Hair Segregation

There's been a natural hair insurgency within black communities worldwide particularly in countries where blacks are the minority. Honestly, it's been amazing to see so many Black women and other women of color embrace their natural hair. The natural hair movement has also created an entrepreneurial route for lots of women of color. There are natural hair gurus, salon owners, product developers and so much more. In fact, I started to really get into YouTube about six years ago as a result of watching videos of some of my favorite natural hair vloggers: BlakizBeautful, BeautifulBrwnBabyDol , Blackonyx77, Naptural85--all of these women are huge in the natural hair community and have made a career out of promoting natural hair. 

Before the natural hair movement, Black women's only access to a wide range of hair products that met the needs of their textures was by shopping at small business beauty supply stores which are usually found in cities. This is why when we discovered big retailers such as Walmart and Target started selling products that are generally used for textured hair care-- many women (myself included) were not bothered by the names of the aisles as, "ethnic hair care". But then Liberian entrepreneur and Founder of Shea Moisture, Richelieu Dennis started this campaign #breakthewalls to bring awareness to retailers' segregating products that are used mostly by women of color and labeling the section where you can find such product as, "ethnic" or in London, as I have found it, simply as "Black Haircare."

Seen here at Boots- a major drugstore British retailor.

What's worse is that you will find all other products in aisles labeled "Beauty". What statement is this sending to Black women or even worse to the younger, more impressionable girls of color? That it is ok to segregate hair products for minorities? That Black hair isn't mainstream and therefore deserves to be separate?

Shea Moisture's follow-up advertisement "What's normal?" challenges the double standards in beauty. Don't get me wrong, I'm not placing all the blame on big corporations or the beauty/fashion industries because we as Black women are still struggling with accepting our own hair textures. This is partly due to the effects of slavery, imperialism, colonization and the media's portrayal of beauty but also because we have not learned that we can define our own standards of beauty.

Times are changing and it's thanks to companies like Shea Moisture and so many natural hair content curators who are inspiring generations of women to embrace their natural textures and reject hair segregation.

What are your thoughts on the topic?

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~Signed Chantal Victoria — Writer, Publisher, and Academic.

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