Ayesha Malik’s hair was once so lush – glossy, with ringlets worthy of a Disney movie – that she had to prove on YouTube that she didn’t wear a wig or use a curling iron. At the time, Malik was a devotee of DevaCurl, a line of products designed specifically for curly hair, something she had found hard to come by in her home town of Anchorage, Alaska. Malik first promoted DevaCurl as a fan – she credited the company with transforming her relationship to her hair – and then as an influencer. But by January 2019, nearly six years into use of DevaCurl products, something was off. Her hair appeared brittle and fried. The ringlets straightened out. Her scalp itched terribly, and she started losing handfuls of hair in the shower. She developed consistent tinnitus and anxiety, struggled with memory loss and delayed speech, and withdrew from her work on social media.
Though she had received several concerned DMs from followers experiencing similar hair damage, it wasn’t until she joined a Facebook group later that summer that she admitted the culprit could be her beloved hair products. The group, Hair Damage & Hair Loss from DevaCurl – You’re not CRAZY or ALONE, started by Orlando-based hair stylist Stephanie Mero, had 3,000 members at the time who all experienced similar damage they attributed to DevaCurl. (The group now has close to 60,000 members.) Malik read the posts and cried in recognition and horror, though “it still took me a few months to process, because I was still in denial”, she told the Guardian. She felt as though she’d been in a long-term relationship with the brand. “The betrayal is just so hard to fathom,” she said. “Why would you harm me? You’re supposed to be the complete opposite of that.”
