Why Is This 12-Year-Old Petitioning For Changes in Cosmetic Labeling?
Eliana’s story/review of Wen, and why we need cosmetic safety reform. Eliana has a sunny disposition in the video, but I can assure you this was *devastating*. Sharing her story was a hard thing for her to do, so tried to keep her smiling. She shows some of her current damage at around 2:30 and talks about the regulatory shortcomings that allow this to continue happening.
Eliana Used WEN Sweet Almond Mint Cleansing Conditioner. Did you know this could happen?
TRANSCRIPT: Hi my name is Eliana I’m 12 years old, I live in Denver Colorado. I am a singer, a dancer, an actress, and I love creating art of all styles. When I was 9 years old my grandmother gave me this bottle of Wen Cleansing Conditioner. She said it was all natural and gentle and would be better for my hair. This is me just days before I used Wen. My mom washed my hair with Wen on a Friday afternoon.
When I came home from school on Monday my mother said “You have hair all over your clothes! What’s going on?!”, My hair was a knotted mess like never before. I didn’t know it, but my mom had already cleaned out TONS of hair from my brush that day and the day before. I left a trail of hair all over the swimming pool. In the shower my mother combed out the tangles and a humongous wad of loose hair. I was really scared and I asked “Mommy, do I have cancer?” I lost about half my hair over the next week. This is what my hair looked like 2 weeks after using Wen only once on my whole head. A doctor asked if I was stressed. The only thing I was stressed about was – hair loss! We didn’t think a so-called “natural” shampoo could cause hair loss, so we didn’t think to tell the doctor about Wen.
Then my mom used my regular old shampoo and I didn’t lose any hair! My next bath, my mom thought she should use Wen so the comb wouldn’t pull on my hair. Nearly All the rest of my hair slipped off my head instantly. I was BALD. My Mother began to cry. I’d never seen my mother cry before so I began to cry with her because I thought parents weren’t afraid of anything. This is what I looked like after using Wen that second time on my whole head.
At school kids tried taking my hat, I was called terrible names, there was a lot of pointing and whispering, even the little kids were mean when I passed them in the hall. I told my parents I didn’t want to go back to school there and my mom taught me at home.
We found out that lots of people lost their hair to Wen, not just me – tens of thousands at least. I lost all my hair, even my eyebrows and eyelashes. It’s been 2 1/2 years. Some of my hair has grown back, but I still have bald spots all over my head and it’s very thin some places I don’t think it’s right that a company can sell a product they know is dangerous and hurting many, many people every single day it’s still on the market.
The FDA should be able to make companies recall dangerous personal care and cosmetic products. Can you believe right now, it is completely voluntary?
Companies can put almost anything they want in cosmetics. Some of these ingredients can cause serious allergic reactions, and even cancer!
They don’t even have to disclose all of the ingredients – the word “fragrance” can be dozens of hidden chemicals. The FDA and consumers should be able to know more about what is the products we use every day.
When a product does hurt someone, that company should be required to quickly report the injury. But shouldn’t they make sure that the products are safe *before* they are on store shelves?
Just about everyone uses personal care products every day. I think congress should make cosmetic safety a priority.
Eliana Lawrence
