooth, nourish, soften, repair, and/or revive her hair.”
Whipple used the product with DMDM hydantoin, an ingredient that the suit alleges is in certain OGX shampoo and conditioner products. It is described in the class action as a “formaldehyde donor known to slowly leach formaldehyde when coming into contact with water,” making it potentially dangerous to use on skin and hair.
Filed in federal court last month: https://t.co/8zBixZrQXE. Plaintiffs claim it can cause hair loss and scalp damage!
— Top Class Actions (@TopClassActions) July 12, 2021
Several of the brand’s hair products, including the OGX AntiBreakage and Keratin Oil Shampoo and Conditioner and the OGX Extra Strength Hydrate & Repair and Argan Oil of Morocco Shampoo and Conditioner, are pictured in the lawsuit showing that their ingredient lists contain DMDM hydantoin.
The lawsuit also called out Johnson & Johnson, saying that the corporation previously acknowledged that “DMDM hydantoin was not good for consumers including babies” but failed to “reformulate” OGX’s products that contain the ingredient. It also claimed that the corporation didn’t supply any warning labels stating that users could experience hair loss or “scalp irritation.”
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No stranger to being hit with class action, Johnson & Johnson was recently ordered to dish out a whopping $2.1 billion after several people claimed to have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer after using their baby powder products. According to a 2018 investigative look into the company, Reuters determined that Johnson & Johnson knew that their baby powder could contain asbestos since the 1970s but allegedly failed to inform the Food & Drug Administration about the findings.
“U.S. consumers reasonably expect that their hair care products will not cause significant hair loss and/or scalp irritation because of defective design and manufacturing or because of inadequate research of due diligence,” the class action continued. “In addition, U.S. consumers had no expectation that the OGX Products would or could cause scalp irritation and/or cause their hair to fall out.”
