As I was shopping in CVS for some sinus medicine, I walked past the make-up and hair isle because I am slightly obsessed. I saw an advertisement for Carol’s Daughter, a line of all natural hair products. It featured two black women with different hair textures and said something along the lines of “all styles, all natural.” It dawned how far black hair has come, and how most new black hair products feature some, if not all, all-natural products.
I was born with a full head of hair. When I was younger, I always had afros and puffballs. I was literally the embodiment of “baby hair and afros” from Beyonce’s song Formation. As I got older, my mom, who is white, had a hard time working with the hair that I got from my dad, who is black. I don’t remember how old I was when I started getting my hair relaxed, but I was young. It is something that, back then, a lot of black children went through. A relaxer is a chemical process that strips the natural curl from hair and makes it straight and easier to manage. Though I went to a salon and got my hair done, these chemical products were all I saw when I was younger in the “beauty/hair” isle. Now, there is a hair revolution going on in the black community, a revolution to bring back natural hair.
Starting with Madam C,J. Walker in the late 19th century and continuing to companies like Shea Moisture, Miss Jessie’s, Jane Carter, ORS, and others, they are helping provide black women products to help them care for their natural hair. They are also promoting these materials in a way for black citizens to know it’s for them. There are products to use with treated hair as well, like this or this Carol’s Daughter line, but a lot of promotional materials feature their all-natural products and language referencing the positivity of this. Like this Shea Moisture ad saying “Beauty is Organic.” These promotional marketing ads that target and focus on the black community are advertising a company by and for black people. Because of this they often feature black women with different hair textures and hair styles with language, like “all natural” or “be you” and adjectives like beautiful or soft. Miss Jessie’s uses African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in some ads, like popping, conversational English, like shout-out, or hair styles like twist-outs. One of my favorite ads from Shea Moisture says “Embrace your roots.” This has a double meaning of literal hair roots and not what we try to make it, and our race/ethnic roots, which means a lot to people of color.
Companies that are not strictly focused on black hair care but who advertise a “multicultural” product do not vary their language very much, but keep it to what their brand uses and change the model. An example of a company trying to broaden their reach is Herbal Essence. They are using more people of color in ads and trying to show that their products are not for one hair type. However, the language used in one ad featuring a black woman is sexualized (see below). This further perpetuates the stereotype of black women as sexualized individuals. In their defense, a lot of their language used to advertise their “naturally irresistible hair” is sexualized. Another, perhaps better, example is Pantene, a salon-quality hair product line. They frequently use people of color in ads, such as Selena Gomez and Eva Mendez. Their language is very conversational and straight to the point, featuring action verbs and a hair benefit the product gives; an example is “DARE to do the style not the damage.” Some of their promotional materials feature inspiring language that turn negative stereotypes upside-down. For example, the add featuring the black woman below is encouraging women who see it that they not only have the power within them to shine, but this product can help with it too. For black women specifically, who are so often told they are not pretty enough, this is extremely important language to be used in a promotional poster featuring a black woman. There is still the issue of needing straight or “normalized” hair to shine, but baby steps.
I stopped getting my hair treated with chemicals between two and three years ago. I stopped getting my hair relaxed between eight and ten years ago. Now it’s a journey learning to treat and love my hair how it is and a big part of that is because of the promotional pieces I’ve seen. There has been an amazing increase in hair products and beauty supplies that focus on black woman. It’s not just the relaxed hair anymore, but natural products for black hair and mixed hair. The section in the grocery isle is no long a pathetic, one-foot shelf in the “ethnic hair” section, but half an isle with numerous options for black hair and mixed hair. The promotional materials help guide the way for what products are right for you, and there are definitely those that speak to people of color and those that don’t.
This is the last of three posts in a multi-post series about promotional language addressed to people of color.
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