The Digitization of Black Hair: A
Look at TwinGodesses & Black Hair Care on YouTube
Over the years, YouTube has
developed an incredibly large market for Black hair care. Black women
especially have found Black YouTubers’ videos to be a source for education, as
well as a place to establish a sense of community tied to their hair. There are
many Black YouTube channels focusing on hair care–– TwinGodesses is one of
these many channels. Started about ten years ago by twin sisters Elise and
Alicia Griffin, TwinGodesses is a YouTube channel that has now amassed about
285,000 subscribers. While they have videos over varying lifestyle and fashion
topics, their hair care videos make up the majority of their content and are
what they are widely known for creating. They are the producers and stars of
their content, a feat that author Andi Zeisler would appreciate. In her
article, Zeisler (2008) argues that a feminist form of pop culture in Hollywood
would account for “more feminist directors, producers, screenwriters, and
network heads, perhaps women would stop being relegated to wife-and-girlfriend roles
in action movies. Perhaps parts created for women of color would be not only
more plentiful but also less stereotypical” (p. 20). In short, Zeisler stresses
the importance of creating opportunities for marginalized groups to be both
involved in the production process of pop cultural texts as well as represented
on screen. These same sentiments can be applied to entirely different platforms
with video production–– YouTube being one of them. Through YouTube, Black women
such as TwinGodesses are able to be both the content creators and faces
representing their very ideas. They have the autonomy to create a cultural text
that shares their experiences with a broad audience. Although they are not a
major channel with millions of subscribers, TwinGodesses channel harnesses
several different properties that contribute to its ever growing success––
their overall appearance, niche appeal, and structured consistency are the
three central traits that come together to make their channel a strong source
for Black hair care content.
Before diving into the depths of
YouTube hair tutorials and product reviews geared towards the Black community,
it is essential to have a basic understanding of Black hair. Over recent years,
Black women especially have been encouraged to embrace their natural hair. As
many people from various racial backgrounds may assume that they too have
natural hair because they may wear their real hair, the term natural hair must
be understood in its cultural context–– for Black people, this means hair that
has not been treated with any sort of chemical agents that change the chemical
makeup of the hair. This specific wording is directly connected to one of the
modes of difference discussed in Hall’s article. According to Hall (1997), the
anthropological mode of difference is the idea that “culture depends on giving
things meaning by assigning them to different positions within a classificatory
system. The marking of ‘difference’ is thus the basis of that symbolic order
which we call culture” (p. 236). Essentially, people need difference to exist
in order to better understand themselves and their culture. Establishing a
language around the uniqueness of Black hair has thus contributed to Black
culture. Another market geared towards Black women is displayed through videos
on styling relaxed (hair that has been chemically treated to loosen curl
pattern) or permed (hair that has been chemically treated to define curl
pattern) hair. In addition to these two main areas of Black hair care videos,
there is also an enormous market for protective styling–– hairstyles with the
purpose of protecting a person’s actual hair. Twists and braids are protective
styles that can be done with only natural hair or with additional hair twisted
or braided together to create a temporary style. Sew-ins and wigs are two other
forms of protective styling. With a sew-in, the additional hair is sewn into
place to cover the person’s actual hair, and with a wig the entire unit of hair
is placed over the person’s actual hair. With an ever growing marketplace of
hair piece and wig vendors, there is also increasing demand for hair and wig
review videos. There are entire channels dedicated to producing content related
to protective styling of various kinds. Although this is a major simplification
of the concepts related to Black hair, it is at least a good starting point to
understand the rest of the information to follow.
With this incredibly base-level
knowledge of Black hair in mind, the TwinGodesses channel can be better
understood through its particular cultural lens. As previously mentioned, there
are a few distinct qualities that attribute to the success of their channel;
the first being their overall appearance and aesthetic. Anything with a pair of
twins, especially twins that are considered societally beautiful or attractive,
is given a great deal of attention on social media. The reason is simple:
people are fascinated by twins. So TwinGodesses fall into a category of typical
human fascination by being a pair of twins who are also deemed attractive.
Within the past two years, the twins
have taken actions to establish their own brand in a sea of similarly posted
content. As previously mentioned, there is a plethora of both wig vendors and
corresponding wig review videos, but more recently vendors began to sell wigs
through the online platform Amazon. While the cheaper prices and two-day
shipping with Amazon Prime were tempting, there was a great deal of skepticism
among Black women behind trusting and ordering a wig from Amazon. TwinGodesses
was able to tap into this well of opportunity and reap the rewards–– producing
content in a niche area of hair care. The current example examined in this post
is one of their more popular Amazon wig reviews. It was posted in July, 2019
and currently has over 340,000 views. In this video, Alicia is reviewing a
curly wig she purchased herself on Amazon. The twins usually purchase the wigs
themselves, ensuring viewers know their content is not sponsored which could
lead to additional bias favoring a particular company. TwinGodesses have become
the premier source for Amazon wig reviews; their videos take the fear out of
purchasing an Amazon wig. They customize, style, and review everything about
the wigs on camera. Many people watch their reviews to help sway their
purchasing decisions or for pure entertainment. In the eyes of authors Theodor
Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1944) such forms of entertainment serve as another
form of labor because of their connection to capitalism. Elise and Alicia’s wig
reviews either encourage or discourage people from purchasing a product. So
while some may watch their videos in their leisure to be entertained, the
direct relationship between their reviews feed into a capitalistic society by
influencing peoples’ opinions on how to spend their money.
Lastly, a huge factor that propels
the TwinGodesses channel towards success is their consistency. While their
target audience is most definitely Black women, especially those who wear their
natural, anyone could visit their channel, turn on one of their videos, and
understand the key concepts presented. In every tutorial, the twins show the
step-by-step process for whatever hairstyle they do. In this particular video
example, Alicia captures footage of how the wig comes out of its packaging; how
she customizes the wig to her liking by bleaching the knots, washing the unit,
and plucking the hairline; how she styles the wig for everyday wear, and
finally shows herself wearing the wig once it is completely styled. Viewers
know when watching TwinGodesses’ videos that they will get an in-depth tutorial
and assessment of a product that the twins have purchased, thus helping to establish their credibility
as product reviewers. By creating content that encompasses an appealing
aesthetic, niche target market, and consistent and dependable content,
TwinGodesses are able to create timely, popular cultural content with an ever
growing sense of credibility behind their brand.
References
CA:
Sage. 225-249.
TwinGodesses. (2019, July 15). Amazon Prime Day Wigs!?!? This is FIRE
Another Amazon Prime
Wig Find!!!! Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwoxsC1wSkw.
This blog post taps into a new found market on youtube for black hair care. It establishes youtube as an educational resource for black women that builds a community through shared questions and experiences. Youtube allows for black women like TwinGoddesses to share content to an eager audience that reflects their own melanin. The author of this piece does a great job of giving a basic overview of different black hair types and styles that can be very difficult to explain. She debriefs her audience on the differences between natural hair, relaxers or perms, and even more protective styles like twists or braids. The author then discusses people’s fascination with twins, especially ones who are objectively attractive. This twin obsession, reminded me of the McClure twins (Ava and Alexis) who at the age of six have 2 million subscribers to their YouTube channel, and have been named the youngest members of Forbes Top Kid Influences. These two sets of twins suggest it is easier to form para-social relationships with twins because you are forming a relationship with two people simultaneously, rather than one. The TwinGoddesses have become the face for many wig companies and are making people feel more inclined and comfortable buying their products. Companies are getting advertorials through audience members subscribing to the twins youtube channel. I don’t think people realize how diverse black hair is until it's put in front of their face. After reading her piece, readers will walk around campus and start to notice all the extensive different black hairstyles that are present just on Penn’s campus. - Ashley Oden
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your explanation of the background context of natural hair and its direct connection to Black culture because both are helpful and necessary in understanding the implications a hair care and styling content creator like TwinGodesses has in promoting culturally relevant content. This suggests that many other lifestyle and care channels can be viewed with more than just a superficial perspective of what is provided at face value because there is a human creator behind the channel, who has their own intentions that are likely shaped by their personal experiences and aspirations, and an audience to provide for, that is hoping to learn from whatever is shaped by these intentions. When the creator is transparent in their intentions, they help form a social bond between them and their audience because then the feelings and experiences elicited may be able to be shared by the viewers themselves. The creator doesn’t always have to be explicitly open about their intentions, however, because sometimes those intentions are implied, such as with TwinGodesses, who aim to help those in the Black community care for their hair and make informed decisions about hair styling purchases. In the realm of product reviewing, a trait stands out that is not commonly seen in other video genres on YouTube: consistency. TwinGodesses has established credibility due to their “consistent and dependable content” of the step-by-step tutorial process of styling a wig, for instance, but this manner of producing video content would probably be too strict in its form if applied to videos that don’t rely on author credibility as much as, say, thrill and entertainment. This implies that videos that help one on a level of personal experience or in everyday life tends to require more seriousness, consistency in content production, and/or more transparency in intentions, to build trust with an audience.
ReplyDelete- Anna Do