Hair weave woes in the black community

I've never worn a weave or extensions but I know they are big business.  What I discovered is that black suppliers are being kept out of the business of purchasing black hair although black women ore the largest purchasers of hair weaves. 

Here are a couple of articles I found on the subject.

After noticing that women who came to the salon for weaves were being steered to Korean-owned beauty supply shops to purchase hair, Tyrone Barge sought to remove the middleman and access the product directly.

Barge made contact with a Korean distributor of a popular line of hair, only to be told that they don’t sell to Black people wholesale.

“He told me it would be bad for business if they sold the hair to Black people wholesale because we are their biggest consumers. His insult gave me the motivation to develop my own hair product,” Barge recalled.

According to a documentary titled, “The Korean Takeover of the Black Hair Industry” by Aron Renen, African-American women account for 70 percent of weave hair purchases — which equates to an estimated $15 billion per year. Click for the rest of the story.

Are Koreans Intentionally Keeping Blacks Out of the Hair Weave Industry?

Hair weave is one of the most profitable businesses in the world. According to Devin Robinson, owner of Atlanta’s Beauty Supply Institute, approximately 9,800 beauty supply business existed nationwide; but only a little more than 300 were black-owned. Robinson attributes the lack of African-American business owners in the industry to the cost mark-ups enforced by Koreans.

“The Koreans strategically make it harder for us to get into the business. They have the supplies the customers want,” Robinson said. “They sell it to us at higher prices or they deliver the products late to the black-owned stores. Sometimes they don’t allow orders from us at all.”

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