Pink hair lotion. Colorful barrettes and beads. These were Black girls’ favorite hair things.

As the daughter of a hair stylist, Ciara Imani May witnessed up close the social artform of Black hair care. Those looking for a fresh look gossiped about their lives as their beauticians’ growing hands braided up, pressed out and laid down curls and coils. Back in the day, May stayed rocking a half-up-half-down hairstyle in her school photos. It didn’t matter if her hair was in braids, twists or crimped. The hairstyle mostly stayed the same.

But many issues were hibernating on the shelves of the beauty supply store, like the scalding pain of chemical relaxers and the edge-snatching, skin-irritating itch of synthetic hair. An environmentally-conscious May also spotted another problem. Most synthetic hair brands are made from plastic fibers, adding to the single-use plastics already mounting in the country’s landfills.

Cue Rebundle, a plant-based hair extension company helping Black people reclaim their power from toxic hair care products while being sustainable. Rebundle’s hair extension line, called braidbetter, is made with biodegradable banana fibers and can be reused up to three times after being washed in cool water with any commercial shampoo and conditioner. The hair comes in a spectrum of colors from Jet black to Chocolate brown to more dazzling hues like pink Bubblegum and blue Ocean. Rebundle also offers a recycling program so braid lovers can ship their old plastic synthetic hair to the company’s St. Louis-based headquarters where it will be recycled into outdoor furniture. Rebundle has recycled more than 500 pounds of hair through its program.

As CEO and co-founder of Rebundled, May is pioneering a new frontier in the Black hair care industry.

“We sit at the intersection of beauty and sustainability,” May said. “So we get to lean into the nostalgia of Black hair and the ingenuity of the future of hair.”

Braiding is not only a form of self-expression in Black culture. It’s a declaration of Black heritage. The cornrows Africans wove on their heads to identify tribes, age and status as early as 3500 B.C. were also used to map out pathways to freedom during enslavement. The Egyptians wore braided wigs to signify wealth and power. Today braids are worn to accentuate fashion statements both on the streets and on fashion runways.

Some beauty brands took advantage of this pride and history of Black hair in multiple ways. Laxed regulations in the hair care industry have made Black people, particularly Black women, vulnerable to toxins. When the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit researching the impact of outdated or absent legislation in the health and wellness space, analyzed the ingredients of 1,177 beauty products marketed to Black women, one out of 12 products were deemed highly hazardous. Thousands of Black women are bombarding cosmetic giants like L’Oreal and Revlon with lawsuits after the U.S. National Institutes of Health associated uterine cancer with the frequent use of chemical hair relaxers.

When it comes to braids, well, there’s a reason why Hip-hop besties Flyana Boss listed Kanekalon as one of the ingredients contributing to their sassy nature in their song “You Wish.” Japanese-based company Kaneka started manufacturing Kanekalon, a soft yet strong modacrylic fiber, in 1957. It’s been used in many synthetic hair brands because it mimics natural hair texture.

Women of color wanting to dodge the steep prices of human hair are lured by the affordability of synthetic fibers. But a health report published in May notes how Kanekalon is laced with different carcinogenic ingredients and toxic flame-retardant chemicals. Black women, who are already susceptible to breast cancer and endocrine disorders due to racial disparities, are the largest consumers of the synthetic hair industry. So researchers are waving a red flag hoping to gain some attention on this underreported and under researched public health issue.

May believes beauty brands’ silence on the problem sends a loud message to its Black consumers and she’s using Rebundle as a clapback to the industry.

“We are trendsetters when it comes to hair, beauty, etcetera, but it is pretty disappointing to think that we suffer at the hands of major corporations to look and feel good,” May said. “I believe those two schools of thought should be mutually exclusive: beauty is not pain and Black people don’t have to make sacrifices to be leaders in culture.”

May started questioning the quality of synthetic hair care when she started wearing protective styles regularly during the summer 2019. Irritation from the hair extensions set her scalp on fire. She learned she wasn’t alone in her suffering as one in three women also experience inflammation because of synthetic hair. May started gathering grant money to do a lab analysis examining the toxicity of popular synthetic hair brands. She learned about how most plastic hair brands contain polyvinyl chloride, more commonly known as PVC, which can increase the risk of a rare form of liver cancer, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. PVC is also hard to recycle. May predicts synthetic hair will add 30 million pounds of waste per year in the country.

These revelations pushed May to find alternative materials for braiding hair, which led to the discovery of cellulose-based fibers, like bananas. Rebundle processes discarded banana stems and refines the strands in a way so it resembles the motion and texture of hair. May and her woman-led team of experts worked on the braidbetter formula for about a year-and-a-half  before launching their hair extensions, which includes Aloe Vera leaf juice, grapeseed oil and additional moisture-retaining ingredients. Despite the natural materials, Rebundle’s braidbetter hair can handle heat up to 350 degrees. Since the hair doesn’t contain flame-retardant chemicals, Rebundle discourages the use of lighters to burn the ends. Instead the hair can be sealed using a hot water set, flat ironed or curled to the customers liking.

Rebundle uses social media as a educational tool on how to use and recycle the braidbetter hair. Instagram Highlights inform curious buyers on how many bundles to buy for a certain style: three bundles for faux locs, two for feed-in braids in a bun, or five for small knotless braids with space buns. Bundles start at $45 each and range from 18 to 30 inches.

Rebundle has given Black women with sensitive scalps an option to express themselves while buying a product that aligns with their values. Black filmmaker Janessa St. Pierre said the hair care industry made her feel unheard and unseen the last few years because of her alopecia. Now pink braids will cascade down St. Pierre’s back after Rebundle gifted her the company’s first wig for Alopecia Areata Awareness Month. Dr. Tiara Moore, founder of the nonprofit Black in Marine Science, swam with her Ocean colored tresses without a problem. The braids were wet to the touch, she told Rebundle. But the hair wasn’t dripping wet and didn’t get heavy as synthetic hair tends to do when it gets soaked. Moore said it felt fulfilling to rock an environmentally-conscious hair brand while taking a dip in the sea.

“Feels like I am wholeheartedly doing my part to protect the ocean, which is my goal,” Moore said. “It’s even better because I am contributing in a cool and authentic way, braid hair! Come on banana bundles!”

Rebundle hasn’t just touched the lives of customers who are giving plant-based hair a shot. The company has also inspired its community of 76 braiders from across the country who use the braidbetter brand in their salons. Philadelphia-based braider Kieara Hill said Rebundle gives her the ability to help her clients look like their best selves without pain.

“I suffer from eczema on my hands, and sometimes I will get bad breakouts after a really long week of braiding,” Hill said after installing knotless braids with Rebundle’s hair during an Instagram Reel, “I have cuts on my hands that I’m pretty sure are from the reactions from the Kanekalon. After braiding with the Rebundle hair I didn’t have any burning on my hands.”

May said she couldn’t imagine any other career for herself. I mean, who else can say they make hair out of bananas? But it also gives her space to tackle the hair industry’s problems from multiple levels. While Black-owned beauty supply stores are becoming more prevalent, non-Black people still own the majority of the market. May wants to make sure her hair is sold by people who understand Black hair issues.

“Rebundle has taught me that we do not need to work with any of the gatekeepers in the industry,” May said. “So we’ve made a point of not working with many hair manufacturers in Asia and beauty supply stores where we’re not represented. Even though this problem is well understood, it’s understudied and under investigated, and we’ve taken matters into our own hands.”

This story is part of a Black Joy’s series celebrating Black entrepreneurs this holiday season. Black business owners can join our virtual Blackity Black Friday Marketplace by adding their holiday deals to our Google form.