Bye Bye Parabens Is On A Mission to Eliminate Parabens From Black Women's Hair
Our platform is dedicated to introducing healthier beauty options to and by women of color. Some brands are radical in their approach to sustainability others focus on a specific efforts that hold a special place in their heart.
Photo by melaninASS
Bye Bye Parabens is a hair care line that does exactly what the title suggests. Founder Tracy Riggs, has dedicated her hair care brand to telling women of color about the dangers of parabens and introducing a product without those specific chemicals.
ELIMINATING PARABENS:
Tracy Riggs
“We purposely named our products Bye Bye Parabens so that people who knew what Parabens were would be able to recognize us as a paraben free product line right away and if you looked at our name and didn’t know what Parabens were it would spark curiosity and conversation. We educate women through women empowerment events, natural hair meet-ups, and on our website and blog.”
The foundation of Bye Bye Parabens was built on years of studies which have shown there are serious health risks associated with Parabens like infertility, cancer, and asthma just to name a few. Although studies are inconclusive with much more research to be had, there’s enough evidence to believe that this man made preservatives should not be in our hair and on our skin.
Riggs conducted an immense amount of research showing that parabens have been linked to illness and disease like breast cancer, infertility, and Asthma just to name a few. Research has shown 9 out of 10 women with breast cancer had parabens in their tumors. Cancer in particular is a serious concern for Tracy, as her husband lost his grandmother to breast cancer as well as a wonderful client who found out she had stage-4 breast cancer after going into the hospital for knee surgery.
For Tracy, sustainability is the intention people make of not being harmful to the environment. In addition to eliminating parabens, this brand ships all of their products with recyclable packaging. "We must be responsible in our choices today so that our children and their children can enjoy a beautiful quality of life for years to come", says Tracy.
Photo by melaninASS
BLACK WOMEN’S HAIR DEFYS GRAVITY
For women of color, mainstream hair products usually don’t cut it. Our texture requires special products and special nourishment. Mainstream however, has curated products for our hair and its called the "RELAXER"!
“You have most if not all the mainstream products on the market being developed by people who don’t understand our texture or our needs. Most don’t even have a background in hair care as a profession, or have never been hands on with textured hair. ”
Tracy has worked with textured hair for over 20 years. It’s no secret that women of color have some of the most beautiful and versatile hair on the planet. "We can wear our hair curly, in an Afro, locs or straight. Not everyone can do that with their hair."
Bye Bye Parabens makes specialty Items that makes product exclusively for the WOC experience:
Solange
With many natural hair care brands catering to curly hair and many women of love to wear their hair straight are unsupported. Bye Bye Parabens provides an array of products for naturalists who like the versatility of wearing their "own" hair straight or in its natural state.
Some women of color who are natural like to change it up and blow out their hair but still be natural. That is why I created the Straight Natural Method. It's a guide for women with natural hair from 2B-4C to use so that they can blow out their hair without losing your curls.
For women who are natural and prefer not to straighten their hair but aren't sure what products to use for their hair texture, we provide you with an online consultation. For a limited time, naturals can get a free online consultation with hair care regimen, technics, and curated products recommendation specifically designed for their hair texture by one of our master stylists to help them reach their hair goals.
Tracy understands the bond WOC have with their hair, and how we treat our hair has direct links to health. Many if not most women of color have been wearing relaxers most of their life. Tracy has been growing women out of their relaxers for almost 2 decades “and the liberating emotions I see come across a women's face once she is totally natural never gets old for me. I call it 'stepping into your authentic self' and it powerful! Especially for women who see they can still wear the hairstyles they like that fit their lifestyle and also have the freedom of wearing a natural style for working out. It's the conscious decision that one makes to be a great person and do right by our children and the world we'll leave to them. That’s Beauty."
Image by Bye Bye Parabens
Bye Bye Parabens was founded in 2012 with 3 main developmental focuses:
1. Paraben Free
2. High-Quality Ingredients and Performance
3. The ability for women of color to wear their natural hair curly or straight. I wanted the products to be interchangeable so that women didn't need a lot of different products in order to achieve single look. In essence, you could say Bye Bye Parabens is natural hair care simplified.