I may be more honest with you guys than anyone expects someone actually in the beauty industry to be, but some things that take place in the beauty supply industry baffles me. Let’s talk BIG MONEY. . . Black Hair is BIG MONEY, we already knew this, but after watching Good Hair by Chris Rock and seeing numerous articles in Essence magazines among others, it has been confirmed. Now that being said we all know that there are a lot of women going natural and you have seen the selection of natural hair care products grow in a short period of time. BIG MONEY, chemical sales are down and the demand for natural products has grown. Of course we know that not all of these products are natural, many work in natural hair but are not “Natural”. And that is ok depending on your level of naturalness, because what I have found there are so many different variations of naturals. We have women that don’t relax their hair, but still color it. We have some customers that are ingredient readers and are very particular with what they will and won’t put in their hair. We also have some that will use whatever makes their hair look good regardless of what is in it.
With that being said the growth of natural hair products over the course of the past two years has grown and the competition is way more fierce than in the earlier days of women going natural. When you see brands such as Soft Sheen Carson begin to alter their branding and companies like Crème of Nature introducing products with Argan oil it is an indicator that the game has changed. I do believe that natural hair is a lifestyle for many and not just a trend. Will the natural hair bubble burst? Possibly, as there are many women that are going natural because they want someone else’s hair and they are not happy with the natural hair texture (this is an entirely different topic).
So, back to BIG MONEY, this is where Natural Hair Politics come in to play. Wherever money and people are involved there will be Politics and though you would like to believe that the online stores that you purchase from are there to help you and that the companies that make these products care about your hair, this is somewhat not true. I have no doubt that it begins out this way and that the intentions are genuine in the beginning. Start a business and fill a void, is the original intention, but as the business grows and the competition gets heavier the intentions change. So instead of the concern being that the products that you need the most are readily available for you it is now a numbers game and the man with the most money of course wins. The concern about your natural hair has shifted and now what they do care about is that the money that you are spending comes through the channels that they would like for it to flow through.
For example, large online retailers have made natural companies sign contracts that prohibit other online retailers to retail their products. Cornering the Curly Market . . . To me these contracts would not be necessary if your business is doing everything it needs to be doing to retain customers. Why do you have to make it so that no other company can come along and do what you are doing. Especially a company that is a brick and mortar and the online store is an extension of their business. It is not fair to a retailer if they cannot offer to customers online what is readily available in their store front. It is also unfair if the retailer has products available online and now is being told to remove those products.
Another example, new major brand can only be found at Target and Walgreen’s. Natural customers contact their local beauty supply that they purchase all of their products from and have to tell the customer that we are unable to carry the product because this major brand wants all of the monies to flow through Mass Market Retailers such as Target and Walgreen’s. Now, believe me I do not knock anyone’s hustle, but I believe everybody should eat as there is enough for everyone. I probably wouldn’t even think twice about it if this same company, that shall remain nameless but initials start with S and M and is only sold at Target and Walgreen’s, did not get their start with the very companies they are now not selling to, primarily, Mom and Pop shops and salons.
Please do not take this as hating, I am simply pointing out issues that have arisen since the market has become so competitive. I talk to black owned beauty supply entrepreneurs on a daily basis across the country that cannot get products in their store such as Kinky Curly, who now sells to Korean owned stores, they can’t get Shea Moisture, As I Am and a number of other natural hair products that are in demand. That being said now we as black owners of beauty supply stores not only have to fight Korean’s that will not sell us hair, but our own as well. So much for changing the industry and blacks working together to build wealth in our own community. It is all about money and how naïve of myself to think otherwise.
No worries, as 3 Sister’s Beauty Supply will continue our hustle and we have several things on the back burner that we are working on. I will finish with some encouraging words to the store owners. One of my favorite quotes from President Barack Obama.
“Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.”
- President Barack Obama
That being said PERSEVERE.
) own the store and no I do not have 2 Sister’s. 
