Study: Hair dye could increase breast cancer risk

Using hair dye or hair relaxers may increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer, according to a study by the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

More than 4,200 women participated in the study, half of them African-American and half of them white.

The study found differences based on race.

Black women who used darker shades of hair dye or relaxers had a more than 50 percent greater risk of breast cancer, according to the study. But in white women, darker shades of dye were not linked to an increased risk.

The study also found that white women’s use of chemical straighteners showed to have a nearly 75 percent increased risk for breast cancer.

Researchers say that the results of the study do not mean that every woman who used hair dye or relaxers is going to develop breast cancer, just that there is an increased risk.

They say that there is still more studying on the issue to be done.