Judian & Kadeian
Judian and Kadeian Brown are the owners of Black Girls Divine Beauty Supply and Salon in Brooklyn . The two women were profiled by the New York Times recently and discussed breaking into the black hair business when so much of the industry is dominated by Korean entrepreneurs .
The Brown sisters ’ is one small shop in a multibillion-dollar industry , centered on something that is both a point of pride and a political flash point for black women : their hair . But the Browns are among only a few hundred black owners of the roughly 10,000 stores that sell hair products like relaxers , curl creams , wigs and hair weaves to black women , not just in New York but across the country . The vast majority have Korean-American owners , a phenomenon dating back to the 1970s that has stoked tensions between black consumers and Korean businesspeople over what some black people see as one ethnic group profiting from , yet shutting out , another .
A growing awareness of this imbalance has spurred more black people to hang out their own shingles . The people producing the products have changed , too : As “ going natural ” — abandoning artificially smoothed hair in favor of naturally textured curls and braids — has become more popular and the Internet has expanded , black entrepreneurs , most of them women , are claiming a bigger share of the shelves in women ’ s medicine cabinets .
“ We ’ re aware of where our dollars are going , we ’ re aware of the power of our dollars , we ’ re aware of the cultural significance of the way that we choose to wear our hair ,” said Patrice Grell Yursik , the founder of Afrobella , a popular natural-hair blog . “ There ’ s been a lot of taking back the power , and a lot of that is from the Internet .”
Dozens of bloggers flock to industry shows to test new products , review them for their readers and spread the word on social media . Hundreds of thousands of women watch natural hairstyle tutorials on YouTube . Rochelle Graham-Campbell ’ s line , Alikay Naturals , which she has marketed through her YouTube videos , is among the most successful of the homegrown brands , including Curls and Oyin Handmade , that have gained traction online and earned a spot on retail shelves .
Still , nothing beats brick-and-mortar stores for convenience , and the chance to touch and sniff the creams , which has prompted groups like the Beauty Supply Institute , in Atlanta , to start training blacks to open their own stores .
The ownership question has been fraught for years . Some black customers complain that Korean managers follow them around their stores as if suspecting they will steal . Some black shopkeepers accuse wholesalers and wig manufacturers , most of which are owned by Koreans , of refusing to do business with anyone but other Koreans .