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March 21, 2023 // //  //       //  Opinion

Celebrating The Power of Black Beauty

Last month, we celebrated Black History Month with a special internal presentation on Black beauty, the entrepreneurs in the industry and the historic cultural pride Black hair represents. Black beauty is an important facet of the full Black experience, and understanding its history and significance can help marketers make more authentic connections with Black consumers. 

Black Hair: A History & Timeline

Hair in Ancient Africa: In early African civilization, hair was regarded as a physical and spiritual trait divinely designed to shield the brain from the heat and the sun. A person’s hairstyle could tell you their background, tribe and social status. Styling hair was entrusted to family members and seen as a social and bonding activity, as many women often took hours or days to create artful hairdos. Protective styles, such as locs, twists and braids, were also adopted early on as many people of African descent have thick, tightly-coiled hair that can be quite fine, fragile and susceptible to tangles, knots and breakage.

Transatlantic Slave Trade & The American Slavery Period: Hair styles took on a new significance at the onset of slavery. Many women braided their hair in cornrows and hid rice and seeds in their hair to help survive the brutal Middle Passage journey across the Atlantic ocean. Once enslaved Africans arrived in America, slave traders would shave their hair to further dehumanize them, stripping them of a characteristic that was once a proud expression of identity. They cared for their hair as best they could, resorting to cornmeal as a dry shampoo, sheep fleece-carding tools as combs, and bacon grease, butter and light fuel oil as conditioners. Many enslaved Africans also used cornrows to inconspicuously communicate elaborate escape routes from plantations.

Regulations & Eurocentric Beauty Standards: Several regulations were put in place during the 18th century that further dimmed Black men and women’s cultural pride. The Tignon Laws, for example, prohibited Creole women of color in New Orleans from displaying “excessive attention to dress.” Those with more European features were often afforded better opportunities, giving rise to beauty standards that were rooted in colorism, texturism and featurism and suggested coily hair and dark skin were unattractive and therefore inferior. By the end of the 19th century, more Black women were straightening their hair to blend into a society that had established a Eurocentric ideal of beauty. 

Civil Rights Era: Many Black activists of the Black power movement of the 1960s encouraged people to embrace their natural hair as a symbolic political statement and form of reclaiming their heritage. Many of the women who held leadership roles within the movement – Angela Davis, Tina Morrison and Nina Simone – rocked their natural hair to draw attention to classism, gender identity, racism and sexism.  Today, the afro still represents beauty, heritage and pride for the Black community.

Natural Hair Discrimination in the Workplace: The 1976 case of Jenkins v. Blue Cross Mutual Hospital Insurance upheld a lawsuit against an employer who racially discriminated against a person’s hairstyle and cemented the injustices of natural hair discrimination in the workplace. However, the case of Rogers v. American Airlines in 1981 shifted the issue after the court sided with the airline and stated that braids, unlike afros, were not considered a “racial characteristic.” Less than a decade later, Hyatt Regency fired an employee for refusing to take out her cornrows while working under that same precedent.


The Y2K Natural Hair Movement: The early 2000s welcomed the second wave of the natural hair movement, spurred by pop culture and the advent of social media. The movement fueled Black women to feel empowered to abandon the perms and hot tools for healthier, more natural styles. But even as natural hair has become more “mainstream,” many Black Americans have continued to face discrimination on account of their hair texture and style. Dove collaborated with former California State Sen. Holly J. Mitchell in 2019 to establish The CROWN Act and further protect people against discrimination of race-based hairstyles in the workplace and public schools. 

Black Consumers & The Beauty Industry

Today, Black consumers account for 11% of the total U.S. beauty market and often set the trends that inspire new looks, styles and products. They are intentional about the products they use and interpret the meaning of beauty as more than aesthetic, but a lifestyle. 

Unfortunately, equity and representation within the beauty industry is still sorely lacking, despite multicultural consumers' significant spending power. LinkedIn recently partnered with Dove to create more inclusive and equitable spaces for Black hair in the workplace, as the most recent CROWN Research Study found Black women’s hair is two and a half times more likely to be perceived as unprofessional than non-Black women's. The study also revealed biases around natural hair and protective styles can also impact how Black women navigate the hiring process. 

Black consumers spent upward of $6.6 billion on beauty products in 2021. And while beauty brands are slowly catching on to this tremendous opportunity to engage a new audience, they're remiss to not acknowledge the unique Black experience within the beauty industry. Their realities are markedly more frustrating than that of non-Black consumers, largely on account of the Eurocentric beauty standards and cultural appropriations that have long dominated the industry.

To learn more about the history of Black beauty and how more brands can engage with Black consumer audiences, check out our “Celebrating Black Beauty” presentation here.  

Taylor Key is a senior account executive at Allison+Partners and a member of the agency’s M365 Center of Excellence that specializes in advancing multicultural communications and advancing DEI strategies for our clients. 

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