EARLIER THIS WEEK, hair brand, Bellami, were moved to issue an apology to Jordyn Woods after they shared a meme deriding her high-profile altercation with the Kardashian/ Jenner family in order to promote their line of hair extensions.
In a post which Instagram users took exception to, Bellami shared a meme of Jordyn with short bobbed hair which stated: “When Kylie Jenner stops paying for your lifestyle, including your hair extensions.”
The brand, who have more than 1.7 million Instagram followers, then added to the original caption, writing: “Bad hair is just one betrayal away. These memes have us lolling. Shop for the hair you deserve.”
Backlash was swift for myriad reasons, with specific focus on the implication that natural hair for women of colour can be dubbed ‘bad’ with little to no consideration for the sensitivities of an entire community.
The post was deleted amid considerable backlash, and an apology was offered in light of the upset.
“We would like to sincerely apologise to Jordyn Woods and our followers and for the social media post that was shared on our platform yesterday that may of offended anyone either directly or indirectly,” they began.
We believe that all hair types are beautiful especially natural hair we did not want to hurt or offend anyone with our post but just intentions are not enough. Because of our emphasis on wigs and extensions the inclusion of “bad hair” was a very poor choice of words and insensitive, we sincerely apologize, this is a subjective phrase and we never wanted to target or insult anyone who chooses not to wear our products.
“Regardless of this apology it is unacceptable and we recognise this and will do better,” the post continued.
Turning their attention to Jordyn whose image found itself way into the centre of a social media sh*t storm, the company added:
We are deeply sorry to Jordyn and to anyone who was upset by the caption and post regardless of intentions we are striving to continuously expand our product lines so we can provide products that are suited for all hair types, textures, lengths and shades.
“We will strive to do better and be more mindful of sharing uplifting and positive content as it is never our intention to insult or attack anyone,” they insisted.
“Thank you all for bringing this to our attention and allowing us to address this with you all.”
While the post has been liked almost 24,000 times since yesterday, many commentators haven’t been as quick to accept the apology.
I’ll make sure I never buy hair from you apology not accepted sorry. Not sorry.
Apology NOT accepted! I will never purchase ANYTHING from your company!
Not only insensitive to call her out and ‘have a laugh at her expense’ but y’all didn’t realize that was racially distasteful.
