Founder and CEO of Dosso Beauty, Kadidja Dosso, poses for a portrait in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. June 28, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah Beier© Thomson Reuters

By Arriana McLymore, Jayla Whitfield-Anderson and Julio-Cesar Chavez

Trump’s Tariffs Are Leaving Black Beauty Businesses in Peril

Why America’s most innovative beauty entrepreneurs are facing an existential threat

The beauty industry has always been a sanctuary of creativity, empowerment, and economic opportunity for Black women. From haircare pioneers like Madam C.J. Walker to the new generation of beauty founders leading the textured-hair and melanin-rich cosmetics revolution, Black beauty entrepreneurs have consistently built empires with limited support and limitless ingenuity.

But today, those same businesses stand on dangerously shaky ground.

Former President Donald Trump’s proposed and expanded tariff plans — targeting imports from China and other manufacturing hubs — threaten to devastate Black-owned beauty brands at every level of the supply chain. What appears on the surface as a broad economic policy is, in reality, a direct hit to one of the most vulnerable yet fastest-growing sectors in the U.S. economy.

A Beauty Industry Built on Global Manufacturing

More than 80% of beauty tools, hair extensions, synthetic hair, wigs, packaging, and cosmetic components used by U.S. brands are manufactured in China, South Korea, and other Asian markets. For Black beauty brands, that number is even higher.

Why? Because:

• These factories specialize in textured hair products and tools.

• They offer low minimum order quantities (MOQ)—critical for small start-ups.

• They produce at prices that allow small brands to compete with conglomerates.

• They provide packaging and components that U.S. manufacturers often don’t.

When tariffs increase by 25%, 50%, or even 60% — which Trump has repeatedly proposed — the financial shock is immediate and brutal.

The Cost Explosion: How Tariffs Hit Black Beauty Hardest

Black beauty entrepreneurs already face systemic challenges:

• Less access to bank loans and credit lines

• Lower venture capital investment

• Higher reliance on personal savings

• Razor-thin margins due to competition with corporate giants

Add a tariff-driven production cost increase, and you get an economic crisis.

How Tariffs Break the Business Model

A typical Black-owned beauty brand might import:

• Synthetic wigs

• Human hair bundles

• Edge control jars

• Mascara wands

• Lip gloss tubes

• Custom pallets

• Product boxes and labels

Tariffs on these items instantly raise production costs by 20–60%, forcing brands to choose between:

• Raising prices and losing customers

• Swallowing the costs and operating at a loss

• Cutting staff

• Reducing inventory

• Or shutting their doors entirely

For businesses that serve communities already battling inflation, higher prices are not an option.

Human Hair and Wig Sellers Are in Crisis

Wig and hair extension businesses — many of them run by Black women — are likely to face the most catastrophic effects. The U.S. imports over $800 million in human hair products from China and India annually. If tariffs spike:

• Lace wigs could jump from $250 to $400

• Bundles could increase from $80 to $150+

• Salon costs would rise

• Stylists would lose clients

• Beauty supply stores would shutter

• Entire ecosystems would collapse

This is not simply a beauty trend — it’s a $6+ billion cultural economy built around empowerment, identity, and employment.

Small Businesses Can’t Absorb What Big Corporations Can

Large corporations have:

✔ multi-country supply chains
✔ manufacturing leverage
✔ lobbyists
✔ access to domestic production
✔ capital cushions

Black beauty founders do not.

A tariff meant to “hurt China” ultimately hurts:

• Black women

• Black creators

• Black-owned businesses

• Black economic mobility

• The growing Black beauty consumer base

The impact is local, not global.

An Attack on Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Black beauty entrepreneurs are some of the fastest-growing business owners in America. They’ve filled voids that mainstream beauty ignored for decades — creating products for curls, coils, locs, braids, melanin skin tones, and textured beauty needs.

Tariff policies that raise production costs wipe out the very innovation this sector is known for.

This is more than economics.
This is cultural.

What the Industry Is Saying

Salon owners are already reporting:

• Difficulty maintaining inventory

• Rising prices in beauty supply stores

• Delayed or cancelled orders

• Customers stretching out hairstyles longer

• Stylists limiting services because products cost more

Beauty suppliers say the tariffs would create:

• Disruption for at least 18–36 months

• A 3× increase in startup costs

• A reduction in product variety

These outcomes widen inequality in an industry Black founders helped build.

The Domino Effect: Jobs, Community, Identity

When Black beauty businesses suffer, entire communities feel it.

• A salon closing means five to ten jobs lost.

• A beauty brand folding means thousands of customers left behind.

• A supply store shutting down affects dozens of stylists.

• A wig brand collapsing affects cancer survivors and hair-loss patients who rely on affordable options.

Beauty isn’t vanity — it’s identity, confidence, and culture.

Is There a Solution?

To survive, Black beauty businesses will need:

1. Policy Advocacy

Congressional pressure to exempt beauty essentials and components.

2. Grants & Funding

Targeted support for minority-owned beauty companies.

3. Domestic Manufacturing Incentives

Programs to build U.S.-based textured-hair production — which currently doesn’t exist on a meaningful scale.

4. Collective Buying Power

Coalitions of Black beauty founders sharing inventory, suppliers, and shipping costs.

5. Consumer Awareness

Understanding that higher prices are the result of policy, not brand greed.

A Turning Point for the Black Beauty Economy

Black beauty businesses are more than brands — they are cultural cornerstones and economic engines.

If tariffs continue to rise, the country risks losing:

• Black innovation

• Black entrepreneurship

• Black-owned supply stores

• Black salon culture

• Black beauty visibility in the marketplace

This is not a distant warning — it is an active crisis.

Trump’s tariffs don’t just hit China.
They hit the heart of Black entrepreneurship in America.

And unless policymakers, consumers, and industry leaders take action, the Black beauty economy — a sector that has shaped global culture — could be pushed into collapse.