When you are playing bid whist, you're really not allowed to "talk across the board" (translation: hint to your partner, telling her what card she should play next). But even the most die-hard, anal retentive, rule-follower will allow the other team --when desperate and losing the game-- to call across the board and say, "Come hard or stay home." This means, We're almost done and dead, about to lose; if you have some serious winning cards to play, now is the time.
Richelieu Dennis must know how to play the game because he was on a serious downhill slide not too long ago. He had all but lost black female respect when he put a Shea Moisture ad out that featured white women. An ad that pretty much said, "All Hair Matters" when black women's loyalty to his brand had already made him rich
And black women were not having it.
He withdrew that ad faster than somebody pulling their hand back from a hot stove they didn't know was on. And that's as it should have been.
We are are permanently done with making due with products made for white women's straight, naturally oily hair.
And we're almost done with middle of the road products that are a little too heavy for white women and way too thin for black women so that the hair product manufacturer can make as much money as possible per product.
Shea Moisture is ours. And we want it to stay that way.
I feel pretty secure saying I can speak for at least 75% of black women when I say, we don't care who uses hair care products made for black women--for so long as the white women's added demand doesn't drive the price into the stratosphere. But each and every black product that expects black female support needs to be aimed at afro hair first
-- same as white hair products are aimed at straight, oily hair first.
Nowadays, I will pick through black hair products that will work with various afro textures and porosity, sometimes finding things that are a little too light, a little too heavy, or products that just sit on top of my hair --doing nothing-- before, like Goldilocks I find the leave-in conditioner that's just right for the weather. But what I won't be doing anymore is picking through white women's hair potions, many of which that are little more than water, because --
I don't have to.
I have choices.But I'm glad Richelieu Dennis is making sure that Shea Moisture's products are off my you-are-dead-to-me list because black women need the kind of support he's been dishing out the last couple of years.
Since the ALL HAIR MATTERS fiasco, Dennis has bought ESSENCE MAGAZINE, making entirely black owned again. He also bought Madam C J Walker's mansion with a vision toward doing what Madam C J did back in the day -- helping black women become entrepreneurs. And now...
"...the founder of NaturAll Club, Muhga Eltigani, can add her name to that growing list as she announced via social media that Dennis has invested $1 million in her natural hair care line."
https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/news/new-voices-and-shea-moisture-founder-richelieu-dennis-invests-1-million-in-beauty-startup-naturall-club?
I truly am breathing a sigh of relief because Dennis has made an apology to black women that counts through action because I only ever got to boycott at the 90% level; I just couldn't find a good replacement for Shea Moisture's Moisture Retention Shampoo. And not stripping your hair is one the main natural hair care keys to keeping your coils on your head instead of breaking all over the floor.
Whew! I'm glad that quasi-boycott is over. I felt so guilty, looking over my shoulder for black women, tiptoeing into "Tar-zjet" to get my fix.
