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The Natural Hair Movement: Health, Politics, and Regulations

Abstract

The United States’ failure to adequately regulate cosmetics threatens the health of Black people seeking to wear their hair naturally. Without intentionally centering racial equity in the quest for clean cosmetics, Black people who use a range of hair care products will continue to be exposed to ingredients that could be harmful to their health. Legal scholarship has focused on how the barebones regulatory framework present in the U.S. converges with societal pressure to obtain European standards, particularly as it relates to pressure on Black women to chemically straighten their hair. However, Black women electing to not buy into the Eurocentric standards of beauty are not free from exposure to potential toxins. The Natural Hair movement represents an embrace of Afro-centrism and a quest to own one’s hair health, yet the health concerns around cosmetics remain. Political and social movements, such as the Make America Healthy Again and Clean Beauty movements, are increasingly pursuing toxin-free products; however, these movements have largely not pursued racial equity. This Article seeks to apply a racial and gender analysis to the quest for clean beauty or toxin-free hair care products and examines the Natural Hair movement to illustrate. Finally, this Article concludes with research-driven solutions.