You Might Be Shocked to Learn That Many Natural Hair Brands Aren't Black Owned

In light of the current climate, there's been a huge push for consumers to boost their support of Black-owned brands. Tons of graphics have flooded social media in recent weeks listing out dozens of Black businesses — specifically beauty and fashion brands — for users to support, but with that, many people have discovered that some products that are marketed toward Black people aren't actually Black owned. This is especially true with natural hair-care brands.

On June 7, an Instagram account by the name of BeautyBossLab shared a list of several businesses you would think are Black owned but aren't next to a list of those that are. The list of non-Black-owned companies include names like Cantu, African Pride, and Dark & Lovely (all of which specialize in products for women with textured hair), while brands like Mielle Organics, Alikay Naturals, and Naturalicious sit in the opposite category. Needless to say, once the list circulated online, people were genuinely surprised by the information. Even though most products work differently for everyone, some users also attributed certain products' failure to work on their hair to a few of these companies being owned by non-Black people.

It's worth noting that a handful of these companies, like Carol's Daughter and Shea Moisture, are Black-founded brands, but were later sold to companies owned by white people. (It's also worth pointing out that the graphic incorrectly lists Aunt Jackie's as being Black owned when it's actually not.)

While some of these natural hair brands aren't Black owned, we do hope there are Black people at the company weighing in on products. In light of Uoma Beauty founder Sharon Chuter's #PullUpOrShutUp campaign, a few of the brands issued statements responding to questions about their ownership, as well as providing figures regarding the amount of Black employees they have.

Check out a list of some of our favorite Black-owned beauty brands here.