Relaxer Sales Down 30% As Natural Hair Products Flood The Market

Surfing the net recently I came across an interesting piece in the Bloomberg Business week website. Here’s a short excerpt from the article:

In 2009 the comedian Chris Rock created a stir with his documentary Good Hair. In its wake, many turned to the Internet in search of alternatives. In chat rooms on websites such as Curly Nikki and Afrobella, women shared tips for grooming afros and compared mom-and-pop product lines catering to women who’d decided to “go natural.” According to market research firm Mintel Group, in the three years after Good Hair’s release, sales of chemical relaxers fell more than 30 percent.

While I am not sure I agree that the movie ‘Good Hair’ played such an outstanding role at contributing to the drop in sales of relaxers I can at the same time appreciate a good statistic. Now we can actually put a figure into how much the relaxed industry has suffered since women switched to natural in their droves.

Really it is also the first time that I have seen a public acknowledgement in mainstream media of just how powerful the natural hair movement has been over these last few years and what the costs have been on one hand for the relaxer companies and on the other hand the increase in sales for the small mom and pop companies that have been working tirelessly to give us quality products for our natural hair.

The fact that our ‘growing niche’ has made it to mainstream media is very interesting but we still have a ways to go on presenting the correct facts about where the source of the surge in sales comes from and even more appreciation of the work of women who are sharing their experiences everyday on blogs, YouTube, in forums and at meetups.

We cannot deny that when Target and Chris Rock joined the party it absolutely helped to propel things forward for the natural hair movement and small as well as some of the larger hair product companies focused on creating quality natural hair products.

Target in particular has been instrumental in propelling the switch to natural by placing natural hair products in a prominent spot at the end of the hair product aisle instead of in the ethnic hair product aisle. In so doing, they have made curly hair mainstream.

But even more important is the value of our own voices as women all over the world take pictures, make videos and write about how much we have learned about caring for our natural hair on Facebook and other forms of social media.

The demand for natural hair products and information is great, and our big boys are starting to see the light and have created lines of products to try and capture the market as best they can.

Players like L’Oreal and Pantene have products that they consider curly girl specific making sure to capture their share of the market and it feels great to know that they are listening.

Now that we have their attention, the standards that we have set for ourselves and our hair should not be lowered, it is important that we continue to demand that they do not just create fly by night products to ‘make some money real quick’, but that they actually take the time to partner with women who have natural hair and really listen to what we expect from the products we choose to buy.

This might not go over well, but if you are in the natural hair industry in the role of blogger, vlogger or writer, do not sell out to these companies for a few gift bags, pictures or a crazy party if you don’t actually believe that their products are of the standard that your viewer or reader will appreciate.

Take a stand on what you consider to be a quality product with the best ingredients because your brand is what is most important so if you vlog about what your hair likes, don’t promote things that you would never actually use on wash day!

On the other side of things, though relaxer sales are noticeably down many women obviously still use relaxers and as such there is a demand for a better products in the relaxed hair industry for women who choose to chemically straighten.

There is also no denying the dangers of using a relaxer with potential scalp burns, scabs, uterine fibriods and of course hair breakage. This is especially true when you have no idea what you are doing when applying relaxer by yourself at home.

By now we have enough insight now to know that there are a lot of healthy hair practices relaxed ladies too can adopt to make sure that their hair and scalps remain healthy even when using a chemical relaxer.

The natural hair movement can be seen as a positive thing for women who choose to relax because some of the knowledge that we have gained about our natural tresses are easily transferable and as a result absently beneficial.

The point is, there is value in speaking your mind, you can see that just from the difference we have made so far.

So if you choose to relax your hair and you think that relaxer kits should come with better instructions, additional products to protect your hair in the kits, more rigorous testing to confirm safety or even more work in terms of promoting healthy relaxed hair then by all means get on camera, hop on instagram, twitter or your own blog and just say so.

Don’t forget to demand that your stylist gets educated about healthy hair practices while relaxing your hair. You don’t have to bring a bunch of books to your hair appointment, but don’t settle for mediocrity either, let them know that you are aware of what your hair needs and you will accept nothing less.

On the small business side of things there is something to be proud of because this is where sales are really progressing, the best part about it is that for our small business’s the focus has always been quality of the product even if the price tag is a little higher than a traditionally ‘black product’.

Hopefully this never changes because that is what the consumer wants, a quality product that takes care of our hair. If you create natural hair products and have made a business out of it, by all means let your voice be heard, drive sales using social media and meet up’s, spend some money on advertising on our favorite blogs and do not hesitate to visit forums to see what us girls really need.

Additionally even though this is not very evident yet, there might be a niche for a natural hair company to create products geared towards relaxed hair as well. The same rules apply, listen to your customer and capture a portion of the market that is starting to get ignored; hey relaxed girls need love too!

With that said the goal remains solid, healthy hair by any means necessary whether you are relaxed or natural. Now that mainstream media is watching, there is no better time than the present to demand that the products and education we receive is the utmost best.