Slayyy Hair Becomes First Black-Owned Braiding Hair Brand At Target

Target is expanding its synthetic hair offering with Slayyy Hair, the first Black-owned braiding hair brand available at the big-box chain.

Its itch-free pre-stretched braiding hair in the varieties 1 Black Stallion, 27 Pecan, Merlot, 30 Spice, 1B Shadow and 4 Chocolate has rolled out to 200-plus stores and online, where it’s joined other synthetic hair brands Darling, Curlkalon, Unique Bargains and Tirrinia. As part of a summer promotion Target is running, Slayyy Hair will expand to another 486 stores in April. The brand’s braiding hair is priced at $6.99 per pack.

“We know that our core customer wants convenience,” says Diann Valentine, founder of Slayyy Hair, media personality formerly on Bravo’s “To Rome for Love” and owner of Glow + Flow Beauty stores in the Southern California cities Hawthorne and Inglewood. “Being in Target allows us to reach them as well as more consumers in a much faster way.”

With its new partnership, Slayyy Hair expects to generate $2 million in sales this year, up 150% from 2024. To spread the word about its presence at Target and drive customers to stores, it’s executing digital advertising, activations around the country and an influencer program with around 100 ambassadors.

Target has brought Slayyy Hair on board as the wigs and extensions market is projected to enlarge by $7.38 billion from 2025 to 2029 as it accelerates at a compound annual growth rate of 9.8%, according to market research firm Technavio. Market research resource NIQ estimates that, in 2023, Black consumer spending on beauty products totaled $9.4 billion, with dollar, unit and household growth outpacing growth for American consumers generally.

Slayyy Hair’s Target launch is occurring as beauty entrepreneurs of color and synthetic hair brands are at an inflection point. Target revealed in January that it’s ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, leading angry customers to boycott the retailer. Amid the boycott, its in-store and online traffic has dropped.

Slayyy Hair began having conversations with Target six months after its launch in July 2023, and DEI didn’t come up during them. The chain’s DEI retreat caught Valentine by surprise, and she worries that the response to it could have unintended consequences for Black-owned businesses. She encourages shoppers not to stop buying from Black-owned brands at Target even as they express their disappointment at its DEI reversal.

She says, “The only thing that we can do is to continue to build awareness and continue to ask consumers to really question the reason for this boycott because, if you choose to do that, then you’re hurting Black brands.”

Synthetic hair aimed at Black women has been under the spotlight from a recent investigation by Consumer Reports that detected lead and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like acetone and benzene in 10 popular products from brands such as Magic Fingers, Sassy Collection, Sensationnel and Shake-N-Go. While the findings of carcinogens may sound scary, cosmetic chemist Javon Ford doesn’t believe they should cause alarm. He notes that the lead levels in the synthetic hair tested by Consumer Reports were under 5 parts per million, the allowable level for lipstick. “You are much more likely to ingest lead via lipstick than you are via hair,” says Ford in a TikTok video.

Ford also highlights that the levels of VOCs in the synthetic hair products tested by Consumers Reports are below the standard set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Still, he says, “You are exposed to some amount of VOCs when you boil the braids to seal the ends. So, if you have any respiratory issues, breathing in acetone might be a concern.”

Valentine has long been aware of concerns about toxins in synthetic hair from customer feedback at Glow + Flow Beauty, which she opened in 2019 in Inglewood before adding a second location in Hawthorne last year. Slayyy Hair uses Afrelle fiber from synthetic hair maker Kanekalon, which is known for its smooth and lightweight texture and can emit VOCs when heated. However, Valentine emphasizes she spent two years developing what she calls a “secret sauce” to cleanse Slayyy Hair’s synthetic hair of chemicals linked to irritation and hair loss.

She says, “We didn’t need to recreate the wheel, but we needed to answer the call of Black women who are suffering in silence at the hands of just trying to wear a protective style or a cultural style that is truly native to who we are.”

Valentine poured $500,000 from her personal savings into research, materials, formulations, intellectual property, e-commerce and advertising to get Slayyy Hair off the ground. Its primary custumers are Black and brown women between the ages of 25 and 44 years old. Along with Target, it’s sold at 400 T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores and 15 Black-owned beauty supply stores. Forty percent of the brand’s revenues are from big-box retail, 25% independent wholesale, 25% direct-to-consumer distribution and 10% affiliate braiders.

In the summer, Slayyy Hair will be introducing a line of synthetic ponytails for T.J. Maxx and Marshalls. A tool that helps with parting, styling and taking down braids is in the pipeline, too, as are new colors, shorter lengths and a scalp care technology.

With Glow + Flow Beauty, Valentine is a member of a growing group of Black entrepreneurs diversifying the beauty supply store sector that’s historically been dominated by stores owned by South Korean immigrants. “Black people built this industry, so I just felt like it’s time that we start taking it back,” she says. “And I wanted to be one of the people on the forefront of that charge of saying, this belongs in our community, and we can super serve our community better than you can because we care.”