Following its successful #BreakTheWalls campaign, Shea Moisture has announced the next phase of its challenge to division in the beauty industry.
Shea Moisture is asking consumers: “What’s normal?” in a short film starring prominent beauty bloggers. The clip also features Sgt Jasmine Jacobs, who petitioned the US military to change its policy banning natural hairstyles.
“Our forward track must focus on including everyone, embracing everyone and celebrating the beauty – and normalcy – of everyone's differences.”— Richelieu Dennis, Founder and CEO at Sundial Brands
Meteorologist Rhonda Lee, who was fired after responding to a comment about her natural hair, also appears in the ad.
Shea Moisture has also created a hair recognition tool designed to recommend products based on hair type. The device uses hair recognition technology to identify the user’s hair type and stye and offers a customised hair care regime.
Richelieu Dennis, Founder and CEO at Sundial Brands, said: “With ‘What’s normal?’ we are confronting the mental walls that encourage us to force-fit ourselves and others into falsely constructed beauty and ‘good hair’ ideals.”
Dennis added: “By questioning the very concept of a normal standard, especially as it applies to beauty and to hair type or texture, we begin to see how arbitrary narrow and potentially destructive it is and course-correct ourselves on a path to where everybody gets love.”
The Perception Institute is separately due to release the results of a national study measuring implicit bias linked to different hair textures. The study aims to discover whether bias against black women’s natural hair exists.
