Consumer behaviour of Black women wearing natural textured hair in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

“Suffer for beauty” is how the famous saying reads and when any woman is asked if she understands the meaning thereof; she will tell you exactly what it means and where she learned it. The straighter the hair, the better. The longer a woman’s hair and the more pain she endures the better the degree of beauty she holds. Until in recent years’ when Black women stopped pursuing straight hair and started wearing their hair in its natural texture. Hair holds so much meaning and identity is often curled up with hair. This research was enthused with the intention to understand the consumer behaviour of Black women wearing natural hair in Cape Town, South Africa. It would seem that a majority of studies on the topic of natural hair do not contain a marketing construct. Existing research that has been conducted on natural hair has mainly been conducted in first-world countries such as the United States of America (USA) from a sociological standpoint; a journalism- or media construct and from an environmental education standpoint. The objective of the study is to gain insight into the South African market with a marketing construct with a focus on consumer behaviour. This study is based on the interpretivist philosophy that aimed to understand human behaviour, namely Black women whose hair is natural, whilst also understanding human actions. Exploratory research methods were adopted to investigate Black women’s consumer behaviour in respect of those who have natural textured hair, as the I sought to explore the research topic in-depth. A qualitative research method was implemented for the collection of data for this research owing to the nature of the study - the focus is to understand peoples’ environments, to interpret their experiences and make logic thereof. A non-probability sample technique was adopted, since only selected members of the populace was likely to be able to contribute, while participants were selected by way of a non- random technique. The judgemental sampling method, was adopted for this study, as it was most appropriate because the participants were selected subjectively and purposely. Twenty structured interviews were centred around six predetermined themes and analysed using the ATLAS.ti software, namely the definition of natural hair; perception of bias by women wearing natural textured hair; concerns of Black women with the maintenance of their natural textured hair; perception of cost for maintaining natural hair; the process that Black women follow when caring for their natural hair and to establish the motivation behind Black women wearing their natural hair. The primary voice of the mother plays a vital role in the upbringing of Black women concerning their natural hair while natural hair education and knowledge is lacking.