'I'm not normal anymore': Hair stylist sues companies over link between hair dye and cancer
The claims come after a growing body of occupational studies stretching back decades have found an increased cancer risk among hairdressers.
CENTRAL VALLEY, Calif. — Though it was 40 years ago, Hector Corvera still remembers the uneasiness he felt when he cut someone’s hair for the very first time.
“Your first day out of beauty college, you’re nervous and you don’t want to mess up,” he said.
The onetime hairstylist was born and raised in California’s Central Valley to Mexican-American agricultural farmers. He grew up helping out during harvests. But by the end of high school, he was tired of the brutal work in the fields. Corvera wanted to find a different kind of profession. Hairdressing appealed to him because it would be less physical and bore the promise of cooler temperatures — he would never be out of work because people’s hair always grows, he thought.
He now believes the choice upended his life.
Corvera was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2023. He recounted an unsettling moment with his urologist.
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