Why Do Korean Beauty Supply Stores Outnumber Black Owned Ones?

This is an issue that has been irritating me to the core. OK, let me refrain from being hostile. This is an issue that has been irritating me for years! Oh well, I tried, I tried but my heart isn’t in it because it’s a problem that needs to be fixed and I think that the Natural Hair Movement (NHM) is one of the ways to change that.

What do I mean? Well, let’s face it…black women, can you find a Beauty Supply Store in America that isn’t owned by Koreans?

By the time I was living in New Orleans and going to college, weaves* were big business and you couldn’t pass a block without seeing an ultra-big Beauty Supply Store in the shopping center.

Now, am I equating the BSS with weaves? Yea, kinda, because I can’t remember that many stores being around until weaves* got big. I also can’t remember being in a BSS without Koreans running and owning it either.

Now, I have nothing against Korean’s and their entrepreneurial spirit but I do have a problem with them selling every product known to black women for our hair when there are barely any black owned beauty stores.

IT’S OUR HAIR!!! I know we corner the market on the salons and hair stylists that do our hair but we have too many other areas of marketing that we fail to control.

There are the hair products, the added hair, the accessories and even hair trends. We have the numbers and the power but let me slow down before I have people riled up talking about a revolution. I’m just wondering why we don’t monopolize this market and have the majority of beauty supply stores that carry the products we use for our hair.

Now, I’ve heard a few reasons as to why Koreans are owning and running these shops where we find our hair products. One reason being Koreans can get loans from prominently white banks that will not often lend to blacks.

I have heard of banking or lending discrimination and I’m willing to believe at least some of that is true but for the vast majority I know there has to be a deeper explanation.

Sally’s Beauty Supply is the largest chain in America with over 2,300 stores but if you add all the Korean BSS’s together you get three times that many! Scary but true.

Afro American woman are the major consumers of these items (wigs*, weaves*, hair for braiding). The Koreans control the major source of import of this hair through there home land of Korea. Afro Americans are only 12% of the country’s population, but are consumers of over 33% of hair care products in America. These facts make for good business sense for the Korean Beauty Supply Stores to be located in the Afro communities. Koreans control 60% of the beauty supply industry in America, but they are only 3% of the population. http://bobsa.org/

The direct connection the Koreans have does answer the question as to why there are so many but it doesn’t give reasons as to why many of us would rather go to the closest Korean BSS instead of finding that black owned shop. I’m floored at our ridiculousness.

Why is it ridiculous? Here’s a list.

We are treated BADLY by some of these owners – I mean like common criminals. As soon as you walk in the store you get only two types of treatment. You are either ignored to the point you have to damn near go in the back to find someone to help you or you get followed and talked down to like you are annoying them. Rarely do you get the in-between. Now, I know not all stores are like that but I’ve been in enough to know the majority are run just like I expressed.

You are treated like a stereotype rather than a person – This kinda goes with the first point but I cannot explain how many times I walked into a store and it’s assumed I want the most outlandish color or style of hair when I could have just been looking for some glycerin! Have them tell it we ALL wear weaves* and wigs* and we all want blue or pink hair. They do not talk to you but AT YOU and many times it is a bark. I hate being treated like that.

We should be owning and selling these products to us! How crazy is that we are buying these products created by primarily white-owned companies through BSS’s that are owned by Koreans! We cannot corner the market on our own hair? Do you know how much money black women spend on their hair? The black owned stores are there but you may have to make the effort to find them. I don’t know about you but I am TIRED of putting their kids through school by getting my hair stash.

I’m far from alone in this feeling. I have talked to several black women and men who find that the massive numbers of Korean owned BSS (which have all of our hair products) ridiculous as well as sad and who are also fed up with it. Many refuse to frequent the stores at all. Here’s a YouTube vlogger called TheMahoganykiss, discussing her anger on the issue.

She touches on the Natural hair movement (NHM) being the catalyst for a much needed change. She wants to know if the NHM is really going to make black women back away from these Korean owned stores.

Now, she mentions black owned beauty supply stores and the stigma associated with them. She discusses how some black women feel that the treatment in the black owned store is subpar or downright rude.

Really? Like the rudeness or sometimes blatant ignorance from Korean stores is better? Personally I feel that some folks are slapping an unnecessary negative label on black entrepreneurs and this needs to be removed.

With the NHM we have seen scores of black owned products creeping up and rarely do I hear of bad service when we buy their products or even return them if we are not satisfied.

Heck, many of them are on the shelves of Target, CVS, and Walgreens so this nasty association should hopefully now dissipate.

Now, I know there are quite a few small businesses with black women selling products to naturals. From hats, to hair tea rinses and shea butters* to t-shirts so with the influx of products come the influx of very different business practices.

The sad part is that one bad seller can sour the whole bunch since social media is king and can ruin your business literally overnight.

Rarely do I see glowing recommendations on FB or Twitter about some small businesses but as soon as a bad one comes around the bad mouthing spreads like wildfire.

Is this just human nature? Maybe, but if we want to jump on this opportunity to take back our buying dollars and keep them in our community then this kind of detrimental behavior has got to stop.

Just as quickly as you are ready to bad mouth an experience you had with a seller, be just that quick to say some kind words about those great experiences you have.

Many of these small businesses catering to natural haired women (several are growing into bigger ones) are black owned and that’s great but a lot of the larger manufacturers are trying to gain back their former customers with natural hair products of their own. Yes, we have more to worry about than just the Korean shop owners getting all of our hard earned money that we just started keeping in our community.

I want to see changes and I feel the NHM is a stepping stool to black owned hair product businesses thriving. The beauty supply store game is another issue that I don’t think the movement can fix by itself.

For one thing many of our products can be found in stores like Target, Whole Foods and while that is convenient and impressive we are still lopsided in the ownership game. Sadly some of these shops may disappear as the bigger shops (like the ones I just mentioned) and online sales outnumber and crush the little guy whether he is Black, Korean or White.

Technology is making sweeping changes in the hair product arena and many would rather buy their beloved product in their favorite store for everything or online. What can we do?

Well, we will see some changes in the next 5 years for sure and what will happen remains to be seen. I’ll be watching and hoping we increase our stake in the Black woman’s hair business in all facets with fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed.

To me there is NOTHING better than seeing our people rise and own businesses, houses, ourselves and our minds. (I know I got deep for a minute.) This is an internal issue just as much as a capitalistic one. Best believe I’m not the only one curious what direction our buying dollars will go and who will reap a very rewarding pool of ownership.

So the question is, do you seek out black owned Beauty Supply Stores or do you just buy from the one that is closest and most convenient?