For a lot of women, gone are the days of simply running into your local pharmacy to pick up a bottle of shampoo. If you’re old enough to remember when hair care was nothing more than a sweet-smelling bottle of Pert Plus, Salon Selectives, or Herbal Essences, you might reminisce about simpler times.
That was before influencers.
Before social media.
Before hair care products that you could only buy in salons or online (because there was no online shopping… or online anything, for that matter).
Our needs were simple. And that doesn’t mean there weren’t cosmetic products that could cause an injury—once-beloved St. Ives Apricot Scrub and similar exfoliants created microscopic skin tears that triggered chronic sensitivity; products like Sea Breeze and Noxzema relied on high levels of denatured alcohol, which led to severe over-drying and compromised skin barriers; tanning products with baby oil or low-SPF lotions caused acute sun damage and long-term risk for skin cancer and premature aging; even the hair dryers in the late 1970s and early 1980s had components with asbestos for heat resistance—just to name a few.
But today, people are increasingly buying “fancy” hair care and skin care products—influencers make us believe that we “need” these products to look good, feel good, and be healthier.
Today’s subject: Olaplex.
On February 9, 2023, 28 women filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Olaplex Holdings, Inc. and its manufacturer, Cosway Co.
Some people are embarrassed to claim hair loss as a “real” injury, but it is. It’s no different from a broken bone or laceration. To be clear, disfigurement, chemical burns, and permanent scalp damage are compensable harms. They carry psychological weight that juries understand.
But there’s a catch—a real injury doesn’t always equal a winnable lawsuit. The Olaplex lawsuit is a good example of the distinction—the way it ended says more about product liability law than how it began. Let’s dive in.
The Olaplex lawsuit
First, what is Olaplex? Olaplex is a hair care system that advertises itself as “designed to repair and strengthen damaged hair from the inside out.” The products in the damage-repair line are numbered, and each serves a different purpose or is intended for a different hair type.
The California lawsuit targeted nearly the entire product line—No. 0 through No. 9—for this brand, which had gone public in September 2021 in a $1.55 billion IPO and reached a market value of higher than $19 billion.
The lawsuit was based on the traditional theories of product liability law:
- Negligence
- Defective product
- Fraudulent concealment
- False advertising
- Unfair business practices
What were the injuries in the Olaplex lawsuit?
The injuries alleged in the lawsuit weren’t cosmetic disappointments. Plaintiffs reported severe hair loss, contact dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis, blistering, open sores, burning, extreme itching, secondary bacterial and yeast infections, and lasting emotional harm.
The complaint alleged that several ingredients were the cause of these issues:
- Lilial (butylphenyl methylpropional): a fragrance compound that’s been classified as reprotoxic in the EU, and was banned effective March 2022. Plaintiffs alleged that Sephora pulled items with this ingredient in July 2021, but Olaplex continued to use it.
- Panthenol: alleged to trigger allergic contact dermatitis in sensitized users.
- Sodium benzoate in combination with ascorbic or citric acid: plaintiffs allege this combination can form benzene.
- Non-water-soluble ingredients: said to occlude follicles.
The lawsuit also alleged that Olaplex failed to disclose that its celebrity and influencer endorsements were paid placements, which means there was a marketing component to the lawsuit in addition to the injury allegations.
The Olaplex response to the lawsuit
Olaplex did not take the allegations lightly. Then-CEO JuE Wong recorded a video in which he disputed the allegations, and the company published the results of a human repeat insult patch test (HRIPT), which is the standard dermal irritation and sensitization protocol for personal care products. The company asserted that the test reported no indication of irritation or sensitization.
The company’s position was categorical, saying, “Olaplex products do not cause hair loss or hair breakage.” It also said that it’s normal for people to shed 50-100 strands of hair each day, and that there are many reasons for hair breakage and loss. For instance, hair loss could be caused by medications, medical conditions, post-COVID effects, skin disorders, and styling history. The company also indicated that lilial was removed from the product in January 2022, which was prior to its ban in the EU.
The outcome of the Olaplex lawsuit
As a consumer, here’s what matters to you for a similar claim:
The case never reached a jury on the science. Instead, the court granted Olaplex’s motion to sever and dismiss the claims. The action was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice.
Severance is a procedural ruling, not a verdict. It doesn’t mean the women plaintiffs didn’t suffer injuries. It means the 28 plaintiffs—who had 28 different hair histories, colorists, product combinations, medical conditions, and usage timelines—could not litigate as one unit. Personal injury causation is individual by nature. A mass filing like this one typically collapses when the only thing in common among plaintiffs is a shared defendant.
A case dismissed without prejudice means the court has closed the current lawsuit, but the plaintiff is allowed to file the same case again in the future. However, re-filing a lawsuit is costly—each claimant would need their own medical experts, patch testing, differential diagnosis and specific causation expert.
What about the investors?
This case had another wrinkle, separate from the personal injury causation issue. In a separate claim, shareholders alleged the IPO documents contained materially misleading statements about the regulatory exposure and product-safety risk. That case settled for $47.5 million.
What if you think you were injured by a cosmetic product?
If you believe you were injured by a product defect, keep the bottle and packaging, including the lot number. Photograph the injury as it develops, with dates. See a dermatologist promptly and ask specifically about patch testing to identify the sensitizing agent. Write down every product used in that window, not just the suspected one—and move quickly, limitations periods in product cases are shorter than people expect.
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