Hunched over folding tables in their Baltimore basement, Pierre and Jamyla Bennu put the ”hand” in Oyin Handmade, meticulously squeezing droplets of oil into amber-colored bottles of ”Juices and Berries” hair tonic.
They spend up to 18 hours a day concocting products aimed largely at black women who’ve abandoned hair straighteners for their natural locks — fragile coils easily dried by many store products.
Blacks have long bristled at figures showing that the billion-dollar black hair care products market is led by white companies.
But as black women frustrated with chemical damage reconsider straightening their hair, black-owned minicompanies like Oyin have emerged as go-to sources of organic products, capitalizing on their firsthand knowledge of ethnic hair to return the market to its roots.
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