When Black Haircare Becomes A Cash Grab
Clarissa Brooks guest-edits The Don't Buy List: Issue #55
I’m taking July off to focus on finishing my book (!!!) and handing The Unpublishable over to a series of guest writers for the month.1 Today’s guest is Clarissa Brooks, the Atlanta-based writer behind the newsletter. (Subscribe here!) Read on for her thoughts on the cash-grab of natural hair oils, the anti-Blackness of color-correcting, and the joys of braiding. (P.S. This edition of the DBL is free!)
-Jessica
The Don’t Buy List: Issue #55
by Clarissa Brooks
Hey sweet potatoes and welcome to another edition of The Don’t Buy List! I’m Clarissa Brooks, a Black queer writer based in Atlanta, GA. I run the newsletter Chaotic Good here on Substack. I’m elated to discuss the beauty trends happening on my side of the internet and how they often play into the same systems of domination that warp the wider world.
In true cyclical fashion, the wheel of Black natural hair trends has made its loop back around. Thankfully, it might be for good reason. After the natural hair YouTuber boom of the mid 2010s, natural haircare companies such as Mielle Organics, Carols Daughters, and Shea Moisture are finally being challenged. Creators on TikTok are debunking the trend of using haircare products with heavy oils and butters — which is less about healthy hair and more about hyper-consumption.
For many years, learning about being Black and taking care of your naturally curly hair has been led by Black YouTubers who made at-home recipes and worked tirelessly for years to encourage Black women to embrace their natural textures, in the wake of using relaxers to appease white beauty standards. In the midst of that 10-year sprint of YouTube fame, haircare lines began to include more oils and butters that would lock in moisture to do more elaborate hairstyles.
Now with the advent of TikTok, hairstylists and cosmetic chemists who are experts in textured hair are speaking up about how difficult it is to get customers to stop using heavily oiled products (a direct result of the natural hair product boom that is being bought up by corporations such as Unilever and Procter & Gamble). The products in question are making their clients hair more brittle and harder to moisturize, as water repels oil — keeping consumers beholden to stylers that help them regain the look of moisturized hair, if not the actual moisture.
Creators online are calling for fewer products and more conscious consumption as Black hair care becomes a cash grab. (I’m thinking specifically of the black hole that was the Mielle Hair Oil & Alex Earl controversy, which made it clear that Black beauty is being stolen and resold to us without our knowledge.)
Whether it be the ill-fated Tarte DEI controversies or the ongoing callout of brands not having dark enough shades, being dark-skinned and enjoying makeup is complicated. Anti-Blackness shows up in the smallest ways, but recently I’ve seen it in the boom of color correcting, which requires more product consumption for the look of an even skin tone, and functions as a dog whistle to encourage shame around hyperpigmentation. Since 2016, many beauty creators have been speaking to the importance of undertones and, for dark-skinned people, the need to color correct your under-eyes for the sake of “a good beat.” Whether it be diving into color theory or simply trying to find the right shade of concealer, the idea that consumers with dark skin need to have flawless, even, single-tone skin at all times is a fallacy the beauty industry depends on.
More reading for you on the fall of empire:
Yes, the Shein influencer trip was a hot mess — but thankfully some Black creators are translating the propaganda for us:
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserIt’s always a good day to read Arabelle Sicardi:
And some joy in with Darian Symone’s reporting from a few years ago about how Black college students are braiding hair to get through school.
- Clarissa
All views expressed by guest writers are their own and not necessarily representative of my personal views or The Unpublishable, etc. etc. etc.
Whoaa this is revealing! I’ve also been thinking about hair care products like sleep bonnets and wraps made by companies such as ‘My Kitsch’ that are run by (very wealthy) white women... I’m a white woman, and I purchased their “satin” (read: polyester) pillowcases to try for my curly hair, but returned as soon as I realised they were fully synthetic (not what I was looking for)... it was a swift return, and I couldn’t fault them for their customer service, but there was something really on the nose about the language they used in all the comms, re: “thank you for supporting our small women-led business” as if they were this tiny start-up operating out of their kitchen... according to this article, My Kitsch reached $87 million in 2020 earnings... https://www.glossy.co/beauty/inside-the-kitsch-beach-house-the-malibu-property-at-the-heart-of-the-brands-influencer-strategy/
Anyway! It got me thinking about that *scrunchie empire*, and the incredible wealth this woman is building on the back of a brand that caters to the curly hair needs of (predominantly Black) women, without any of that money going back to the communities that she caters to... it’s big business, but one that doesn’t seem to benefit anyone but the company founder or stakeholders. The more I read the Unpublishable, the more I realise that this is nothing new in the beauty industry, but still, it gave me the ick!
Thank you for shining a light on another shadow of the haircare world, Clarissa! I’m learning lots.
LOVED THIS. Thank you for writing this, Clarissa! I, too, have witnessed the seemingly never-ending Black hair oils, butters, creams, etc. that are supposed to encourage growth and moisture retention. I have 4C hair and honestly the most these products have done for me is moisture that lasts 1 day...then I reapply lol. Definitely going to pursue simple and straightforward methods. Thank you again!