Beauty is an art that requires time and effort. As long as you feel good about yourself, that art is achieved. From makeup, to wardrobe, to even body modification. But does that beauty include slowly poisoning your body?
In the age of vanity and consumerism, it seems like the ever-growing cosmetic industry is promoting toxins instead of natural hair gels, particularly to women in the black community. The carcinogenic chemicals included in cosmetic products are ever prevalent, slowly poisoning the women who use them.
Creamy Crack is a hair relaxer designed to reduce curls and accentuate volume. Similar to its namesake, cocaine, this product is as addictive and dangerous as the drug. After the process of going from “kinky” curls to straight and voluminous, the “victims” of these hair relaxers suffered from the burning sensation these products caused. Little did they know this was just the least of their problems. Contained inside every bottle of Creamy Crack are toxic substances called carcinogens. Deadly chemical compounds that cause cancer from prolonged exposure, such as formaldehyde.
The fact is, most of these products (not just hair relaxers) are targeted toward black women, stemming from Eurocentrism. After multiple years of racism and prejudice, curly hair and darker skin tones were not appealing to the companies hiring, so in turn, women slowly gave themselves cancer to appease higher-ups. The beauty standard today is filled with these microaggressions, and there is no justifiable reason to condone the sale of these products. Products that break women down from the inside out, for the sole purpose of “true beauty.”
How “white” can someone look before they are deemed “proper”? There really is no answer to this question that is acceptable. Yet, people take on the colorist mentality that a paler skin tone is always better than a darker one. Even though black women’s skin color is no longer tested with a paper bag, it still fuels colorism today. Why should one woman be picked over the other because she is closer to a Caucasian skin tone? Should she bleach her skin and straighten her hair till it is decayed? No. To believe in such a mindset is just as destructive as these products. So why do we still have people reinforce this mentality?
