Like any good journalist, I often find myself down rabbit holes. I've been known to relish deep dives into stuff like K-beauty trends, hair growth supplement studies, and LED light therapy. But the research spiral I'm currently stuck in is a little more confusing—and a lot more frustrating. Despite clean beauty being the buzziest thing in our industry, there's no standard definition of or regulation around what "clean" even means (or "natural" or "green," for that matter). And while I'm here for the promise of healthier personal care, it seems that promise is not here for me.
The truth is that, so far, the clean beauty movement seems to have largely left out Black and brown consumers. This is a big problem because certain products marketed to people of color—things like chemical relaxers for textured hair and lighteners for hyperpigmented skin—already contain more potentially harmful ingredients than those marketed to white people. That likely contributes to Black women having higher levels of certain phthalates and parabens in our bodies. These are the kinds of hormone-disrupting compounds that can lead to fibroids and fertility issues (both of which, perhaps unsurprisingly, disproportionately affect Black women).
Don't we deserve to see more of our products get nontoxic makeovers? |
0 comments:
Post a Comment