Black Women Make Up Nearly 90% Of Ethnic Hair & Beauty Market

Reports continue to show what we’ve always known: Black beauty is big business. 

Black women lead the spending pack in the multi-billion dollar beauty industry, spending an estimated $2.5 billion in haircare, alone, as well as overspending the general market on personal care products and clothing. A 2019 Nielsen report shows that Black women, alone, outspend other demographics nearly 9-to-1 (86 percent) in ethnic haircare and beauty aids. Add in overseas purchases (read: weaves, hair tools) and general market purchases, and that figure is closer to $500 billion.

Nielsen reports also show that Black women are considered by brands as trendsetters, brand loyalists and early adopters whose spending decisions drive households and markets. Black men spending is also up in the grooming market, “outpacing the total market by 20 percent.” 

This is part of the larger landscape of Black buying power, which reached $1.3 trillion annually last year for African Americans who, at only 14 percent of the population, remain the second top-spending consumer group in the country. 

Yet, Black consumers are the least considered when it comes to diversity in product safety, choices, services, marketing and, even, investing. In addition, Black beauty products continue to be the most toxic on the market — with chemicals that aren’t even listed on the label and causing everything from respiratory disorders, early puberty, and reproductive developmental issues — including infertility and spontaneous miscarriages.

The good news is that African Americans aren’t waiting for brands to speak to us; we are creating our own, more natural, non-toxic options. 

African Americans, particularly women, are the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs, growing by 322 percent between 1997 and 2015. And, as a population, African Americans are making more deliberate and concerted efforts — with the use of apps and directories — to support Black-owned businesses with our purchasing power.

That means that brands that want in on our dollars will have to authentically diversify and bring more representation to the table — not just in the ads that speak to us, but in research development, and implementation. Representation matters. As Nielsen reports, “with annual buying power higher than the economic output of most countries, and an outsized influence on culture, Black consumers represent one of the only reliable engines for future growth.”

And, we’re taking back control of our dollars.