Scientists on the verge of discovering a pill to straighten hair?? | Black Girl with Long Hair Black Girl with Long Hair | Natural Hair Styles and Natural Hair Care

09 December 2009 ~ 32 Comments

Scientists on the verge of discovering a pill to straighten hair??

A couple BGLHers notified me of this.

“Researcher Professor Nick Martin told a packed crowd of reporters that his team discovered that variations in the trichohyalin gene which is responsible for the curliness or straightness of hair. Before this discovery, scientists believed that the trichohyalin gene’s sole responsibility was for the development of hair follicles.



And it gets even more interesting. According to Professor Martin, the discovery will likely have major implications for hair treatments. He said, “Potentially we can now develop new treatments to make hair curlier or straighter, rather than treating the hair directly.”

Click HERE for the full story.

I’m especially interested to hear what the scientists among us think of this…

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32 Responses to “Scientists on the verge of discovering a pill to straighten hair??”

  1. Alexis 9 December 2009 at 11:10 am Permalink

    I saw this and emailed it to you. It’s crazy that they can find “cure” for hair, but not Cancer, Aids, Autism, and things of that nature. This pill can kill black women, and all they see is dollar signs! What is really crazy is that if you can’t ingest the realxer(on the side of the box it says if ingested it can cause death) but you can take the pill?

  2. Stacebace 9 December 2009 at 11:29 am Permalink

    I usually lurk on here, but I had to speak up… Seriously, naturally curly hair is such a “disease” that they had to find a cure…let’s see all the side effects,death and blindness among other things. There are so many other things to spend money on but they spend it on research for a hair straightening pill.WOW!

  3. Black Girl With Long Hair 9 December 2009 at 11:52 am Permalink

    I think it’s interesting to look at the things we discussed on BGLH this week. First we had Tanesha, a beautiful model, whose amazing coils got friend half to death. Then this story, about taking a pill to straighten hair.

    It’s just crazy how there’s this daily assault on kinky/coily/curly hair. Like damn, can you give it a rest??

  4. Michelle 9 December 2009 at 12:43 pm Permalink

    alexis is exactly right, where are the cures for deadly and debilitating afflictions??? i feel like that movie idiocracy is playing out all around me…

  5. La Coccinelle 9 December 2009 at 12:44 pm Permalink

    Oh really!?? Yeah that sounds awesome!

    The only downside is that it turns you into a flesh eating, translucent-skinned vampire/zombie hybrid, and only Will Smith can cure you.

  6. Jc 9 December 2009 at 1:46 pm Permalink

    So we all know and understand DNA. The only time when scientists mess with DNA is to cure cancer. Cancer is usually caused by cells whose DNA is functioning incorrectly or innappropriately.

    Targeting a specific gene is a good scientific achievement but it would certainly be amazing to me if an ethics board actually approved this for humans.

    Also note the article was based on variations in European curly hair.

  7. Jade 9 December 2009 at 1:56 pm Permalink

    *rolls my eyes*
    I guess we would see how many naturals truly “love” their coils…..

  8. laela 9 December 2009 at 1:58 pm Permalink

    hmmm…I checked the research institute’s website but I don’t see any information about this (I suppose it’s because they aren’t done with the research) but until this comes from a more credible news source, I have yet to believe it. It’s kind of like the AIDS vaccine, all hype for now.

    And you know that if a pill was developed, it would be extremely expensive yet people would shell out the money.

  9. Smiley Face 9 December 2009 at 2:25 pm Permalink

    (long time lurker)
    UM!! What da hell? Seriously…next thing you know they’ll be a pill to cure excess melanin **rolls eyes hard!!**

  10. Black Girl With Long Hair 9 December 2009 at 2:35 pm Permalink

    Ok, I’m still thinking about this… and I just want to say… COILY HAIR IS AWESOME!!!

  11. Kasalina 9 December 2009 at 2:38 pm Permalink

    How odd, why take medication if you don’t have a disease. What would the longterm/side-effects anyway. Maybe they should work on a cure for Sickle-Cell Anemia.

  12. lexibugg 9 December 2009 at 3:14 pm Permalink

    i find it interesting that it states that you could make your hair CURLIER OR STRAIGHTER but the focus only seems to be on the possibility of straight hair, why is that the case???? there are plenty of individuals who crave some variation of curly hair be it Botticelli curls, corkscrews, or a full on kinky fro!!!!
    of course theses are Australian scientist, i wouldn’t expect any better from them, sounds like an excellent way to carry out effective ethnic cleansing!!!! i don’t take any thing concocted in a lab, if i can help it!!! have you all not noticed how the side effects of medications are often worse than the actual condition being treated. and a few of them can actually cause new and permanent conditions!!! not worth it for a bit of vanity, stick to a flat iron or flexirods!!!!

  13. SBF 9 December 2009 at 3:25 pm Permalink

    My first instinct as a PhD scientist is to say chill out. It’s too early for righteous indignation. There is a huge leap between discovering a special function of a gene and being able to change anything about your body (especially the ‘nice’ idea of popping a pill to change your hair). Similar discoveries have been and are being made for all sorts of genes related to cancer and other pathologies. The absence of a ‘pill’ to cure these is not evidence that insufficient efforts are being directed towards these more important issues. In basic (as opposed to applied) science, we often have to state some sort of a far-reaching implication/application for our work. We kind of say, ‘well what if we truly understood and were able to control this mechanism; what we be able to achieve?’ Well okay, I suppose we could control hair texture; that would be kind of interesting. But I’m guessing that their motivations for engaging in the original research had nothing to do with this kind of media-lite application reported. I could never approach a research funding body and get money to support research into controlling hair texture. Having made the discovery, they are now probably seeing dollar signs due to interest from the beauty industry. At any rate, there is such a leap of development and discovery between identifying a gene and harnessing it that I wouldn’t take much notice of a report like this. This story is crafted to make an impact. Science is so abused in the media.

  14. kinkycoily 9 December 2009 at 3:57 pm Permalink

    Media TakeOut as a source, though?

    Here’s a better link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6751910/Curly-hair-gene-discovered-by-scientists.html

    I’m all for inhibiting gene expression for a disease, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

    I also notice the original article focuses more on the discovery than the pill. MTO, on the other hand, is like “Ooh! Perm!”

    Sensationalism to the 10th degree.

  15. xxlolax 9 December 2009 at 4:09 pm Permalink

    haha…it will probably cause cancer

  16. BLACKkittenROAR 9 December 2009 at 4:45 pm Permalink

    Why is it that always one step forward two steps back? I’m sure this research has some value for something else…but for curing curliness? Come on, really? Curly hair is a disease? So stupid, but I’m willing to bet good money if it gets approved people will be lining up and paying good money for this pill…so sad.

  17. Kiarah 9 December 2009 at 4:57 pm Permalink

    The science community is always viewed by the public in such a negative way but yet when great discoveries are made people don’t appreciate it. We are always working to cure cancer, AIDs, and every other disease that everybody else just sits on their butts and complains about. People dedicate their lives to researching cancer. So it is an insult to say they are not working on it.

    As far as this pill goes, it is not here yet. It probably won’t be here for a while but this is not an attack on the coily-haired community. They are also looking to make straight hair curly. I also heard that people with wavy texture can choose to have curly or straight by inactivating one gene or the other. This is no different from girls buying perms or weaves. It is about preference. I love natural hair but I don’t believe everyone has to be natural and the people who choose not to be should not be shunned. You judging them for wanting straighter hair is no different from them judging you for your natural hair.

  18. Sassluv 9 December 2009 at 5:49 pm Permalink

    Why are so many responses to this article acting as if it’s some kind of conspiracy to wipe out nappy hair? All they did was find a gene that controls hair curl. And they just think that it might be the key to giving people a choice in their hair texture. And in my opinion, choice is good.
    So bone straights can be curly or kinky and vice versa. What’s there to be afraid of? If you love your naps, they can’t force feed you these pills. I promise you, no white coated scientists will be chasing you down, frothing test tube in hand.

    And for those who hate their curls and kinks, here lies salvation. No more burning your scalp every 6 weeks or forking out thousands of dollars on illfitting weaves. Now you can have that ‘white girl flow’ for realz and ALL the GOODIES that come with it – lank greasy hair that needs daily washing, increased attraction to hair lice (cos they love straight hair too!) and increased quantities of body hair (it’s not just the hair on their head that ‘flows’).
    So they can find out how much greener that grass really is on the other side.

  19. Osakhomen 9 December 2009 at 8:49 pm Permalink

    Wow, It’d probably have side effects, like serious side effects… It’s really hard to just target ONE thing in the body, let alone a gene. Good luck with the pill, who ever makes it.

  20. Aisha 9 December 2009 at 11:30 pm Permalink

    Freakin’ scary.

  21. Yoshi3329 9 December 2009 at 11:35 pm Permalink

    I think that this a great discovery. Having said that, taking a pill for your hair? Creepy. If you really want straight hair get a flat iron. Really people. Is this like a relaxer where you need “touch-ups” and swallow pills every 3 months or once you swallow it your hair will be straight forever? That’s what I want to know.

    When are we as women going to be happy with what God gave us. Do we have so much self-hatred that we need to “fix/cure” what doesn’t need “fixing/curing?”

    With a pill no less?!?

  22. Ms. Bar B 10 December 2009 at 2:11 am Permalink

    Wow. This is really really… I don’t even know… I’m kinda speechless here, lol. It makes me sad for all of the women who would actually choose this, and all of the young girls who could be subjected to it by parents who are looking for the easy way out of caring for their daughters hair.

    ::shakes head::

  23. FeBaby 10 December 2009 at 8:34 am Permalink

    sadly…another way to kill more black people :(

  24. M.J. 10 December 2009 at 3:55 pm Permalink

    uhhhh, no thanks!

  25. Msnappy 10 December 2009 at 6:08 pm Permalink

    Why do black people think everything is a conspiracy against us? Have you considered that other people with curly hair may not want curly hair? Maybe this is for them. Afterall, the testing was on Europeans not blacks. Enough with the victim mentality.

  26. Nicole 10 December 2009 at 6:31 pm Permalink

    First, I think its cool theyve discovered the gene. Remind me to thank it and the ones that passed it on to create such a fine female specimen with a fab head of hair.:P I wonder if this pill or whatever would cause the results to be temporary or permanent. If its temporary thats could be a lot of pills for the sake of straight hair. Way too much effort. Second, on a waaaay less realistic note, it kind of reminds me of the last xmen movie when they created a vaccine to permanently disable the mutant-x gene, lol!

  27. LBell 10 December 2009 at 7:38 pm Permalink

    Actually, people have been working on this for a while…I first heard about it years ago in Chicago. Soft Sheen in Chicago (which has been owned by L’Oreal for a while now) was working on something that they claimed would change the shape of the hair follicle. I don’t remember if the product would have been internal or external, but I do remember the women at the desk (Diane I-forgot-her-last-name and Leah Hope on Channel 7 in Chicago) were in awe: Wow, imagine never having to use a relaxer again.

    I find these responses here all the more interesting in that context. I’m guessing 10 years ago black folks would be jumping for joy at the news that there might be a pill that will “fix” nappy hair. Nowadays, with the consciousness surrounding what we put in our bodies as well as the new awareness that comes with natural hair…it’s nice to see that women here will probably pass on this particular pill. Then again, this IS a natural hair blog…what might other black blogs be saying?

    As for me, I’ll say now what I said then: I don’t care if this pill gives me straight hair, big boobs, contraceptive action AND the libido of a teenager…I ain’t taking it.

  28. SB 11 December 2009 at 2:13 pm Permalink

    whoa if this is true and can be developed and marketed in my time, byebye straightening iron lol

  29. Onescientist 12 December 2009 at 5:40 pm Permalink

    I questioned the validity of the claims. Went to the actual product website. Read that the product is treatment for thinning hair or hair loss. Didn’t see anything about straigtening hair…but then I may have missed something.

  30. Cassie 12 December 2009 at 5:57 pm Permalink

    Scientists can invent it, we just don’t have to take it. Unfortunately, if this is not a hoax, I know that it will be very popular amongst Blacks who cannot stand their “nappy” hair. Whoever markets it will make mucho $$$!

  31. Danied 18 December 2009 at 1:44 am Permalink

    As a grad student in science, my first reaction is that this pill could have some interesting side effects. I don’t feel, however, that the discovery is attacking our kinks and coils. Women all over the world spend $$$$ to change the appearance of their hair. No, there is no cure for cancer (I’m working on it!) but diseases such as cancer are very complicated….there is no ONE gene that can be altered as a treatment. Everyone in the scientific community has his/her own interests…give them a break guys. Kudos to the scientists who isolated the gene.


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