There is no active Herbal Essences hair loss lawsuit accepting claimants. The brand was mentioned alongside others during a 2020–2021 wave of class actions over DMDM hydantoin, a formaldehyde-releasing preservative used in shampoos, but the major cases targeted Johnson & Johnson’s OGX and Unilever’s TRESemmé, and the broad attorney investigation that swept up similar products closed in October 2022 without including Herbal Essences on its list.1https://www.classaction.org/ No court has found that Herbal Essences products cause hair loss, and the scientific evidence connecting the ingredient at issue to hair loss remains thin.
Where Herbal Essences Fits in the DMDM Hydantoin Litigation
The lawsuits that drove public attention to shampoo-related hair loss centered on DMDM hydantoin, a preservative that slowly releases small amounts of formaldehyde to prevent bacterial and mold growth. Formaldehyde is classified as a known human carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program and is recognized by the FDA as a common cosmetic allergen. Plaintiffs argued that manufacturers failed to warn buyers that the preservative could contribute to hair loss and scalp irritation.
Those suits primarily named Johnson & Johnson over OGX and Unilever over TRESemmé, with individual filings also naming products from Keratin Complex, Paul Mitchell, and Aussie, among others. Herbal Essences was often grouped with those brands in news coverage and attorney advertising because certain older formulations did contain DMDM hydantoin. A database maintained by the Contact Dermatitis Institute lists the preservative in a range of legacy Clairol Herbal Essences products, including shampoos, conditioners, mousses, gels, spray gels, and hair colorants, and the EWG’s Skin Deep database identifies two Herbal Essences products containing it. Many of those formulations predate P&G’s repositioning of the brand under newer ingredient lines.
Even so, the ClassAction.org investigation into DMDM hydantoin hair products did not list Herbal Essences among the products under investigation, and Herbal Essences was not a named defendant in the major consolidated cases.
What the Science Actually Says
The volume of litigation outpaced the evidence. WebMD reported there has been “little, if any, research” into whether DMDM hydantoin causes hair loss, and the Environmental Working Group stated in August 2021 that no existing studies link exposure to the preservative with hair loss.
The ingredient is a recognized skin allergen. Fewer than one percent of people are allergic to formaldehyde, and in those individuals, exposure to formaldehyde-releasing preservatives can trigger allergic contact dermatitis or eczema, which could in turn cause scalp irritation and shedding. For the general population, the formaldehyde released by DMDM hydantoin in a rinse-off shampoo is very low. WebMD compared the exposure to the amount of formaldehyde found naturally in a medium-sized apple or pear. Some commentators also noted that the surge in hair loss complaints during 2020 and 2021 coincided with widely documented pandemic-related stress shedding.
Status of the Cases and Whether You Can File a Claim
No major DMDM hydantoin hair loss case has produced a trial verdict or a merits-based settlement on the hair loss claims. The consolidated TRESemmé case against Unilever, Lipetz and Keener v. Unilever United States, Inc., No. 20-CV-6350 in the Northern District of Illinois, remained active as of April 2025, with no class certification ruling or trial date set. Unilever maintains its products are safe and comply with industry standards.
The broader attorney investigation into DMDM hydantoin hair products closed in October 2022, and the material on ClassAction.org is now flagged as reference only. Attorneys who had been screening claimants are no longer actively signing them up for those claims. For Herbal Essences specifically, that means there is no class to opt into, no settlement fund to file against, and no active recruitment for a hair loss case.
If you believe you were injured, an individual consultation with a personal-injury attorney is the only remaining route, and any such claim would face the same evidentiary problem that has stalled the class litigation: proving that a particular product caused a particular case of hair loss, when the underlying science has not established that link.
Other Herbal Essences Lawsuits Sometimes Confused With Hair Loss Claims
Two other Herbal Essences legal matters get grouped with hair loss coverage but are not hair loss cases.
The first is the benzene aerosol dry shampoo matter. On December 17, 2021, P&G issued a voluntary recall of 32 aerosol dry shampoo and dry conditioner products from Herbal Essences, Pantene, Aussie, Waterless, Old Spice, and Hair Food after detecting unexpected levels of benzene in the propellant. Consumer class actions followed, and P&G agreed to an $8 million settlement covering purchases between November 4, 2015 and December 31, 2021. The claim deadline was January 26, 2023, and a final approval hearing was set for May 30, 2023. That settlement addressed economic loss from the purchase, not personal injury. Some attorneys continue to investigate individual benzene-exposure injury claims involving conditions such as leukemia or lymphoma, but those are separate from any hair loss theory.
The second is a false-advertising case. In February 2024, two California consumers filed McWhorter et al. v. The Procter & Gamble Company, No. 4:24-cv-00806, in the Northern District of California, alleging that P&G falsely markets Herbal Essences and Pantene products as containing high percentages of “naturally derived” or “natural-origin” ingredients. The complaint asserts violations of the California Business and Professions Code and the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act. It concerns labeling, not hair loss or scalp injury.