I often find myself in the Black hair shop looking for a product for my specific hair type. With a neverending range of products available, I often feel confused and in need of assistance from the shopkeeper. But this is often impossible because there isn’t a Black person running the shop. This is something many of us will have experienced because Black hair shops are predominantly run by other ethnicities; South Asians in the UK and Koreans in the US. While these shops are for Black hair and filled with an incredible range of Black products, they lack Black expertise. This is not about individual shop owners, but more so the disconnect we see in how the Black hair industry is structured. But this isn’t the same across all cultural communities; Mexican taquerias, Indian grocery stores and Korean and Chinese markets are often run by people within those communities. So why is the Black hair industry different?
Despite Black women spending six times more on hair products than white women in the UK, ownership and profit doesn’t stay in the community. In the US, Korean Americans own 70% of beauty supply stores, but Black women are the core consumer. So how did this happen? How does Black consumption exist without Black control?
Firstly, timing matters. In the US, Koreans entered the hair business in the 1960s by importing wigs from Korea, as most hair manufacturing was done out of Korea. Korean Americans were able to import and export hair efficiently and cheaply, and first-generation Korean Americans were able to work in the hair business and eventually establish beauty stores. Similarly in the UK, South Asians had a bit of a headstart compared to the black community. While post-war migration of South Asians and the Windrush generation was broadly the same period, these groups were funneled into different positions in the economy. South Asians were more likely to enter retail through self-employment, whereas Caribbean immigrants were funnelled into wage labour and faced more barriers to ownership. This allowed South Asians to establish themselves in retail hubs earlier.
Also, Black communities in the US and the UK have faced discrimination in banking and lending, making it more difficult to access loans. South Asian communities in the UK certainly have better access to lending due to factors such as family wealth and business experience. This meant they could start shops more easily due to economic access as well as social positioning and market knowledge, rather than a solely greater desire.
Beyond banks, South Asian and Korean communities could offer each other backup economic support to set up new businesses through community lending networks. These tight-knit networks often pooled together their resources, supporting members of the community to launch businesses. For instance, a kye, an informal financing network used by Korean immigrants, involves pooling money together for members of the community to access for business needs. So even with the support of a bank, these communities were lucky to have a set up support system for emergencies and to cover losses. These longstanding lending networks aren’t something the post-windrush community in the UK and the post 1960s community in the US.
So these South Asian and communities didn’t make exclusion, they stepped into gaps open to them due to the structural economic conditions of the time. Understanding how the black hair industry became structured in this way helps explain why ownership matters so much now.
So why is cultural ownership important? Why should the Black community want to reclaim ownership of the Black hair industry? Well, firstly, ownership shapes what kind of knowledge circulates in these spaces. When shops are Black-owned, hair advice is an inherent part of the service rather than an optional addition or something one is forced to figure out for themselves. Secondly, ownership affects where the Black dollar goes. If money recirculates within the community, it can support the community with things like rent, employment and reinvestment. But ownership goes beyond just economics. It is meaningful and important for a community to be empowered by ownership as it alters how a community is reflected back to itself, validating Black expertise. Hair, for Black people in particular, is not a neutral aspect of our lives, but holds a history of struggle, stigma and identity. Owning spaces where Black hair products are sold can reclaim some of that dignity and power.
This isn’t about denying other communities success in a market, but what it means for Black people to be core consumers of an industry they don’t own or control.
