A hair extension brand has issued a public apology after sharing a social media post suggesting model Jordyn Woods had “bad hair”.
The Instagram photo in question showed Woods with short hair, with the title: “When Kylie Jenner stops paying for your lifestyle, including your hair extensions.”
Bellami then captioned the photo: “Bad hair is just one betrayal away,” and linked to its website, according to a screenshot of the post uploaded to the Instagram account @HereForTheTea2.
The brand later deleted the photo from its Instagram account, which has more than 1m Instagram followers, after it was deemed “racist” for suggesting that natural African American hair was “bad”.
In a post uploaded today, the brand re-shared the photo of Woods with an apology, writing: “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 have offended anyone either directly or indirectly.
“We believe that all hair types are beautiful, especially natural hair.”
The company then said it realises that “bad hair” was the wrong choice of words, despite the brand’s focus on wigs and extensions.
“This is a subjective phrase and we never wanted to target or insult anyone who chooses not to wear our products,” the brand continued. “Regardless of this apology it is unacceptable and we recognise this and will do better.”
Bellami also said it would be proving the its dedication to all hair types through expansion of its product lines.
“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,” the company said.
The brand concluded the apology by thanking its followers for bringing the issue to attention.
Despite the apology, Bellami Hair is continuing to face backlash for its word choice - and for the models it chooses to feature on its Instagram page.
“Meanwhile you’ll only continue to feature black women solely for memes,” one person wrote.
Another commented: “Considering that the ONLY time they posted a black woman on their page was to call her natural hair ‘bad’ was very distasteful. That’s the problem.”
The Independent has contacted Bellami Hair for comment.
