SANTA MONICA, Calif. — When Santa Monica resident Yeni Melchiore heads out for the day, she always remembers to do her hair.
"I can kind of go out like this, right? It’s not too noticeable," she said, pulling her hair into a bun.
The 31-year-old, who is sharing her story for the first time, is trying to cover the front part of her head, void of the voluminous hair she used to have before it started falling out last spring.
"I just thought it was signs of aging, really I was like, 'Oh wow, my hair is receding. I’m getting older, didn‘t expect this,'" she said.
Melchiore says over the next few months, the clumps started getting bigger. She saw multiple doctors, specialists and says no one could figure out why her hair was falling out.
"This is what my hair looks like," she said. "So you can see I have lost all this. At first, it was just like a little bit right here and that’s why I thought my hair was receding and then one day, it was just like, gone."
It wasn’t until Melchiore learned a luxury haircare brand called Olaplex faced accusations from dozens of customers that its products caused hair loss and led to scalp injuries that she made a connection.
She says she used the same products for months and believes that’s what caused her baldness, taking a physical and emotional toll.
"It doesn’t get any easier," she said. "It’s an adjustment."
Melchiore is one of over 100 customers in a lawsuit filed against Olaplex, which is based in Santa Barbara, alleging its products damaged hair according to Amy Davis, a Dallas-based attorney representing the plaintiffs.
"They claimed this product is safe for use on every hair type, every day, and that is simply not the case," Davis said. "We also have claims for misleading the public and for false advertisement."
The lawsuit alleges the products contain harsh chemicals, including lilial, and that "many more of the products contain panthenol and other ingredients known for some time by the beauty industry to be allergens and irritants. These sorts of ingredients lead to allergic contact dermatitis ("ACD") and resulting hair loss and scalp injuries."
Spectrum News reached out to Olaplex, which issued the following statement:
"We know that hair loss and breakage can be distressing, and we empathize with those who are experiencing hair loss and searching for answers on what may be causing it. However, we have full confidence in the safety and efficacy of our products, which is why we have released test results from independent third party laboratories that go above and beyond industry standards. The allegations in this case are not supported by the facts or science."
Last year, Olaplex reported net sales of over $703 million. Social media influencers and celebrities tout its products.
To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received 98 adverse reports about the company’s products based on public data but points out that "for any given report, there is no certainty that a suspected product caused a reaction."
The FDA is limited in its authority to regulate personal care products, according to associate professor Genevieve Kanter with USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy. But she says overall, products are safe and manufacturers cannot use ingredients that are harmful to consumers, cannot mis-brand products and all ingredients must be listed on labels.
"There is no pre-approval, so products don’t have to go to the FDA first before it goes on the market," she said. "So it basically relies on the manufacturers producing a safe product and then, if something happened, then the FDA may take action."
However, in December, Congress updated cosmetics safety laws for the first time in over 80 years, she says.
Under the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022, the FDA can now require companies to register ingredients and comply with specific testing standards.
"It does allow the FDA to require recalls. So typically, it had always been voluntary and the FDA could ask a company to recall a product but it was really up to the manufacturer," said Kanter. "The second is it requires mandatory adverse event reporting so previously companies, even if they had a lot of safety reports, they wouldn’t be required to actually submit them to the FDA. Now they do."
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are seeking $75,000 in damages, but Melchiore says no amount of money can undo the damage to her hair, which she says is showing some signs of growing back.