Brazillian Blowout Harmful

The Brazilian Blowout, is a popular hair-straightening treatment that promises to eliminate frizz and give you smooth and straight hair for months.

In lab tests, the Brazilian Blowout solution has been found to contain 12 percent formaldehyde, (a known carcinogen) when only 0.2 per cent is permitted in cosmetics.

On its website, Brazilian Blowout advertises that all of its products have been tested as "formaldehyde free.

Derek Bodnarchuk, owner of Aru Spa and Salon in White Rock, said that the product was heavily marketed as being formaldehyde-free.

"That was their competitive advantage," he said. "It's alarming for us, because we're the type of place that's trying to promote a healthy, natural lifestyle."

The national health agency has received complaints of breathing difficulties, burning eyes, nose, throat, and even one case of hair loss associated with the treatment. The agency believes that the reactions are triggering when the solution is heated during blow-drying and flat-ironing.

Health Canada is now asking hair salons to stop using the Brazilian Blowout Solution immediately, and is advising customers who have suffered adverse effects to contact their doctors.

Isolde Semple, a Stylist in Vancouver said Thursday that she has stopped using the treatment.
"I think it's absolutely devastating that it got approved,". "There's a lot of victims here, and I'm absolutely upset at the people who produced the product."

Semple said that the treatment does have an awful smell, but she didn't think it was anything serious.

"It makes your eyes kind of water, but it's the same thing as when you're cutting an onion," she said. Some customers have reported feeling slightly ill afterwards. "Now people are realizing, maybe it wasn't what I ate."

Semple said she was charging around $350 for the treatment, and could now be out quite a bit of money.

"If I can't return the product, I'm sucking it up as a very big lesson learned," she said.

Now Semple will have to find a new way to help customers straighten their hair.

"It did a great thing to the hair -- that's the worst part." Other Brazilian Blowout products are not affected by the Health Canada warning.

World's Most Powerful Woman: Michelle Obama

Forbes magazine has ranked First Lady Michelle Obama as the world's most powerful woman. Beating out heads of state, chief executives and celebrities.

So who rounded the top 5 spots in Forbes magazine's annual listing?
Irene Rosenfeld Chief Executive of Kraft Foods, who led a hostile $18 billion takeover of Britain’s Cadbury, came in second, with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, (who after 25 years is ending The Oprah Winfrey Show next year to launch her cable network, own) coming in third.

Angela Merkel, German Counsil came in fourth, followed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was put in charge of brokering Middle East peace coming in the firth spot.

Moira Forbes, vice president and publisher of Forbes Woman, said the women on the business magazine’s list were “shaping many of the agenda-setting conversations of the day.”

“They have built companies and brands, sometimes by non-traditional means and they have broken through gender barriers in areas of commerce, politics, sports and media and cultural zeitgeist, and thereby affecting the lives of millions, sometimes billions of people,” she said.

In previous years Forbes ranked women based on power and wealth. This year, however, they decided to concentrate on more on creative influence and entrepreneurship.

Last year Obama ranked No. 40 with the winner being Merkel, followed by Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Forbes said Obama topped the list this year because “she has made the office of first lady her own” while remaining popular.

“In a telling sign of her charisma, the White House is putting her on the campaign trail to headline fundraising events in battleground states like California and Colorado,” Forbes said.

“She’s also effective: In response to her Let’s Move! campaign against childhood obesity, companies like Coca-Cola, Kellogg and General Mills have pledged to reduce the calorie content of their foods by 2015,” it said.

Last week, PepsiCo Inc Chief Executive Indra Nooyi, was named the most powerful woman in U.S. business for the fifth year in a row by Fortune, was in sixth place, while singer Lady Gaga got the number 7 spot.

Gail Kelly, chief executive of Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp, came in eighth place, followed by singer Beyonce Knowles for 9th. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres rounded out the top 10.