Black consumers account for approximately $9 billion in annual beauty spending in the United States, a number that has grown consistently for decades. For most of that time, the majority of that spending flowed to brands owned by large conglomerates -- companies that recognized Black consumers as a lucrative market while largely failing to employ Black executives, invest in Black-founded brands, or produce products built around Black beauty needs.
That pattern has shifted in the past decade, driven by three forces: the natural hair movement, which created demand for a category of products that legacy brands had not developed; social media, which gave Black beauty founders direct access to Black consumers without requiring retail gatekeepers; and a cultural shift in which Black consumers became more deliberate about directing spending toward Black-owned businesses.
The acquisition wave of the 2010s and 2020s -- Carol's Daughter to L'Oreal, SheaMoisture to Unilever, Bevel to P&G, The Honey Pot to Compass Diversified, Mielle to P&G -- tells a complicated story. On one hand, it is validation: the brands that Black founders built for Black consumers were commercially significant enough to attract the largest CPG companies in the world. On the other hand, it is a question: what does Black ownership mean when the most successful Black-founded brands are eventually acquired by corporations with no Black founders?
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The independent Black-owned brands that have chosen to remain independent -- Camille Rose, The Doux, Melanin Haircare, Curls Dynasty, and others -- represent a different answer to that question. They grow more slowly. They have less distribution. They operate with fewer resources. And they are building something that the acquisition cycle cannot replicate: a business that is fully, lastingly theirs.
The culture shift is real. The ownership gap is real. Both things are true, and the beauty industry that is honest about itself holds them together.