Christianah Fasanya: Were Churches Right About Relaxers?

I sat in front of the mirror at the salon, contemplating whether to relax my hair or endure the endless struggle of managing my natural hair. I like my natural hair, but I dislike its extreme thickness—the kind of thickness that gives you headaches, frustrates hairdressers, and makes you question your choices every time. But the recent tweets and videos about relaxers causing cancer and reproductive dysfunctions in women kept coming to my mind. Why would I want to expose myself to something that causes cancer and reproductive issues? I’m already exposed to many unknown environmental toxins, so why add more? I thought.

I was still thinking about this when an idea came to me: What if most of the prohibitions by churches were for our benefit, even if people were bullied and stopped from worshipping with the congregations because they refused to stand by the status quo? Some churches warned us against using jewellery, nails, dye, relaxers, attachments, and makeup, not for their health implications but for being ungodly. Meanwhile, each of these items has detrimental effects associated with it. Research has shown that jewellery may contain heavy metals such as lead and cadmium, which can have negative health effects due to prolonged skin contact. Frequent use of hair relaxers, straighteners, and dyes may increase the risk of developing fibroids as well as breast and ovarian cancers, as they contain certain endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Furthermore, hair extensions often contain Kanekalon, a compound made from acrylonitrile and vinyl chloride, which has been linked to various cancers, including those of the lungs, liver, blood, brain and white blood cells.

As I reflected on the health issues related to these beauty products, I wondered whether the pastors were aware of these concerns or if they foresaw them and were trying to warn us about their effects. I know it’s unrelated because pastors link the use of these items to hellfire, but not all do. For example, certain churches banned these items based on personal convictions rather than directly associating them with hellfire.

I remember asking my mum why we stopped wearing jewellery and trousers. She explained that our church founder had prohibited these items after receiving a message from heaven instructing him to stop women from wearing them. There’s even a rumour that if you enter our church’s healing river with attachments, wigs, or any artificial items, you could be chased by a snake. Some churches say these things to curb immorality within their congregations. But in effect, people became stigmatised in a contrasting way. Those who decided not to use jewellery, wigs and others became labelled as holy holy, and people who used them were usually regarded as errant.

My curiosity is whether there could be a correlation between the warnings of the church and the scientific implications of using beauty products. Could Heaven be sending us a message? Why did they associate Hellfire with the use of these beauty products? Were their warnings misinterpreted? What was Heaven communicating about these items during several revelations? Could Heaven be conveying important information about the future effects of these products? Did they deliver the right message, or were there misinterpretations somewhere? 

I know it’s wild, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. What do you think?