Photo: Djeneba Aduayom/Elle.com
Black beauty is timeless — at least Tracee Ellis Ross knows this. She even knows that black girls possess some kind of magic that no other race can comprehend. As the woman who has been a strong advocate of black beauty — and the woman who’s been celebrating black hair through the launch of her Pattern haircare line — the Black-ish actress is the right person to grace the Elle.com’s inaugural State of Black Beauty cover story.
For the cover, Rose wore different hairstyles to showcase the beauty of black hair, and with her friend Kerry Washington, they discussed about her hair journey, black women, and the beauty industry. “I want to know when the idea to birth Pattern came to be. How did that happen?” Washington asked.
“It started as such a personal relationship with my own hair, and feeling like I didn’t have the support to find what I needed. Not just in terms of products, but in terms of how to love myself.” Ross answered. “I was very supported in my family around my hair. But in terms of seeing all different kinds of versions in the wallpaper of my lives out in the world, I wasn’t seeing it. And I was getting confused. All of the things that I was taught from the media were like, I was supposed to have easy breezy beautiful hair. Bouncin’ and behavin’. My hair didn’t blow in the wind! All of these things didn’t match up.”
Ross decided to launch her groundbreaking haircare line after realizing that black hair was not part of the beauty standard and it took over 10 years of development. “That’s what started to give me this idea. But the journey was a slow one. Our beauty was not a part of the standard or culture of beauty. There was no real frame to hold,” she said. Adding that the mission of Pattern “is two-fold, to create effective products for the curly, coily, and tight textured community and to celebrate Blackness and the power of Black beauty.”
But regardless of this saddening beauty experience — the experience of rejection before launching her hair-care products, she knew that black beauty is timeless.
“Braids are not new. Cornrows are not new. Twists are not new. Bantu knots are not new. If our hair could talk, it would tell you of our legacy. Black beauty is timeless and holds such a story that I am so grateful to be a part of, and to continue allowing it to unfold through me. Black women and our hair have been at the center of social, cultural, political, and economic revolutions and movements through time. We hold so much power in our beauty. Our beauty is filled with love and joy and an emotional intelligence that reaches into spaces that allow us to connect with each other in such sacred ways.”
