THE BEAUTY GAP

The UK is among the most diverse countries in Europe and a quick stroll through London would verify this, but branch beyond the M25 into the British countryside and you’ll be met by a white “middle class club”, as the government review in 2019 found many Black, Asian and ethnically diverse people think of the countryside.

Their feelings are not unfounded. According to the 2021 Census the population in rural England is 96.8% White and 3.2% ethnic minority groups. This percentage is not just Afro-Caribbean or Asian groups, but all of them combined. London, on the other hand, houses around 45% ethnic minorities.

Now, people can choose to live wherever they like. After all, who doesn’t like the bright lights and glamour of big cities? However, with the cost-of-living crisis only increasing house prices and, well, the literal cost of living getting more expensive, many people are considering leaving London for smaller towns.

So, if ethnic minorities decide to move out of the capital, what awaits them in the British countryside? More specifically what awaits Black women (like me) in rural England?

I spoke to three Black women who have moved around between London, the home counties, and beyond. Netre from Yorkshire, Jasmine from Dorset, and Abisola from Kent. All three women moved for different reasons ranging from work commitments to cost efficiency, but one thing they share is their surprise by the countryside’s hidden cost: The Beauty Gap.

Unlike the countless Afro hair stores, hairdressers and cosmetic stores in big cities, access to Afro hairdressers and haircare products was a constant battle for these women when they lived outside of London.

N etre Shawa-Bell, 52, moved from London and lived in Wakefield in Yorkshire, where she quickly learned that Black women’s hair was the last thing on the small city’s mind. There were no beauty supply stores or hairdressers for Afro hair. After time and time again of getting turned away by salons, Netre took the matter into her own hands and started travelling between her home, Leeds and Huddersfield, for one hairstyle.

Countryside charm and cost efficiency may be reason enough for Netre’s White counterparts to pack up and head to the middle of nowhere. But they don’t have to think ‘where will I buy a new shampoo, or conditioner’ much less ‘what if no one knows how to cut my hair?’ For Netre and many other Black women, the countryside’s low crime rates, cheaper house prices, and refreshing greenery come with the added cost of travelling far and wide for basic beauty services. The Beauty Gap costs Netre 48 miles of fuel. In London she recalls trying dozens of hairdressers from all over the city, before finding a good fit. In Wakefield she had one option that was an hour's drive away.

Hairdressers would tell her they simply did not have the training for Afro hair because it's 'too hard to handle.' As far as Netre is concerned, the overt racism of the past that had windows with ‘No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs’ signs has now been replaced by avant-garde posters of Black women with Afros in salons that refuse to even wash Afro hair.