A 26-year-old Indian woman developed kidney damage after three hair-straightening treatments at a salon in India.

The woman shared that after getting the hair treatments, she would experience vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and back pain.

She also felt immense burning on her scalp during the hair treatment, leading to the development of ulcers on her head. 

The woman went to the salon in three visits to receive hair treatments in June 2020, April 2021, and July 2022. 

The doctors tried to take this case to The New England Journal of Medicine journal. They learned that creatinine levels were high in her blood, which means that her kidneys were malfunctioning. 

There were no infections found in her urine that contained a small amount of blood. Her urinary system, including the kidneys, bladder, ureters, and urethra, was unblocked, according to a computed tomography (CT) scan.

A straightening cream with the chemical glyoxylic acid was used on a woman’s scalp, which likely led to scalp burning and ulcers.

Doctors have recently conducted tests on mice to understand the connection between kidney damage and glyoxylic acid.

It was concluded that her skin absorbed the acid, and it reached her kidneys, causing them damage. 

The tests included the application of a straightening product used on the woman’s scalp and the mice’s back, consisting of 10% glyoxylic acid. The process was repeated by applying petroleum jelly to another five mice’s backs. 

The urine of mice contained tiny crystals that were similar to those discovered in people consuming a dangerous chemical, ethylene glycol, as it is used for different purposes, including home or work to antifreeze.

It was concluded by this test that hair products holding higher levels of creatinine in their blood have elevated calcium oxalate monohydrate in their kidneys compared to petroleum jelly applied to mice that did not have it. 

However, this was not a long-term effect, as a woman’s kidneys improved speedily after she visited the salon each time.

Doctors symbolized this incident as a warning for the potential harm that glyoxylic acid in hair-straightening or smoothing products can cause to an individual. They said these types of products should be discontinued from the market.