YELANI HAIR

News Article

BY ELAN AYDELOTT

Yetunde Jude is a black hair expert and has created a platform where she has been able to share her knowledge with the world. She graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with her degree in science, textile, and management in 1997. Now she is a mother, creator, and business woman. She is the owner of Yelani hair products that was made to regrow and maintain healthy hair. Yetunde started with a hair care website called “Let’s Talk Hair” that she didn’t expect to have the impact that it did in 1997. She says “That was my contribution to black women and I was done”. She realized that so many women of color had no clue how to take care of their hair and that’s when she decided to make another contribution to black women and launch her book “The Black Hair Care Revolution”. She authored her book in 2009 and sold it online, in Barnes and Noble, and other health food stores such as Whole Foods. As her book circulated she was still working a nine to five while being a mother to her two kids. Yetunde says that whenever she would introduce herself to others they would already know her name and as the conversation went on she would realize that women of color would know her name because they used her products or made their own products from her book. After receiving such positive feedback on her website and her book she then decided to take her career a step further and launch her hair care line Yelani products. Yelani hairline features a line for women, men, and children. This hair care line was specifically made for women with naturally curly hair. They are plant based products with a two year shelf life. Yetunde says “ I not only wanted my products to be good for your hair but also good for your body”. Yetunde is absolutely correct when it comes to natural products not actually being natural. Since natural hair Ausie, Pantene, Sauve, and Treseme have made their own version of natural hair products that aren’t actually as natural as they appear to be. The ingredients in Ausie alone speaks for itself. The ingredients in their “natural” shampoo consists of Water, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycol Distearate, Dimethicone, Sodium Citrate, Cocamide Mea, Sodium Xylenesulfonate, Fragrance, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Chloride, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Tetrasodium Edta, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, and Ecklonia. All of these chemicals that black women are putting into their body that is actually damaging to their hair. The black hair industry generates at least a 2.5 billion dollars a year. Women of color spend nine times more money than our non-black counterparts. These different companies that were started to cater more towards caucasian hair, are now trying to make money from african american women by just putting the word natural in front of it without any regard on how that actually affects our natural hair. While interviewing Yetunde she said that our hair is the direct connection to our spirit, that’s why there's always a certain energy you get when it comes to anything being done to your hair. You always have so much confidence when your hair is done and always lack conviction when your hair isn’t. Women  have experienced having low self esteem just because their hair wasn’t done. Being raised by an African American mom taught women that your hair is your crown and it always needs to be done in order to be presentable to the public eye. Therefore it’s always been instilled in black women from very young ages that they aren’t worthy enough if their hair isn’t done. That’s why there is a certain type of energy that is connected to our hair. Yetunde says that she finds that her consumers are so much more happy once they discover their natural hair has the potential to grow to the length that they choose. Yetunde has become an entrepreneur and a great voice for the natural hair movement for women of color. She says that she views herself to be the woman who is passionate about black people and wants every woman to feel beautiful with her natural hair.