Navigating an elaborate affair<\/p>\n
\u2018Having your hair done isn\u2019t much of a choice, with one in five Black American women aged 25-34 having been sent home from work for their hair.\u2019 Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
With braiding you\u2019re paying for every inch of labour \u2013 with waist length costing \u00a320 more than bra length, small braids costing about \u00a340 more than medium, and so on. If your hair isn\u2019t pre-stretched, add another \u00a320. Want your hair washed and blow dried? That\u2019ll be an extra \u00a320-35. For boho or goddess braids, a newer trend where wispy tendrils cascade out of your plaits, that could be, say, \u00a350 more. If you\u2019re using synthetic hair, it\u2019s going to matt over the one to two months that you wear the style, so it\u2019s better to use human hair bundles. But these can cost upwards of \u00a3250. Each of these decisions fills me with a moment of micro-dread.<\/p>\n
When The Long Wave\u2019s lead writer, Nesrine Malik, tells me that the Dutch braids she just got in Nairobi were the equivalent of \u00a32, and that a full head of knotless only costs \u00a320, I get a bit hot and itchy.<\/p>\n
Obviously, London is its own economy. But I can\u2019t simply opt out of the dizzyingly expensive process. Having your hair done isn\u2019t exactly a choice, with one in five Black American women aged 25-34 having been sent home from work for their hair<\/a>. To make matters worse, shifting beauty standards have completely normalised (if not mandated) these boho, knotless and butt-length styles, which take at least five hours to install.<\/p>\n \u201cBraiding used to be a matter of convenience and low maintenance,\u201d Nesrine tells me. \u201cBranded as a \u2018protective style\u2019, it felt like something that could deliver you from the hamster wheel of washing and drying and curling or straightening. Now it is its own elaborate stressful affair.\u201d And even once they\u2019re done, the pressure doesn\u2019t end. \u201cMany of us are told that we\u2019re doing it wrong: not washing them enough, keeping them in too long, getting braided too tight, too heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, economist, Harvard PhD student and author of The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid<\/a>, agrees. \u201cThis is a topic that\u2019s significantly understudied,\u201d she tells me. \u201cBut we do know that the cost of beauty has gone up over time. That\u2019s due, in part, to inflation, but also to ever-growing beauty standards.\u201d<\/p>\n Victimised by similar forces<\/p>\n Ama Hair Salon in South Tottenham. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Still, Opoku-Agyeman believes that it\u2019s shortsighted to solely focus on the experience of the consumer. \u201c[Black hair stylists] are expected to know how to do everybody\u2019s hair, and you get penalised if you can\u2019t,\u201d she says. \u201cSo you might have to just get more products, in order to accommodate all the different hair types that might come through your door.\u201d<\/p>\n Opoku-Agyeman, who is Ghanaian-American, says you also need to factor in the spiralling rent in places like the US, and that shipping synthetic hair from China is no longer as cheap as it was. \u201cWhen tariffs entered the picture, I was telling folks that this was actually going to hit black women very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Other specialised products like conditioners and gels made by Black-owned businesses may be more expensive, because they can struggle to gain investment, leading to low levels of supply. Opoku-Agyeman believes that the costs customers complain about aren\u2019t resulting in massive profits for braiders. I still feel a little uncertain about the extra costs: I\u2019ve heard stories of customers being charged extra for being a new client, or for having long or thick hair. Opoku-Agyeman gently checks me on these annoyances. \u201cYou have your sort of corner case type people, who will charge you just for parting your hair, right?\u201d she says. \u201cI think [this] is preposterous, but I don\u2019t know how frequent they are.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to The Long Wave<\/p>\n Nesrine Malik, Micha Frazer-Carroll and the team guide you through the biggest Black stories from around the world<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n And I don\u2019t want to undervalue Black women\u2019s labour for, not only a specialised skill, but an art form. Perhaps as consumers we\u2019re directing our ire towards victims of the same forces. \u201cThe folks who own the means of production around hair braiding are not the folks who are typically using hair-braiding services,\u201d Opoku-Agyeman says. Most braiding products are not sourced from Black-owned businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cBack in the day, people used to braid outside, braid in their houses, but now people are trying to build out a business.\u201d They also are tending to you for the five to eight hours that you\u2019re in the chair, often without a lunch break. Braiders need to be trained, which can be expensive. It\u2019s hard work.<\/p>\n Paying the societal cost<\/p>\n \u2018People are willing to spend $500 to get their hair done, because if I don\u2019t, I\u2019m not going to get the job,\u2019 says Opoku-Agyeman. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n What Opoku-Agyeman, Nesrine and I agree on is that Black women feel an intense pressure to be \u201cpresentable\u201d, which comes from within and outside Black communities. \u201cThere is a real societal cost, and literal cost, to not getting your hair done,\u201d Opoku-Agyeman tells me. \u201cPeople are willing to spend $500 to get their hair done, because if I don\u2019t, I\u2019m not going to get the job \u2026 you could get suspended<\/a>. You could get expelled.\u201d Maybe when we get angry at add-ons, we\u2019re really feeling anger at a lifetime of having to pay luxury prices for something that feels like a necessity.<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t only apply to braids. You could say the same for \u201cwash and go\u201d routines, the \u201cstraight natural\u201d movement, locs, relaxers, fades and other Black hairstyles that have been subject to similar creeping policing and commercialisation. No matter what style you choose, the restrictions are tight and only seem to get tighter: with numerous steps, products and services deemed \u201cessential\u201d to keep you looking neat and professional.<\/p>\n The hair discrimination<\/a> that forms part of this pressure is something that we can address in our own schools and workplaces. But it is also only one symptom of a longer, knotty history in which Black women\u2019s hair has simultaneously been a site of expression and oppression<\/a>. For many of us, going to the salon can feel like both of these things at the same time.<\/p>\n So what are we to do? As I admire my French curl braids, topped off with scalp-slick canerows, all I can think about is where I might channel my resentment at these rising prices. After six hours in the chair, it\u2019s not toward my braiders. The beauty industry that profits from our social and economic anxieties? That\u2019s a different question.<\/p>\n To receive the complete version of The Long Wave in your inbox every Wednesday, <\/a>please subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tap in<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3001.jpg\")
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