Black Beauty Roster Launches Portal to Connect Black Beauty Pros With Job Opportunities in Entertainment

02/09/2023

Over the last few years, much has been said about the lack of Black hairstylists working in Hollywood. Many Black actresses such as Storm Reid, Monique Coleman, and Meagan Good have spoken out against the entertainment industry’s hair diversity problem, sharing their frustrations and heartbreaking experiences working with hairstylists who have little to no knowledge of how to work with Black or textured hair. 

In light of this, Black Beauty Roster, a collective dedicated to amplifying the work of Black beauty artists across the fashion and entertainment industry, is hoping to create a new industry standard—one that makes it easier for Black beauty pros to get hired on sets. To help support their mission, the organization recently debuted its BBR portal, which aims to connect their directory of over 10,000 vetted beauty pros with editorial, red carpet, and film job opportunities. 

Image Courtesy: Black Beauty Roster

“We’ve heard stories of models and actresses who had to do their own hair on set, carry their own products with them, or have literally cried in their chair because they didn’t feel heard or seen when it came to their beauty experiences,” Maude Okrah, co-founder of Black Beauty Roster, told WWD. “With brands and productions, we knew many of them want to do the right thing, but just weren’t sure what that looked like, so we’re changing that.” She added, “We believe diversity goes both ways, so our community of artists includes both people of color and non-people of color, but all of them have demonstrated the skill and ability to work with all hair textures and all complexions—that’s what is really important to us.”

Along with providing users access to jobs, the portal will also offer production support, an advice line, concierge support, project consulting, and more. Beauty pros have the option of opting into curated shortlists of suitable talent for specific gigs, and both companies and talent can anonymously submit questions and share personal experience through the portal’s advice line.

Image Courtesy: Black Beauty Roster

“With this advice line, we’re creating a safe space for them to get clarity, and alleviating the responsibility of fielding these requests from the [person of color] colleague, who is often the one to get them, which is draining and can be a microaggression,” Okrah said. 

As for talent seekers, they will be able to filter their searches in the portal by location, speciality, availability, union or non-union talent, and view potential matches’ assigned tiers. The tiers range from Tier 1, pros with extensive on-set experience for large productions, to Tier 4, newcomers seeking opportunities to build their skills.

With Black Beauty Roster’s platform, co-founders Okrah and Simone Tetteh also strive to provide education through diverse allyship training as well as courses, workshops, and master classes for beauty pros who want to take their career to the next level.

If you are a hairstylist, nail artist, barber, or makeup artist interested in joining Black Beauty Roster’s portal, be sure to visit their website. And, for the latest news from the organization, make sure to follow @blackbeautyroster on Instagram.

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Camille Nzengung

Camille Nzengung is a Features Editor at The Tease, where she covers all things hair. You can find her writing about the best hair products, the coolest hair trends, and all the exciting new hair launches. Send her a pitch: cnzengung@thetease.com.

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