Hair is one of our sources of pride and glory as women and men; in many cultures, it is sacred. As we look across the beauty industry and education systems landscape, we can see glaring disparities in representation specifically with 3C to 4C curl patterns. Beauty education institutions make hundreds of millions of dollars and yet disproportionately focus on European beauty standards and hair textures. Exclusion has been a longstanding conversation in the beauty space from the runway to every day, Black & curly-haired models have often spoken out about the lack of knowledge about their hair in the beauty and fashion industry that leaves them feeling unworthy, and disrespected.

We’ve spoken to countless hairstylists (of different backgrounds) who’ve also voiced their concern for the lack of education on Black & textured hair styling care and techniques, leaving them feeling unprepared for work in their field. Currently, European standards for Black/textured hair are the only mandated components of hairstyling education, i.e., chemical relaxing treatments/straightening.

The current time we’re living in has brought to question many aspects of our society that have gone mostly unnoticed, or somewhat unchecked. As we evolve as a society, so do our values and perspectives, it has been far too long that institutions have ignored the harmful ways in which these biased systems affect marginalized communities.

We want to change this by demanding the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities revisit the Hairstyling Program Standards of Ontario and mandate that all hairstyling education institutions include a comprehensive training program on Black & textured hair. 

Ziba Style Bar believes in a world where anyone with any hair type can walk into a salon and feel confident that they will be served in a way that honours their authentic self.