Celebrity Hair Stylist Amoy Pitters comments on Brazilian Blowouts

After a lifetime of fighting frizz with endless sprays and creams with no results, women with curly and hard-to-tame hair finally got a chance to get smooth, fresh-from-the-salon look that lasts for months. The name of this miracolous treatment is Brazilian Blowout and it's offered in many salons across the world, including Amoy Pitters' ''Amoy Couture Hair Salon'' in Manhattan, NY.

But lately the curly-haired women are concerned due to warnings that this too-good-to-be-true treament contains formaldehyde - a substance the EPA has deemed a potential carcinogen. An air sample test of salons in Oregon found levels of formaldehyde complied with safety standards, but Michael Wood, who heads the state's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said in a statement, "It is clear that the levels are high enough to cause concern." Repeated e-mails and phone calls to the Los Angeles office handling public relations for the Brazilian Blowout brand were not returned, and in a November news release, the company underscored the air sample tests from Oregon that found "formaldehyde exposure levels safely below OSHA's Action Level." The FDA is still investigating, and in the meantine, the California attorney general has filed a lawsuit alleging the Brazilian Blowout brand has high levels of formaldehyde despite claiming otherwise on its website and other advertising. Because of the health concerns, however, some salons in the U.S. have stopped offering the Brazilian Blowout.

Celebrity hair stylist Amoy Pitters of Amoy Couture Hair Salon has commented on Brazilian Blow Outs in her salon:

''While no chemical treatment is completely safe, we try to minimize any dangers that may arise by:

• Having open ventilation for all chemical treatments
• Using face masks, for both client and technicians, prevent breathing bad toxins
• We don’t do more than 2 Brazilian Blowouts a day to allow the air to be as fresh as possible
• Our technicians are highly skilled in the Brazilian Blowout, so we are able to do the treatment in less than 2 hours to minimize the effects of the chemicals
• We educate our clients on the proper maintenance of the Brazilian Blowout, encouraging them to buy the products to lengthen the time of the benefits''