By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
For Black youth experiencing homelessness, something as routine as washing and caring for their hair can become another challenge in an already uncertain life. Some are moving between shelters and other temporary spaces while trying to attend school, prepare for job training or walk into an interview looking and feeling their best.
Yet the shampoo, conditioner and other hygiene products commonly donated to shelters are not always appropriate for Black hair. For young people already navigating homelessness, organizers say having access to culturally appropriate products is about more than appearance. It can affect how they feel about themselves as they pursue opportunities that could help bring greater stability to their lives.
Brad Blackburn, Integrated Affairs Consultant at Blackburn III Consulting, said that need became particularly apparent when organizers considered young people preparing for job interviews and training.
“We realized that we’re all lacking Black Hair Care products on a regular basis, and it’s very high demand. You know, when people go to job interviews or their job trainings that are experiencing homelessness, they want to look and feel their best,” said Blackburn.
That need helped launch Seattle’s Black Hair Care Drive in 2023. Three years later, what began as an effort to fill a gap in culturally appropriate hygiene products has grown into a broader campaign connecting Black youth with hair care products while building a network of Black-owned businesses, nonprofits and community organizations.
Tiana Cole, equity specialist at UW Medicine, said her research into the issue helped her understand how access to culturally appropriate hair care intersects with larger economic and social inequities affecting Black communities.
“We started to realize that this specific drive is connected to a lot of other societal inequities that Black people just face,” said Cole. “It is not just about Black hair. It is a hygiene drive for us, for Black youth. We have a unique hair type, and we want our youth to feel like they can show up confident, especially when they’re already facing so many barriers.”
Those barriers can include not knowing where they will sleep. Cole said limited shelter capacity can leave some young people without a place to stay on weekends.
“A lot of our youth don’t even have shelter on the weekends because many of these youth shelters don’t have capacity, so they’re sleeping on the streets, or in the libraries for most of the weekend,” said Cole. “Doing something like providing them Black hair care products is the least that we can do. It is one small way to make a change.”
Blackburn said even well-intentioned donations can overlook the specific needs of Black hair.
“When people donate something small like shampoo or conditioner, they often go to what’s most cost-effective, and they’re not thinking of the ingredients and the upkeep that’s needed for black hair,” said Blackburn. “I really want to spread cultural awareness, so that maybe one day there doesn’t need to be a Black hair care drive, because our community and you know the broader community is aware of the issue, and they donate those things on their own year-round.”
As awareness has grown, so has the drive. Boon Boona Coffee has collected donations and helped promote the effort for three consecutive years, and organizers collected nearly $7,000 in Black hair care donations during an Africatown event in one month.
“This is the third year that we’ve done it, and it’s had a lot more reach and visibility. We have been able to maintain the partnership with Boon Boona coffee for the third year in a row, where they’ve collected donations for us and helped us market as well,” said Blackburn. “We were able to raise nearly $7,000 in Black hair care donations at the Africatown event, and that was just in one month. And so, it’s grown pretty fast, and we’re just hoping to grow it more through building a stronger coalition of Black-owned businesses.”
The drive has also developed relationships with the Northwest African American Museum, Friends of Youth, YouthCare, Mary’s Place, Sophia Way and Porchlight.
“We are really trying to build solidarity with other marginalized communities to pursue Black liberation and promote the advancement of the Black community,” said Cole.
Those connections eventually brought organizers together with Jamal Wilson, owner of Zara Jo Beauty Supply, a Black-owned beauty supply store.
“Having a Black-owned beauty supply store involved in the partnership is amazing. When we tabled, we were able to actually have Jamal sell products at the event, and so that was very helpful because for people that didn’t know about the drive, they were able to stop by at his table and actually buy donations on site for us to use,” said Cole. “It’s those partnerships that we hope to leverage and build on in the future, so that it’s more accessible and eventually move away from our Amazon wish list and utilize Zara Jo, so we can uplift local Black-owned businesses as well.”
Organizers hope a broader coalition of Black-owned businesses and organizations can support the drive year-round while reducing the burden on nonprofits already operating at capacity.
For Wilson, joining the effort was a natural extension of Zara Jo Beauty Supply’s mission.
“For us, anytime we partner with an organization, whether we get access to a table somewhere or to be a part of the community, it is really about alignment and how our core values and what our mission is align with what they’re trying to do,” said Wilson. “I think from the very beginning we saw that there was an organic alignment here.”
Wilson said Zara Jo was created in part to address challenges Black customers encounter when searching for products that meet their hair care needs.
“We want to fix that gap and address the experience that our culture and our people have when they come to stores to find their care,” said Wilson. “We want to try to create care with dignity.”
That idea of dignity was also what initially attracted Wilson to the drive.
“And the essence of what the Black Hair Care Drive is, is really about care with dignity,” said Wilson. “When I saw it online, I wanted to amplify what they were doing even before I was part of it, and so I wanted to reshare it. Anytime we can do something small to make certain that dignity is provided to an individual, and allows them to be seen and show up as their full self, that’s a big deal. And if we can do something to be a part of that, I’ll sign up for that every day.”
Wilson said Black-owned businesses can also help build longer-term networks of community support.
“It’s something I feel strong about, and I think the small business community, specifically the Black community, we have a pivotal role to play in this because it’s about building ecosystems of mutual aid and community trust,” said Wilson. “I think as we continue to circulate our dollars in our communities and create thriving businesses and then take that money and put it back into our community. It gives us a bigger voice all around.”
“That’s the big picture. So, I think it’s important for Black businesses to participate in these things and to show up very authentically,” Wilson added.
For Wilson, that means making community involvement part of an organization’s identity rather than something it does only when people are watching.
“I think it’s the things that you do when it’s not being publicized, right? It’s just it has to be a part of who you are,” said Wilson. “It has to be a part of the ethos and the DNA of why you’re doing this work.”
