Mutagenic risks induced by homemade hair straightening creams with high formaldehyde content.

Regardless of official recommendations, the inappropriate use of homemade hair creams has became a popular practice in Brazil and high formaldehyde content in the 'progressive straightening' creams has been reported. In the present work, three of these creams were analyzed by spectrophotometric, chromatographic and genotoxic assays in order to evaluate mutagenic risks associated with the uncontrolled addition of formaldehyde at contents higher than those allowed by regulation. The ultraviolet and Fourier-transformed infrared absorption spectra showed characteristic signals that can be assigned to formaldehyde, although with different relative intensities, revealing distinct compositions.