Shea Moisture Criticized for New "Hair Hate" Commercial

UPDATE April 24, 2017, 6 p.m. EST: Shea Moisture has announced they are pulling the "Hair Hate" ad that launched the social media uproar. "Wow, okay — so guys, listen, we really f-ed this one up," the brand said in a statement posted to Facebook. "We are pulling this piece immediately because it does not represent what we intended to communicate." Shea Moisture went on to explain that while they have other "Hair Hate" commercials (one of which focuses on women with kinky hair), they realize they made a misstep. "While this campaign included several different videos showing different ethnicities and hair types to demonstrate the breadth and depth of each individual’s hair journey, we must absolutely ensure moving forward that our community is well-represented in each one so that the women who have led this movement never feel that their hair journey is minimized in any way."

Shea Moisture is feeling the wrath of black women on Twitter today after the brand released a new commercial. The spot focuses on one woman of color with loose curls and three other white women with straight hair discussing "hair hate," or the issues and insecurities they've dealt with over their hair. The commercial seems innocent enough but some women, particularly black women with kinky and tightly coiled hair, are not so keen on the beauty brand's latest spot.

Many of those who took issue with the commercial said they felt as if Shea Moisture was erasing the kinky-haired women who supported the brand from the beginning in favor of women whose hair textures and other physical attributes were more in line with mainstream beauty standards. The spot ends with the slogan, "Everybody gets love" and a Brady Bunch-esque shot showing Shea Moisture products and a few other models, a handful of whom happen to be darker-skinned.

The commercial was doubly troubling for some black women because "hair hate" is something many feel about their natural textures. We live in a world where people still have a problem with black women and girls wearing their hair in its natural state. From traditionally black hairstyles being called "ghetto" until a Kardashian or a Jenner wears them, to the fact that girls at Pretoria High School for Girls in South Africa had to fight for the right to wear their kinky hair to school, the commercial seemed like a slap in the face given mainstream attitudes about black women's hair. And it seemed even worse, considering a recent study which found that "on average, white women show explicit bias toward black women’s textured hair. They rate it as less beautiful, less sexy/attractive, and less professional than smooth hair."

Of course, the dragging on social media surrounding the commercial has been, for lack of a better word, real. Many women are saying they plan on hitting the brand where it hurts — in the wallet — by no longer giving Shea Moisture their hard-earned dollars.

Some people saw the commercial less as erasure and more as a way for Shea Moisture to advertise to other demographics, as businesses tend to do.

As a counterpoint to the backlash, one person brought up Shea Moisture's "Break the Walls" campaign, which speaks out against the separation between "ethnic" hair-care brands and those typically catering to women with straight hair.

Others noted that black women tend to spend the most money on hair-care products, so it seemed silly not to include them in that particular ad.

The fact remains that black women have historically been taught to hate their kinky hair textures and this commercial could have been a good opportunity to add that point of view, to represent that particular kind of "hair hate," which is deeply rooted and considerably different from a white woman who hates her hair because she doesn't know what to do with it. As one commenter on Facebook put it, "How can you have 'hair hate' without representation from the curl patterns that experience the most hatred?"

More on Natural Hair:

1. Why Does Olivia Pope Only Have Natural Hair in an Imaginary Universe?
2. This Woman Challenges Beauty Ideals With Natural Hair Billboard
3. Why Girls at a South African High School Are Fighting Against Hair Rules

Watch Model Lula Get a Curly Afro Pixie Cut: