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Original poster

Who has the right to ‘black’ hair products?

76 replies

MetaDaughter · 10/01/2023 16:18

White women aren’t being ‘banned’ from using black beauty products – but they should know this - by Kemi Alemoru. The Guardian.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/10/black-women-beauty-products-white-options?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

There’s so much irony tied up in this - hard to know where to begin …

OP posts:
bellac11 · 10/01/2023 18:03

EasterIsland · 10/01/2023 17:14

white women have only very recently started using oils in their hair and scalp

But that's only quite recent in historical terms. Hair oil was widely used in England in the 19th century.

I have noticed on this site and others (and I extrapolate it to the rest of society),, that no one knows their history and everything happening now is always considered as either just invented or just discovered or the new way of doing something. No one seems to know that there is nothing new under the sun

hoppityscotch · 10/01/2023 18:04

JamSandle · 10/01/2023 16:41

This should send the message that the product should be made more widely available - not that others shouldn't use the product.

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Yes but the companies need to scale up before that can happen. Its a balancing act.

FrippEnos · 10/01/2023 18:06

Thank god that those who think that white women have only recently started to use hair oil don't know about men using beard oil, it would freak them out.

MeinKraft · 10/01/2023 18:07

Oh and regarding white women only recently using hair oil, I remember using VO5 hot oil regularly when I bleached my hair in my teens.

twilightcafe · 10/01/2023 18:13

fruitbrewhaha · 10/01/2023 16:32

But surely if products made for black women also work for white women and the companies can make and sell more of their products they can bring the prices down, not up. I notice cantu hair products are now stocked in boots and waitrose, is that not progress? Or will cantu run out of products so black people miss out on buying them?

Why do supermarkets fob off black customers with Cantu products? They are overpriced rubbish.

Shea Moisture products have been reformulated watered down , so they are no longer as effective on black peoples' hair.

Original poster
MetaDaughter · 10/01/2023 18:16

RoseslnTheHospital · 10/01/2023 17:53

I read the article and thought fair enough. It's not an area that I know about, not being one for consuming any kind of social media about hair/make up. I can't see why anyone who is white could read this and get upset about being asked to think about the impact of this on black women.

🙏🏽

OP posts:
Eyerollcentral · 10/01/2023 18:20

KnittedCardi · 10/01/2023 16:39

I'm not sure that is true - Italians have been using Olive Oil on their hair for centuries, millennia in fact.

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Was just coming here to say that. Plus all white women are the same from Killarney to Minsk, give me strength…

Blanketenvy · 10/01/2023 18:23

I think there is an issue with people with wavy/curly hair buying the products and then complaining they are too heavy. I use some shea moisture and creme of nature but they suit my thick coarse hair, I wouldn't use them, find them too heavy and then complain, leading them inevitably being reformulated and taking them away from the people who they were made for in the first place.

InsiderLookingOut · 10/01/2023 18:26

JamSandle · 10/01/2023 17:50

So why bait racial conflicts with such a divisive headline? When the issue then isn't white women but the companies?

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It means more people would click. Except, with more clicks you get even more people who only read sensationalist, clickbait headlines.

They have to take the good and the bad, I suppose.

ConfusedNT · 10/01/2023 18:27

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 10/01/2023 17:44

But what can happen is people using the wrong products for their type start complaining and the products get reformulated for less curly hair

Does this happen (genuine question)? If I bought a hair product and it was too heavy for my hair, I'd just think 'not the right product for my hair' - I wouldn't complain; and I wouldn't expect manufacturers to change a product because it didn't suit one hair type.

There are infinite variations of hair type, within the broad spectrums of fine/coarse/straight/curly/dry/greasy/different racial hair types. Unless you have the money to get someone to formulate something for your exact hair, you'd expect to shop around and have some successes and some duds, surely?

They absolutely do, I see influencers moan online about products 'not working' and then suddenly there is formulation change and it works on people who it didn't work on before.

Someone upthread mentioned shea moisture, they reformulated in 2015 specifically to aim at type 2-3 hair instead of type 4.

SeeYouNextTLol · 10/01/2023 18:31

Yet another interesting thread

Original poster
MetaDaughter · 10/01/2023 18:36

This is the sort of thing I’m thinking of, @SoupDragon

www.mumsnet.com/talk/black_mumsnetters/4664099-school-rules-on-afro-hair?reply=121060530

OP posts:
ConfusedNT · 10/01/2023 18:59

The other issue with products becoming more 'mainstream' and popular is that's when they can end up being bought out

Carols daughter was a line of hair products aimed at black women, it got popular, loreal bought it out, guess whose hair it doesn't suit any more...

georgiesmash · 10/01/2023 19:02

Shea Moisture products have been reformulated watered down , so they are no longer as effective on black peoples' hair.

Every black person? Does every black person have the same hair?

SM have umpteen types of shampoo and conditioner so your post doesn't stand up

georgiesmash · 10/01/2023 19:03

Blanketenvy · 10/01/2023 18:23

I think there is an issue with people with wavy/curly hair buying the products and then complaining they are too heavy. I use some shea moisture and creme of nature but they suit my thick coarse hair, I wouldn't use them, find them too heavy and then complain, leading them inevitably being reformulated and taking them away from the people who they were made for in the first place.

SM make at least two lines that are specifically for fine, wavy hair. People are making problems up.

Mezmer · 10/01/2023 19:11

The fucking guardian is the most hateful spreader of bile on this planet. I look forward to the day when MNers view it in the same light as the Daily Mail and are ashamed to read it.

Rebel2023 · 10/01/2023 19:15

Depends on your hair surely? My uncle and cousins have tight coily hair and if it's not cropped short then they use oils/heavier conditioners etc because it needs it
I have curly hair and tend to use innersense, jessicurl etc because they work better

I'm white, my ancestry/heritage (I don't know what you would call it.. ancestry DNA/genes, my great great grandad...) isn't and so my hair and my cousins and uncles seems to be from there

Use what works but don't use something that says for thick coarse hair then complain it doesn't work if your hair is fine and low density

bellac11 · 10/01/2023 19:20

Mezmer · 10/01/2023 19:11

The fucking guardian is the most hateful spreader of bile on this planet. I look forward to the day when MNers view it in the same light as the Daily Mail and are ashamed to read it.

Totally agree

I used to read it, mainly because it was the only left wingish publication that was free/easy access

I cant compromise anymore after this sort of thing, its constant and has been for a number of years. Its dangerous stuff in my view.

ConfusedNT · 10/01/2023 19:28

georgiesmash · 10/01/2023 19:03

SM make at least two lines that are specifically for fine, wavy hair. People are making problems up.

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The reformulation was in 2015.

There were products that people with type 4 hair had been buying for years, that got reformulated so that shea butter went from 3rd on the list to about 12th or lower. To make them less heavy and more suitable for type 1 and 2 hair.

It may be that they have now brought out more products that are suitable for type 4 hair, i dont know they arent a brand i would use. I remember people putting up photos of new bottles and old ones because so many women were wondering why their hair care didn't work any more. It wasn't made up, it happened.

ImAvingOops · 10/01/2023 19:41

I think the real problem here is that black women are using products that give them an increased chance of cancer.

RandomPerson42 · 10/01/2023 19:56

Well white women were very commonly using hot-oils in their hair in the 80s…

and black people can be racist? who knew? /s

Nicecow · 10/01/2023 20:01

hoppityscotch · 10/01/2023 16:32

I get their point completely. There's also the concern that the product might eventually get reformulated to fit their new buyers rather than the OG buyers. If you look at reviews they say it's too heavy for their hair etc but they have thin hair never intended for the product to work. It's a balancing act - there are far fewer products for black hair. More customers means the company can hopefully succeed and create more. But I do get the point the article is making.

Yes I think this is the point, which makes sense

Gymnopedie · 10/01/2023 20:03

Headline notwithstanding I understand what the writer is saying. But this seems a double edged sword: Black hair shops are rarely black-owned, and their products often aren’t either

If only black people made products for black hair, wouldn't the opposite come up? That white businesses ignore the needs of black women and it's more evidence that non white people are treated as second class? (That's certainly an allegation that's made about, eg, L'Oreal and the colour range of their foundations).

And I would think that the issue of products being reformulated because of inappropriate poor reviews isn't limited to black hair care.

workiskillingme · 10/01/2023 20:19

Imagine white women saying black women shouldn't be using 'their' hair/beauty products because it would leave us with a shortage? No I can't either
This racism at white people needs to stop it's just not acceptable

BethDuttonsTwin · 10/01/2023 20:22

Mezmer · 10/01/2023 19:11

The fucking guardian is the most hateful spreader of bile on this planet. I look forward to the day when MNers view it in the same light as the Daily Mail and are ashamed to read it.

👏🏻