A cornerstone of life for almost each Black woman is sitting all the way down to get her hair braided. The slice of a rat-tail comb by way of blow-dried hair, the slather of grease on the scalp, the tug of the primary few plaits, and the satisfaction of strolling out able to act model new for the following three to 5 weeks. However proper alongside that pleasure is one other deeply embedded ritual within the Black magnificence lexicon: slapping your head to ease the itch. The flakes that present up after a number of weeks. The scalp irritation we study to dwell with.
We are inclined to snicker these moments off as a part of the method, but it surely’s deeper than that. There’s a hidden price: persistent irritation, poisonous fumes, and long-term well being dangers which have gone ignored for much too lengthy.
A latest article from the Harvard Faculty of Public Well being spotlighted a 2023 examine that discovered artificial braiding hair accommodates unsafe ranges of lead, a chemical linked to kidney injury, cardiovascular points, reproductive hurt, and mind injury in adults. Much more alarming, the examine revealed that publicity can have devastating results on kids, together with nervous system injury, studying disabilities, behavioral points, and developmental delays.
Naturally, Black ladies are behind this surge in aware magnificence merchandise. Researcher Dr. Donna Auguste performed a examine on VOCs (unstable natural compounds) launched when artificial hair is heated. Dr. Tamara James-Todd, an epidemiologist at Harvard who research the long-term well being results of magnificence merchandise, particularly on Black ladies, revealed work linking generally used merchandise to most cancers and endocrine disruption.
It’s a troubling development, and if we wish to reverse it, that work has to start out with us.
Ciara Imani Might, founding father of Rebundle, a plant-based braiding hair firm, is flipping that script with a mission that goes past hair. “Courting again so far as I can bear in mind, folks have been speaking about braids being itchy and aggravating,” Ciara says. “You expertise it for your self and suppose it’s simply a part of it—like if you happen to get braids, anticipate it to be painful and itchy.” That normalization of ache led Ciara to ask a deeper query: why is discomfort nonetheless the default?
Rebundle solutions with a first-of-its-kind plant-based braiding hair constituted of banana fibers. It’s biodegradable, reusable, and free from the carcinogenic components present in conventional artificial extensions. “What I knew about braiding hair was the frequency of use and the worth level and the provision meant there was a ton of waste being created and never accounted for,” Ciara says. “I wasn’t going to launch one thing that was going so as to add to that downside.”
Rebundle is altering issues up within the magnificence trade. Jennifer Silverberg
The founder’s method pushes magnificence past the floor and challenges the established order to redefine what ‘magnificence’ means. The rising redefinition contains bodily well being and longevity in addition to local weather change. “It’s 2025. The local weather disaster is right here. You may’t simply low cost these issues,” Ciara calls for. “I don’t see a world through which merchandise that come to market don’t consider the environmental influence of the supplies we use, the life cycle of these merchandise, the disposal of these merchandise.”
As customers and stylists alike search for options that look after each physique and planet, manufacturers like Rebundle show that magnificence rooted in wellness isn’t a luxurious, it’s what we’ve at all times deserved. Ciara’s forthcoming documentary, Reclaimed: Past the Braid, which is at present elevating funds for post-production and completion prices, goals to shine a light-weight on the well being dangers of artificial hair and the facility of Black-owned innovation in magnificence. And it goes past Rebundle.
“It’s not simply us being talked about. There are different manufacturers, and there’s sufficient for all of us,” she says. “From the merchandise to the distribution to the manufacturing to the formulations, we’re reclaiming all of it.”