Nail salons, tanning, waxing and most beauty services have been forced to close – but hairdressers have been deemed 'essential' and are still operating.
Black female consumers outpace other consumer groups in a number of spending categories, notably personal care and hair products, but feel unappreciated by top brands.
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Long before Netflix's Cheer documentary and JoJo Siwa, big huge hair bows were a thing. And it wasn't always girls who wore them.
Flavour, a popular Nigerian musician, can wear his dreadlocks in peace because they are seen as a temporary fashion statement.
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In Asia, human hair is sold and recycled into products, but in the West it is treated with either disgust or veneration. A new exhibition explores our bizarre attitudes to hair.
Chadwick Boseman (T'Challa ) and Lupita Nyong'o (Nakia) in Black Panther (2018). In the film, natural hair is used as a social identifier.
Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures
In New York City, hair salons are one of the few cultural spaces for Dominican women to bond. But they also perpetuate legacies of racism and colonialism.
Hair has long been modified for aesthetic and other ends. But skewed power structures have meant that women, particularly women of colour, have borne the brunt of stereotyping and prejudice.
Psychology research shows how hair combing sends a powerful message from parent to child.
'Combing' via www.shutterstock.com
When it comes to black hair, “common sense” is the least reliable tool for decision making since even black people are constantly changing their minds about what they want to do with their hair.
Nationwide, barbershops are on the decline.
'Barber' via www.shutterstock.com
Is the decline of the corner barbershop another indicator that male friendships and community ties are eroding? Or could it simply mean that concepts of masculinity are shifting?
Mammals like otters use their whiskers to orientate themselves – just like their pre-mammalian ancestors did.
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