Dark & Lovely Relaxer Lawsuit

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Hair Relaxer Lawsuit — Free, Confidential Consultation

Dark & Lovely for years? You were told the risk was scalp burns.

L’Oréal USA is a named defendant in the federal litigation. One question tells you where you stand.

Active litigation — no settlement. MDL 3060 underway · 12,381 cases pending · filing deadlines vary by state and run from when you knew or should have known.

Did you get relaxers — perms, the white cream — every few weeks, for years?

That one question decides most of it. It seems like nobody ever told you the risk was anything worse than a scalp burn.

See where I standfree · confidential · 2 minutes · an honest answer either way
What the lawsuit is actually about →

No receipts needed · you don’t have to remember every brand · no fee unless there is a recovery. Court costs and litigation expenses are advanced by counsel and repaid from the recovery. You are not responsible for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise. The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before expenses are deducted.

Or talk to a person now: (888) 348-2735 — answered 24/7

Marin & Murphy Law Firm

Every inquiry gets a personal review and a straight answer — including “not yet” or “no” — free and without obligation.

Claims are brought against the companies that made and sold chemical relaxers — not against your stylist, your salon, or the person who did your hair growing up. Conversations are confidential. Some matters may be referred to or handled with other law firms. No settlement has been announced and no trial has been held; every case depends on its own facts. This page does not diagnose anything. Attorney Advertising.

This page is about a lawsuit — it is legal information, not medical advice, and it does not diagnose anything. Questions about your health belong with your own doctor.

Lawsuits consolidated in federal court in Chicago (MDL 3060) allege that long-term use of chemical hair relaxers is associated with uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, and related conditions. As of October 2026 the cases are in pretrial proceedings; no trial has been held and no settlement has been announced. The allegations have not been proven, and each case depends on its own facts.

You have probably read three pages like this one already. So, plainly: this one quotes no settlement figure, tells no one they qualify, and asks for nothing but a conversation.

What Dark & Lovely is

Dark & Lovely is a hair care line whose no-lye relaxer kits have been sold in drugstores and beauty supply stores for decades. It is the brand most often typed into a search bar as “Dark and Lovely relaxer lawsuit,” and the one most women name first when asked what they used — the box on the shelf, relaxer day at the kitchen sink, a touch-up on the new growth every few months. The relaxer kits are the products at issue in the chemical hair relaxer lawsuits; the shampoos, conditioners and color products are not.

It seems like nobody ever told you the risk was anything worse than a scalp burn. That is what the box implied, what the stylist warned about, and what most long-term users say they understood the danger to be. Whether a manufacturer should have said more is the question these cases ask — a question about the company, not about your judgment.

Who makes Dark & Lovely

SoftSheen-Carson LLC and SoftSheen-Carson (W.I.), Inc., within L’Oréal USA. SoftSheen-Carson’s brand list also includes Dark & Natural, Let’s Jam and Magic, and the division is associated with the Optimum relaxer lines.

Is L’Oréal a named defendant?

Yes. L’Oréal USA, Inc., L’Oréal USA Products, Inc., SoftSheen-Carson LLC and SoftSheen-Carson (W.I.), Inc. all appear on the first-wave defendant roster in the master docket filings (Dkt. 289) and in current joint-defense briefing (Dkt. 1901) in MDL 3060. These are original defendants, present since consolidation in February 2023 — not Second Wave companies added later.

L’Oréal USA was also a respondent in the Georgia Supreme Court’s October 2025 relaxer decision holding that that state’s ten-year statute of repose runs per unit sold rather than from the first sale in a series (Burroughs, Nos. S24G1387, S24G1388).

What the complaints allege about this brand

The master long form complaint (Dkt. 106) and the short form complaint adopted by CMO 7 (Dkt. 175) plead one theory against every relaxer maker: that the products contained phthalates and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals, that the makers knew or should have known, and that the labels did not disclose it. The transfer order describes allegations that relaxer use “caused or increased the risk of developing uterine, ovarian, or breast cancer, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, or other injuries to the reproductive system” (Dkt. 291 at 2).

No order and no published study reports a disease risk figure for Dark & Lovely, or for any single brand. Brand matters for identification, not for risk math. And the claim runs against the companies that made and sold the product — not against a stylist, and not against you.

What the research says

Testing of eighteen hair products marketed to Black women detected 45 of 66 targeted endocrine-disrupting chemicals; 84 percent of those detected were not on the label (Environmental Research, 2018). In absolute terms the NIH cohort study above put uterine cancer risk by age 70 at 4.05 percent among frequent users and 1.64 percent among women who never used these products; a companion analysis reported a hazard ratio of 2.19 for ovarian cancer among frequent users (Carcinogenesis, 2021).

Study findings and adverse-event reports describe associations; they are not verified causation.

This page is legal information, not medical advice, and it does not diagnose anything. Questions about your health belong with your own doctor.

Do you meet the screen?

Fibroids and endometriosis claims sit outside the current federal trial track. That is the shape of the litigation, not a verdict on anyone’s case: they have not been dismissed as a category, and they are worked up and evaluated separately.

Whichever of those describes you, the rest is a conversation. Two minutes to start, and no homework — no receipts, no box, no brand list, no doctor’s letter. Deadlines are set state by state and generally run from when you knew or should have known; that is a fact to check, not a reason to hurry. You get an answer either way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Cases are handled on a contingent-fee basis: no fee unless there is a recovery. The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before case expenses are deducted. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and reimbursed to the firm out of the recovery only if there is a recovery. You have no liability for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise.