A look into the natural hair industry
Le retour aux cheveux naturels
Des produits spécialisés pour les cheveux.
Terminé le défrisage chimique, fini la soude et l’hydroquinone, plus de picotements ni de brûlures, les femmes afro-américaines gardent désormais leurs cheveux crépus. Pour les entretenir, de nouveaux produits ont fait leur apparition dans les rayonnages des supermarchés et la concurrence est rude !
Miko Branch was deep asleep when her sister Titi woke her up to celebrate. After months of experimentation in the kitchen of their Brooklyn brownstone, she had finally perfected the concoction that would come to be known as Curly Pudding.
2.It was a major discovery — well worth the early morning wake-up call — because in 2003 there were very few hair products for black women with kinky, curly or wavy hair. “There was nothing like (Curly Pudding) in the early 2000s,” Miko Branch said. “It was really transformative.”
3.The product line they would go on to develop, Miss Jessie’s, was one of the pioneering brands in the natural hair industry, a once-grass-roots segment of the beauty world that’s now a hotbed for investment.
COMPETITION
4. In the 1990s and early 2000s, these companies catered to and were largely run by a small community of black women embracing their natural hair. But with 71 percent of black adults in the U.S. wearing their hair naturally at least once in 2016, according to research firm Mintel, natural hair has now hit the mainstream. And with black consumers spending an estimated $2.56 billion on hair care products in 2016, it’s no surprise others are eager to edge into the market.
5.Investment from beauty industry giants has helped natural hair products move from specialty stores to the shelves of major retailers such as Target, Walmart and CVS — making it easier for customers to get their hands on what were once niche products. But it’s also forcing independent black-owned companies to compete with corporations that long ignored the natural hair market, resulting in sometimes uncomfortable changes for customers and business owners alike.
BLACK AND PROUD
6. For black women, hair is more than a style — it’s something tangled up in history, politics and race. Discrimination against black hair can be traced to slavery, when slave owners gave preferential treatment to those with “good hair” — a term still used today to describe black hair that more closely resembles European hair textures. To better assimilate and achieve a higher status in society, black people developed techniques to straighten their hair. It wasn’t until the civil rights movement that black people began to reclaim their natural hair in droves.
Discrimination against black hair can be traced to slavery.
However, even into the 1990s, product offerings for those sporting natural hair remained sparse.
7.“Back then retailers weren’t bringing in natural brands,” said Richelieu Dennis, chief executive of Sundial Brands, best known for its SheaMoisture line. “They were focused on serving only women with relaxed hair.” With few offerings from major beauty brands, those who wanted to care for natural hair took matters into their own hands, creating products for black customers and an avenue for black entrepreneurship.
LET IT GROW
8. The influx of money — and competition — has led some in the natural hair industry to prioritize the most traditional of business goals: growth. With black women making up about 7.5 percent of the U.S. population, one way to grow sales in the increasingly crowded natural hair sector is to reach new demographics of shoppers.Some natural hair firms have started targeting a broader audience of multicultural buyers to better compete with corporate giants. But in doing so, they risk alienating their original customer base.