It is well known that a nontrivial commutator in a free group is never a proper power. We prove a theorem that generalizes this fact and has several worthwhile corollaries. For example, an equation [x1, y1] . . . [x k , y k ] = z n , where n 2k, in the free product F of groups without nontrivial elements of order n implies that z is conjugate to an element of a free factor of F . If a nontrivial commutator in a free group factors into a product of elements which are conjugate to each other then all these elements are distinct. m j=1 n j . Culler [8] discovered that, in the free group F (a, b) with free generators a, b, the cube [a, b] 3 of the commutator [a, b] := a −1 b −1 ab is a product of two commutators, [a, b] 3 = [a −1 ba, a −2 bab −1 ][bab −1 , b 2 ].Moreover, [a, b] n is a product of k commutators whenever n 2k − 1, see [8].