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Health Update: Hair-razing news

CAUSTIC hair relaxants and straighteners popular with Afro- Caribbean women can cause baldness, researchers from St George's Hospital, London, have warned.

Eight women developed hair loss and scarring on the scalp after using chemical hair treatments; the onset of baldness ranged from two weeks after a single application to five years after regular use, the article in the British Journal of Dermatology says.

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