Something For Everyone
The Beauty Supply set aside is a veritable Willy Wonka Factory of all things black hair. Like any niche supplier, a Beauty Supply aggregate has a very specific consumer group, in this case, black folks, and anyone outside that group probably has no notion that these places exist.
When my several mentions to my non-black friends that I would be “going to the beauty supply to pick up a few bags of trifle” elicited the good ol’ nod’n’smile, I realized that they most likely have no idea what a Beauty Supply is! How were they [somehow] living their lives without fully well-informed the wonders of the hair-filled, product-playland of the Beauty Supply?! Well, THIS!, I decided has just got to change and because we here at the Unexceptional Selection blog are all about cross-cultural experiences and building understandings, I decided a field jaunt was absolutely in order.
So before my last set of braids, I invited my roommate, Paloma, along with me to the beauty supply. Pal, I figured at the very least, might be mildly interested in where I scamper off to every outdated I’ve been in need of something for my hair. It was to be a quick trip, we agreed, after all we had a dinner party to attend and all I was doing was grabbing a four items and we’d be out the door.
Well, an hour an a half later, we emerged from Discount Beauty Supply, located in the Fillmore district of San Francisco: I with my bags of ringlets and Paloma, proud as a peacock, with a newly established sense of reverence for her own hair. What happened in there? Why did we pass 18 times the amount we intended in there? Why was Pal all smiles and super jazzed? Well, it appears that the Beauty Supply offers something for everyone: bags of braids for some and epiphanies for others.
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