7 Reasons I Only Sell Whipped Butter Instead of Creating a Full HairCare/BodyCare Line

Since announcing to my readers that my 10-year-old natural hair blog, Black Girl with Long Hair, is officially defunct I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how and why I made this transition, and where I see my brand going. That’s a lot of ground to cover, so I am chopping up my story into bite-sized pieces to share over the next several weeks. Today I wanted to talk about why I haven’t expanded outside of whipped butter products.

As many of you know, BGLH Marketplace started out of my career as a natural hair and beauty blogger. And during that time I covered many indie beauty brands that were started by black women and grew to be incredibly successful. So when my own brand started (kinda accidentally, read about that here) and gained some traction, I assumed I would go down the same route — expanding my whipped butters into a full natural hair care line that would eventually be carried in a big box retailer. But I have realized that my lane is completely different. Here is why I’ve stuck to whipping shea, cocoa and mango butter.

1. BGLH Marketplace has morphed into a skincare company.
When I started making my products it was from a natural hair blogger point of view. I was using ingredients I’d heard referenced over and over again in the natural hair community. Imagine my surprise when I found that customers were buying my products for their skin. I came to realize that there are huge gaps in the skincare market — and they hit black women especially hard because we have higher rates of eczema and psoriasis. I have since shifted my focus and now market my products as multi-use, with skincare as my entry point.

2. The natural hair care market is well-developed.
Back when I started blogging in 2008 the ‘natural hair’ section of drugstores and big box retailers was anemic. And then Target began…