Who Owns the Hair Store? A Look at Black Beauty, Business and Ownership in Brunswick

There is an industry that we have all just seemed to accept. It caters largely to Black people and the beauty standards that Black women, in particular, are often expected to uphold. That industry is the beauty-supply business.

Going to the hair store has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.

When I was a younger girl growing up in Jacksonville, Florida there was Sally Beauty. The company began as a single store in New Orleans in 1964. By 1969, it had grown to 11 locations and was acquired by the consumer-products company Alberto-Culver. Today, Sally Beauty Holdings operates more than 4,000 stores through its Sally Beauty and Beauty Systems Group businesses across the United States and several other countries. According to the company’s 2025 annual report, it generated $3.7 billion in sales that year. (Sally Beauty Holdings⁠, 2025 Annual Report⁠)

As I became a teenager, there were the Asian-owned hair stores.

Every Black girl has a hair journey. When I was growing up, we all got Just for Me perms. By the time I was in high school and college, the natural-hair journey was becoming more widely embraced. But we still got our quick weaves and braids. To do so, we had to visit the Asian-owned hair stores in Valdosta, Georgia, where I attended Valdosta State University.

I never thought much about who owned those stores. At that age, I did not question how an industry geared so specifically toward the Black community had become primarily owned and operated by Asian, and particularly Korean American, families.

The stores somehow carried everything we needed: braiding hair, specific gels and accessories, lashes, bonnets and bamboo door-knocker earrings. These were not generic products. Many were tied directly to the ways Black women styled, presented and expressed ourselves.

How had business owners who were not part of our community learned to market to us so precisely?

How did they know what we needed, what was becoming popular and what products would bring us back?

More than marketing

The answer goes beyond individual store owners simply being good at predicting trends.

Scholars have traced Korean American participation in the industry to the international wig trade that developed during the 1960s and 1970s. Korean entrepreneurs formed connections across manufacturing, importing, distribution and retail. Those networks helped business owners access inventory, financing, industry knowledge and relationships that made it easier for others within the same community to enter the business.

A 2022 article published in the Indiana Law Journal describes the market for wigs and hair extensions for Black consumers as an “ethnically segmented market,” shaped by the relationships connecting Korean manufacturers, distributors and retailers. (Indiana Law Journal⁠)

A separate 2023 study examining Black women’s experiences in beauty-supply stores found that customers frequently returned because of the convenience and variety of products available. However, the women interviewed also described experiences with surveillance and assumptions of criminality inside some stores. The study shows how complicated these spaces can be: Black women help create the styles and sustain the market, yet may not always feel respected within the places where they spend their money. (Clothing and Textiles Research Journal⁠)

News reports have estimated that Korean Americans once owned more than 70 percent of approximately 10,000 beauty-supply stores nationwide. That figure has been repeated for years, but I have not found a recent government dataset that independently confirms the current ownership split. That distinction matters. What the available research supports is that Korean American entrepreneurs have historically held a majority position within this portion of the industry. (MPR News⁠)

It also raises another question: If Black consumers have been the primary customers for many of these products, what has kept more Black entrepreneurs from owning the stores that sell them?

Bringing the question home to Brunswick

That question becomes even more noticeable when I look at Brunswick.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Brunswick had a population of 15,210 people in the 2020 Census. Current Census estimates show that approximately 57.8 percent of the city’s residents identify as Black, while 0.1 percent identify as Asian. Population figures do not tell us where business owners live, and “Asian” includes many different ethnicities and nationalities. Still, the numbers provide important context for examining who serves Brunswick’s majority-Black population and who has been able to establish ownership within certain industries. (U.S. Census Bureau⁠)

By my initial count, Brunswick has approximately four or five Asian-owned beauty-supply stores. Mo Lashes & Mo, owned by Morgan Polite, is the only Black-owned beauty-supply store in the city that I have identified.

Morgan started the business when she was 24. This year, at 29, she is celebrating five years in business. Mo Lashes & Mo has also grown into a 2,200-square-foot location at 3025 Altama Avenue.

Her story gives Brunswick a local example of what it takes for a young Black woman to enter an industry built around products Black women use but in which Black store ownership remains limited.

It also gives me a place to start asking questions.

What did Morgan have to learn to enter the beauty-supply industry? Was it difficult to find distributors or gain access to certain products? How did she determine what Brunswick customers needed? What has allowed her to remain in business for five years, and what barriers still stand in the way of her growth?

Most importantly, what does it mean to be the only Black-owned beauty-supply store in a city where nearly six out of every 10 residents are Black?