Black-owned hair care brand Mielle Organics announced Wednesday that it will join P&G Beauty, part of the leading conglomerate that owns the world’s largest personal care brands, including Always and Olay.
P&G Beauty will work with Mielle Organics to expand brand access in the black community and fund research and innovation in hair care for underserved communities, said P&G’s vice president of multicultural hair operations. President Lera Coffey said in a statement.
Mielle co-founder Monique Rodriguez said of the partnership:
This comes just weeks after Mielle Organics became the subject of controversy after its rosemary mint scalp and strengthening oil went viral on TikTok.
In late December, Caucasian TikTok star Alix Earle reviewed the product to her more than 3 million followers, citing “amazing hair growth” after using the product for just over a month. I was.
Comments on the post were soon filled with black and white users alike saying sarcasm such as “Great Miel is about to be gentrified.”
“Hey girly, hair oil isn’t for us,” wrote another TikTok user.
After Earl promoted the product, TikTok users claimed the product sold out quickly in stores, along with reviews from other white creators such as Daniel Athena and Kelly Ann Stone.
Najeera Williams, owner of natural hair care brand Chairish Naturals and customer of Mielle Organics, explained collective concerns among black consumers in a TikTok post.
She said black women are rightfully concerned about the product reaching white people because of “a similar situation with another brand known as Shea Moisture.”
In 2017, consumer goods giant Unilever acquired Black-owned hair care brand Shea Moisture. The brand launched an ad that was infamous for featuring three women with straight hair and one with curly hair. Only one of the women was black.
At the time, on social media, people said that Shea Moisture was essentially a whitewashed version of a product that was once designed for black women, and that the quality of the product declined when it changed owners.
Black hair care is a growing niche in the beauty industry, but black consumers spend a total of $473 million in hair care (a $4.2 billion industry) as of 2017, according to a Nielsen report.
“You already know there aren’t that many products on the market,” Ronelle Tshiela said on TikTok. You will notice that it is significantly smaller than the section of .
Caucasian TikTok creator Christine Knudsen told NBC News that she decided to stop using oils and look for “better products” for her hair type.
“I stopped using it mainly because it didn’t suit my hair type,” Knudsen said.
“Due to supply and demand, oil is becoming increasingly scarce for the communities that need it,” she said, adding that “the more knowledgeable about the right products, the more blindly following trends on TikTok. It is important that there is no,” he added.
