BWHC’s Black Beauty Expo provides Black students with accessible hair products

November 18, 2024 at 3:33 pm by Jack Dindia

The UC Santa Barbara Associated Students Black Women’s Health Collaborative hosted the third Black Beauty Expo at the Student Resource Building on Nov. 8. The event aimed to provide Black students with hair supplies due to a lack of readily-available Black hair care products in the Goleta area, according to Coordinator of Black Student Life at the Office of Black Student Development Julianna Swilley.

Students who registered were able to take 10 products of their choosing. Jack Dindia / Daily Nexus

The first-ever Black Beauty Expo, created by UCSB alum Francesca Mccants, was hosted last year. According to third-year biology major Olabisi Ola-Olaitan, stores in the area largely only provide shampoo and conditioner options but lack other products geared toward textured or curly hair.

“They only had a really, really small section, and it was limited to shampoo and conditioner. But as a Black person, that’s not nearly enough to do what she needs to do,” Ola-Olaitan said.

People started to notice that Target discontinued the sales of several multicultural haircare products in its Goleta location, creating a growing demand for hair products among Black students at UCSB.

Beginning at 4:30 p.m., the event offered free hair care products from Absolutely Beautiful Hair Beauty Supply, a store in Oxnard. Students were provided up to 10 tickets to choose 10 products including braiding hair, hair gels, shampoos, conditioners and hair oils, among others. In addition, there was soul food provided by Santa Barbara chef Guidance Moon, a raffle event where students could win blow dryers, curlers or hot combs and games for attendees like “Have You Ever Hair Bingo” and journaling.

Swilley said that there is a lack of catering to the needs of Black consumers in Santa Barbara.

“Although there isn’t a strong or a super high Black population here in the Santa Barbara area, there are still Black people here,” Swilley said. “I think that our needs still need to be catered towards.”

Aderonke Bello, a first-year physics major, said that it feels “discouraging to be a Black woman in Goleta” due to the lack of readily-available hair products. Michelle Okeke, a second-year biology major, also expressed similar frustrations.

“It’s a bit offensive to see that we’re not [Target’s] target audience or stuff like that because I know, especially for us, our hair beauty and all of that, it’s really important for us, but now that we don’t have that available in the close proximity, it’s a little discouraging,” Okeke said.

The Black Women’s Health Collaborative (BWHC) is “dedicated to Black women and non-men’s physical, mental, and holistic wellbeing,” according to their Instagram. Members working the event wore shirts that said “A Black Woman is Speaking, Listen and Learn,” which were designed by Kamaya Jackson, a second-year Black studies and history of public policy and law double major and the co-chair of BWHC, along with her mother, who owns the T-shirt business K and K Creation.

“It’s saying the most underrated person in America is a Black woman, and in this shirt, not only are you reading my shirt so now you’re acknowledging me, but you’re also reading it and you’re more open to listen to what I’m saying,” Jackson said. “It shouldn’t have to be on a shirt for you to listen to what I’m saying, but the point that it is on the shirt gives you that label that [says], ‘Hey, listen to me.’”

Jackson expressed how she hopes events held by BWHC can help give Black students a space to express themselves in ways that UCSB doesn’t provide for them.

“Often students feel like they can’t speak to faculty, but [they] feel like they can speak to us because we are students. At the end of the day, we also understand those demands and that BWHC is here for them as a place to foster their community and culture,” Jackson said.