twitter

A Tale of Two Shea (Moistures) /  by *nickels*

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Whether they are rocking a clean fade, locs, curls, or straight tresses, women care about their crown. It needs love. And money. Especially for black women who spend an estimated $7.5 billion on beauty AND spend 80% more on beauty products than their counter parts.

While my maintenance needs are low, I still need lots of tender-loving care. After having to decide between groceries or a a relaxer my first year after college, I embraced my kinky-curls at the big chop fork in the road, let my hair roam freely while eating a homemade potato. Times were tough, but like Auntie Maya taught me, "still I rise. Despite the lack of attention "for my kind" in the beauty industry, I learned how to take care of my hair. Surprise Surprise. Fortunately, this all coincided with the proliferation and popularity of natural hair gurus and Youtube being their platform of choice. Companies like Shea Moisture, Aunt Jessie's, and Curls won big. Finally,ladies wanting to embrace their natural hair had an oasis in the desert of haircare options. 

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. On the 24th day of April, in the year of our like 2017, Shea Moisture made a faux pas. The released an ad that featured three (3) white women and (1) fair-skinned person of color. With a three (3) second tag at the end. I caught myself watching the ad thinking "Shea Moisture markets to white women?" "Shea Moisture markets to straight hair now?" "The biggest problem with dealing with hair is color?" 

The nuance of the shade/attack is epic, and at first glance, if you're not in the know, you won't notice. Basically, you built your brand, and subsequent "come-up-ense," on the backs of black women and then said, bye Felicia. And then, to hide the what you did, you "threw us a bone" and included three (3) seconds of darker shade black women at the end. You know what that feels like, an afterthought. t.  

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And #BlackTwitter responded in kind. I'm not one for a public dragging, and I'm bracing myself for the day where I will have to accept the critique and laugh at my misgivings, but the response was quick, cutting, and hysterical. Some hits include



Fortunately, Shea Moisture listens to the customer and has pulled the ad and apologized. While it can't be unseen, I give them props for apologizing and taking ownership of the mistake They will not be defined by this moment, simply morphed by it. In the meantime, what are they going to do to the marketing team? Some shakeups need to happen. For this to have been okay-ed... the team is either all white, only has one black person, and said black person might have been male. 

Empowering Yourself Through Entrepreneurship /  by *nickels*

I found this article Secrets of Start-Up Queens: How to Launch a Successful Business in Today’s Entrepreneurial Economy while I was on Buzzfeed today. The articles discusses the experiences of supermodel and business tycoon Iman and model and social media queen Coca Rocha. It struck a cord with me because I want to have longevity in my career and be more than just an actress. I want to have a platform and a voice. Here is a highlight from the article:

"Iman spoke of photoshoots early in her career, and the struggle to find makeup shades that matched her skin color. (Incidentally, the first time she wore makeup at all was on her first shoot.) So, years later with her supermodel status cemented, she decided to start her own eponymous makeup line targeted toward women of color. To be taken seriously as a businesswomen, though, she said she needed to “divorce herself from the [fashion] industry.”

 I stopped going to fashion parties and networked not with fashion people but [with] business people. And I asked for help from executives. You will not believe, when you reach out and ask to be mentored by another female executive, how you will be uplifted.

 Coco Rocha then told the audience she’d been peppering Iman with “entrepreneurial questions” in turn. While Iman branded a product she felt passionate about, Coco made herself the brand: “This is awkward because I’m listening to these ladies that are powerful businesswomen and I’m like uh… ME!”

 She spoke of wanting to create a well-known persona in the same way the “old era” of supermodels did. She said, “I noticed that no-one knew much about me and no-one cared to know [either].” She cited social media as the way she’s created a personality to accompany the face. (As of writing, Rocha has 550,607 Twitter followers and 427,066 on Instagram. She recently wrote a “Why I Instagram” column for Vogue.)

 [As a model] I had no way to have a voice — so in order to have a longer, more successful career, I started a blog. I wrote about nothing; I remember one post was about a bird named Tweety. And people were like, ‘Tweety’s so cool, he’s fantastic.’ I thought, ‘this is really awesome, I have an audience!’