Contents:
- The Dollars and Cents of Haircare
- The Why Behind it All
- Is It Even Worth It?
- Watch The Documentary
- Final Thoughts
The Why Behind it All
Some of the reasons cited as to why black hair care and maintenance is so expensive are:
- Our hair requires more product and time to maintain than other hair types
- We face more pressure from society to make our hair “presentable”
- Hair is a medium of expression that we have some amount of control over
- The cultural relevance and pride entrenched in us with regard to our hair require that we provide nothing but the best for our kinks and coils so they can be healthy ( Still not sure that this means it has to be expensive to be considered the best).
- Haircare for us is associated with self-care, and we have a need to do something for ourselves that makes us feel good.
In the documentary Erica “The Sister Scientist” Douglas, a noted Cosmetic Chemist in the black community, suggested that we are spending more because we are using more and our willingness to pay the high prices keeps products and services at dizzying heights.
Is It Even Worth It?
While we try to make spending $20,000 or $40, 000 on hair make sense, Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche asserted that it is deceptively easy to identify spending on appearance as the reason why we are at a financial disadvantage; but the fact that we were born black and women already set the foundation for the financial disadvantage, our spending habits just compound our financial disadvantages.
But I’m left to wonder if we are really at a financial disadvantage considering all the money we pump into the industry. Don’t get me wrong, the point of how we are kept under the thumb based on race and class is not lost on me, but our spending habits suggest that we are well off and ought not to be bemoaning the prolonged financial difficulties that result directly from being born black.
Perhaps this is part of the reason why we continue to be exploited and appear none the wiser. So then, is this spending latent rebellion for the times they kept sending us to the back of the bus? Is it rebellion for the times we were subjected to Tignon laws or for the times when we only had bacon grease to use on our hair? Is it necessary to do all that or are we just doing the most to prove a point?