Before the Atlanta summer compressive heat comes down, the Brittanee Sims therapist usually gets her thick, curly hair intertwined in a salt to maintain her healthy hand.
But it was more expensive this year. So she will only pay her daughter and her teenage son to get their summer hair. Don’t have intertwined hair – it creates more a hassle for everything, “said Sims, who counts helphin among tens of millions of women who regularly spend on the black hair care industry.
Now, she said, she will “will understand at home and understand what to do for my hair in the morning, after I go to the gym and this is confused with sweating and frizz.â € € €
President Donald Trump’s tariffs are raising prices for many black women products taking into account the core buyers and stylists, squeezing even more, as they deal with inflation and higher rents.
Most of the synthetic hair of braids, human hair for additions, wigs and weaving, styling tools, scattering gels and other products are imported from or have packaging from China, which was subject to a 145% combined fee in April. India is also a major global source of human hair.
Many black women have hair types and favorable styles in the workplace that require careful attention, and they can spend hundreds of dollars in salons every month in extension, wig, wig and braids.
The Associated Press spoke with some black hair industry experts, owners of beauty supply shops and wholesale companies, as well as nearly two dozen black stylists and braiders, some of which may have to raise prices even after the business has slowed down.
On Thursday, a Federal Court of Appeal returned most of Trump’s tariffs for imported goods after they were blocked the day before by a panel of three US International Trade Court judges.
Earlier this month, the United States agreed to abolish the 145% tax imported from China to 30% while both economic superpowers negotiate new trade agreements. Imports from most other countries face 10%initial tariffs.
Despite the coming months “already shot” for many articles, said Marty Parker, a University of George’s business professor and the supply chain expert he worked on in the hair care industry. Cost companies that have been faced at the ports are making their way to customers, supply shortcomings are deteriorating, and it will be unclear what will happen if negotiations break down.
â € œPrices grow very quickly and go down very slowly, â € said Parker.
Costs increase for Atlanta stylists
Some stylists said they will see fewer clients because prices are rising for almost everything.
Atlanta stylists are paying more for hair from China. Atlanta Yana Ellis stylist, who also sells products like wigs, paid an additional $ 245 on transport for 52 hair packages in March compared to 40 packages in December. Aaniyah Butler said her transport costs for human hair are more than doubled from February to May. And Dajajiah Blackshear found in early May that a beautiful supply store raised the cost of hair type she used for years for years.
The shop owner said he may have to stop the sale of that brand of hair because it has grown so much. Similarly, some wholesale hair stores have seen higher costs or wait for them in the coming weeks. Even the typical cost of $ 6 to $ 10 of a synthetic hair pack is dragged.
Blackshear does not want customers to bring hair because he likes to verify the quality. But if costs continue to rise, it may have to raise its prices.
“It will be extremely difficult,” she said, especially for customers who are “making them make those difficult decisions, between” can I make my hair or pay my bills?
Janice Lowe, who runs 5 Starr salt in a lower -income neighborhood in the southeast of Atlanta, has begun to ask customers to bring hair and is unable to buy certain products.
“I am falling back to my obligations,” she said.
The industry brakes for uncertainty
Consultants change how many prices will rise when they will rise, and as long as “and full damage to stylists and consumers can be months away.
The global black hair care industry was worth about $ 3.2 billion in 2023, according to Market.us, and black women spend six times more on hair care than other ethnicities.
Stylists often buy some more difficult professional products from door -to -door distributors who buy from wholesale or larger distributors who buy directly from other countries.
Lowe has seen some of its distributors disappear altogether, making it more difficult to get professional lines such as the main essence of the professional hair care brand, manufactured in Atlanta at McBride Research Laboratories.
Design Essentials is trying to delay rising high prices by 2026 or 2027, and may return to vacation or pause promotions to save money, said President Cornell McBride Jr. Most packaging plastics come from China, but ingredients can come from many places.
â € œNobody wants to put it to the consumer, but the person who pays is the customer at the end, ”said McBRIDE Jr.
Hawa Keita and her mother usually load customers between $ 160 and $ 250 for weaving in their store, Braiding African Eveâ in College Park, south -west of Atlanta. Keita is determined to get losses because their customers “can’t afford Atlanta prices,” Keita said.
The cost of a 100 box of braids from China raised for the first time in two years, from 250 to $ 300, Keita said. They order each week, often multiple boxes. Some companies say they will soon raise prices or finish shares.
Making happy customers is ultimately what will keep the business in the sea, Keita said. She smiled as she recognized by intertwining a young woman’s hair for her birthday with a style she suggested.
“When we finished, she gave me the biggest hug, and she was here screaming and just screaming because she just loved her hair,” Keita said.
Price consumers face unfair beauty standards
For many black Americans, especially women, capable of hair care means facing adverse bears standards. Professor of the Law of the State University of George, Tanya Washington, said recent discoveries about dangerous chemicals in synthetic hair and hair direction have sparked conversations among black women looking for no imported products.
But hugging natural hair can be staggering for women like lawyers and clerks who soon advise Washington, who face pressure to straighten their hair.
“This puts all those who do not have straight hair organically, of course right at disadvantage in these spaces,” she said. “I think a definition of professionalism that favors a phenotype – European phenotype” above all others is inappropriate.
Long income inequalities between black and white American women can also make higher hair care prices. According to the US census, since 2023, the average family income in Atlanta is $ 131,319 for white families and $ 47,937 for black families.
It is a matter of inequality that professional lists of hatred are aware of the whole country.
Stylist Mitzi Mitzi, owner of Pic One Bear Services in Pennsylvania, said she has collected certain products and tools for another year in anticipation of price increases.
It wants to avoid “bootlegâ products, which are made illegally and are often not safe, but much more spread on the market during economic downloads.
“I am really aware of my black minority clients because we make a much less heck than other nationalities,” said Mitchell, who is black. “I try to keep the low prices so we can continue to have the same services, but I know it will have to increase it.â €
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