The question isn’t who is ‘allowed’ to use what, but why black women have so few options in the first place
“My white friends who have straight hair have been telling me that this literally caused their hair to fall out,” a TikTok user says, clutching a little bottle of hair oil. This post is one of many spoof reviews appearing on social media for Mielle Organics’ rosemary mint growth hair oil, posted with one purpose: to deter white people from buying it.
Without moisture, afro hair can become frizzy and brittle – which is why hair oil like this one is so useful. When the beauty influencer Alix Earle posted a TikTok video on 28 December naming it as one of her favourite Amazon purchases of the year because it had given her “tremendous hair growth”, few could have predicted that it would spark such a backlash. But soon after, black women began to post that the product was selling out in hair and beauty stores in the US and on sites such as Amazon – and that the fresh demand was causing the price to rise. Claims that the product was being “gentrified” swiftly followed. Some sought to lead naive new customers astray with fake negative reviews, or by recommending comically unrelated black hair products as a like-for-like alternative, such as Just For Me – a chemical straightener.
Kemi Alemoru is the culture editor of gal-dem, has bylines at GQ, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Dazed, and Vice, and hosts monthly talks at Soho House
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