Taraji P. Henson wants to see all Black women in beauty win.
The 53-year-old actress, who launched her haircare line, TPH by Taraji, in 2020, isn’t intimidated by the increasing number of celebrity beauty brands on the market. “I’m never surprised when someone goes, ‘A Black person invented that,’” Henson told The Los Angeles Times in a Thursday, November 2, profile. “No one cared about our hair but us and now, all of a sudden, you got all these big brands, now they got natural [hair] commercials.”
In addition to Henson’s TPH, there’s Tracee Ellis Ross’ Pattern, Gabrielle Union’s Flawless and Tia Mowry’s 4U. Issa Rae is the co-owner of Sienna Naturals, and Mielle Organics — founded by Monique Rodriguez — went viral earlier this year thanks to TikToker Alix Earle. Beyoncé, meanwhile, announced plans earlier this year to launch her own haircare line.
Henson told the Times that watching the success of so many Black beauty brands in real time is “gratifying” as it confirms the “deep economic” buying power “that we have as Black women.” Henson continued, “If there’s space for L’Oréal and Maybelline and CoverGirl to exist, why can’t we all coexist?”
“I love when I see videos, and they will have my products, they will have Mielle, they’ll have Pattern, they’ll have Carol’s Daughter, Miss Jessie’s,” she added. “I love to see it because there’s space for all of us.”
Henson’s road to becoming a beauty entrepreneur came after years of having a complicated relationship with her hair. She relaxed her hair until she was 30, thinking her natural texture was “unmanageable.”
“I’ll just never forget when I had to do my own hair for the first time,” Henson told the Times. “I was in the mirror and I was crying. I had the brush and the comb stuck in my hair.”
It wasn’t until she met a hairstylist who gave her the proper products and tools to care for her crown that she realized she had been wrong all along. While she grew to love her mane more over time, Henson still found herself in a bind when it came to cleaning her scalp.
“I understood very young that your scalp is your foundation,” she told the publication. “It needs to be healthy in order for your hair to grow. But now I have this weave and all this, how do I clean my scalp? So, that was a real problem for me that I had to find a solution to.”
She added, “I never saw myself starting a haircare line. It was literally out of necessity.”
Some of Henson’s most-loved products from her line include the Master Cleanse Scalp Wash, the Never Salty Sugar-Based Scalp Scrub and the Mint Condition Tingling Scalp Conditioner.
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In a tutorial shared via the TPH by Taraji website, the actress demonstrates how to use Master Cleanse, which aims to “dissolve scalp build-up and provides a clean, balanced environment for healthier, natural hair.”
“This is going to feel like heaven to you,” Henson said while massaging the product around her crown.
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