Hair Relaxer Lawsuit Goes Forward, says Georgia Supreme Court

Kiara Burroughs, a Georgia woman, was diagnosed with uterine fibroids in 2018 after she allegedly used the chemical hair straightening products, starting in 1995 when she was six years old, and continued for almost two decades, until 2014. Burroughs filed a lawsuit against Strength of Nature and L’Oréal in 2022, citing a study linking chemical hair relaxers and cancer.

Statute of Repose

The statute of repose requires a plaintiff to file a product liability lawsuit within 10 years of purchasing the product.

The manufacturers argued Burroughs waited too long to file a claim, and her lawsuit was barred by Georgia’s 10-year statute of repose because Burroughs first purchased their products in 1995 and 2003. Her lawsuit went back and forth: at first, a trial court favored Burroughs, noting that the timing deadline begins “counting down” at the very first point of purchase of a given product.

But the Georgia Court of Appeals overturned their decision and barred two lawsuits alleging health problems related to hair relaxers, reported 11alive.com (Another Georgia woman diagnosed with cancer filed a similar lawsuit in May 2025.) It barred the lawsuits “reasoning that the statute of repose started to run at the earliest date that Burroughs bought any hair relaxer from each manufacturer.”

However, state Supreme Court allowed Burroughs’ lawsuit to proceed, stating that her lawsuit was not time barred because she continued to purchase those products for years, and that “the statute of repose is applied on a per-unit basis.” In other words, Burroughs bought some hair relaxer products within the 10-year period before filing her lawsuit, making her claims sufficient enough to avoid dismissal based on the statute of repose.

This ruling may be good news for many Georgia women who claim they’ve been harmed by prolonged exposure to chemical hair relaxers. Although it doesn’t weigh in on Burroughs’ health claims, it does allow her lawsuit to move forward.

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned that ruling, these lawsuits can proceed in Georgia, allowing plaintiffs to pursue their claims that chemical hair relaxers caused health problems. According to 11Alive, several months ago legal experts said that this Supreme Court ruling could have broad implications across Georgia. A decision in favor of Burroughs may open the door for additional lawsuits involving long-term use of consumer products.