Have you hear about Rio Hair? It happened in the USA back in the early 90's...

My first encounter with Alopecia was back in 1993 when I was dying my hair and perming my hair like crazy. And I got a brillant idea to try this crap I saw on a late night info-mercial about a hair care product call “Rio Hair”, it was suppose to be an all natural product to relax curly hair. Yeah well, silly me bought into that “infomercial” and purchased a kit. I put this “all natural stuff from Brazil” in my hair and guess what happened...

The spots started a few days later and I went to a dermotologist who gave me creams that burned my scalp and then I went through the pain of cortizone shots, which was the most painful. The hair came back for awhile and when it would come out again I was able to cover up the spots with the hair I had left. Maybe a few months passed and my hair grew back again, except for the nape of my neck…that area was burned by the cream and never really came back very well.

As the years went on my hair would come and go with the circle spots here and there and I was able to wear a short Afro style for some years until the unthinkable happened…bigger spots started to form. So I shaved my head bald for the first time in 1995, not razor bald but with clippers there was still hair fuzz.

It has been 14 years of hair coming and going and now for the past 2 years I have been completely bald, I have no patches, and there is no sign of hair returning. It has been over a year now since I had to shave my head bald…razor bald...there’s one side of my head where the baby hair wants to come in, so I may have to touch that up every now and then, but I am clean shaven now.

There was a study done back in 2000 on women who contacted the Food and Drug Administration in 1994 and 1995 to report adverse effects linked to using the product "Rio Hair Naturalizer System" and the long-term outcome of the adverse effects reported by persons who used it.

The conclusion of the study was a nationwide outbreak of alopecia and scalp injuries involving tens of thousands of women (and some men) occurred following the marketing of a chemical hair-relaxing product.

I wonder now after all of those years, how are the women of the "RIO Hair Class Action Suit"(over 53,000 women) doing with their hair situations and if they are still dealing with this condition of Alopecia Areata brought on by the high level of acidity product that was within the formula of "RIO Hair".

If you have heard of this happening to anyone, let me hear what you know...

Views: 1958

Comment by gerald on March 27, 2008 at 2:36am
If that is true, that product deserves a lawsuit.

You are beautiful bald, like my beautiful bald wife is.
I prefer bald women, they are some of the most incredibly hot women on the planet!
Comment by Yvonne~Yhoney on March 27, 2008 at 3:31am
There was a big class action law suit that over 53,000 women were in on; the courts awarded 1.5 million to be paid out. Of course the lawyers got big percentage of that and remember getting a check for $71.00 with a letter explaining the awarded amount, which at that time I only had a few spots that could be covered with hair. And I'm sure there were much more ladies who lost more hair then I did at that time. There's a link to an article about relaxers and dyes from the US FDA that you might find very interesting.

Article from the US Food and Drug Administration about hair relaxers and dyes:
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2001/101_hair.html
Comment by Lee on April 17, 2008 at 7:59am
Wow. I remember watching those informercials on late night television. $71.00 settlement. What a joke. I didn't realize that the products caused alopecia in some folks. Goodness.
Comment by Saphy on May 5, 2008 at 11:30pm
I remember Rio and even used the stuff a long long time ago! I don't remember it causing any spots... but I have been losing hair since then. I can't say Rio is to blame for my situation, but who knows? I had no idea that it caused Alopecia. Wow! The things we do to ourselves in the name of beauty!

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