Is It Okay For Pregnant Women To Use Hair Relaxers? Find Out Here.

Probably. We don't know much about the safety of using chemicals to perm or straighten your hair during pregnancy. Most chemical treatments are thought to be safe as it is likely that only a small amount of the product will soak into your scalp.

To be on the safe side, it may be better to stick to just one treatment during pregnancy, or avoid it altogether.

If you do want to straighten your hair, it may be helpful to know that some treatments are safer than others:

Standard chemical straightening treatments
These treatments are likely to be safe to use while you are pregnant. One study showed that using hair-straightening products won't increase your risk of premature birth or having a low-birth-weight baby . However, the study didn’t look into birth defects.

Standard chemical straightening treatments are:

• Lye: containing sodium hydroxide
• No-lye: containing calcium hydroxide and guanidine carbonate
• Thio: containing thioglycolic acid salts

Brazilian hair treatments
While standard treatments are likely to be safe, a chemical straightening treatment originating in Brazil may not be as safe for you to use during pregnancy.

Keratin hair treatments (also known as Brazilian Keratin Treatment, BKT or Brazilian Blowout) often contain a chemical called formaldehyde. You can absorb formaldehyde into your body through your skin or by breathing it in. It is present in many bath and cleaning products, but there is evidence that long-term exposure can increase the risk of cancer.

For this reason, many countries have placed limits on how much formaldehyde can be used in products. The usual limit is 0.2 per cent. But some keratin products have been found to contain as much as 10 per cent. The UK market has withdrawn many of these keratin treatments, but they are often still available online or in salons.

There are formaldehyde-free keratin treatments available, but be careful. When tested, some were still found to contain formaldehyde. Other formaldehyde-free treatments contain a chemical called methylene glycol, which when heated with straightening irons turns into formaldehyde.

For these reasons, you may prefer not to have a chemical straightening treatment while you are pregnant. If you do want to have a treatment, avoid any that are labeled "keratin" or "Brazilian hair treatment". If you are having the treatment at a salon, always ask whoever is treating your hair to not use these products.

Feeling and looking good is important during pregnancy. If you want some safe ideas on how to look and feel great, check out our section on beauty for mums-to-be .