Spatiotemporal Dynamics, Trends and Emerging Patterns of Hair Straightener and/or Hair Product and Cancer: A Scientometric Study

Aim: The aim of this study was to analyze the published scientific literature on the use of hair straighteners and/or hair care products and cancer. Methodology: This was an observational, cross-sectional, and retrospective study with a scientometric approach. A literature search was performed in the Web of Science database on January 17, 2024. Bibliometric indicators were used to analyze research productivity, research impact, international collaboration, author productivity, and literature dispersion. Data analyses were performed using R Studio 4.3.2 and CiteSpace 6.2 software. A total of 108 relevant manuscripts were retrieved on database search. Results: The number of publications has shown an annual growth rate of 6.37%. The average age of articles was 8.28 years, and these had received an average of 22.19 citations. These articles cited a total of 4,940 previous papers. An additional 506 keywords and 355 keywords provided by the authors were identified, demonstrating the thematic diversity of the papers. The clusters presented diverse nodes, and the most representative were as follows: Kaufman KD (1998); Tobin DJ (2001); Kwon OS (2007); Semalty M (2011), and Dnurat R (2017). The Dual Map Overlay graph allowed the exploration of behavior and trends among scientific disciplines. Conclusion: This study provides valuable insights regarding the scientific literature exploring the relationship between the use of hair straighteners and/or hair care products with cancer. The findings underscore the importance of continued research and collaboration in this field.