Prometheus 6

"They won't sell to us," says Cooper, 59, who is white. "They really only sell to their own. They will not say that, but they make it very hard."...

"White people think the film is unbalanced and unfair," says Ranen, 45, who is white and now lives in San Francisco. "When I show it to mixed audiences I'm sometimes attacked by white people and hugged by black people. There is fear from white people about exacerbating Korean/black tensions."

Product placement
A new documentary has people talking about who controls the black hair-care market
By Vanessa E. Jones, Globe Staff | October 28, 2006

Black women wear their hair in a multitude of ways. They may start the week with straight or curly hair, then move on to twisted or braided styles. And when they grow bored with that, they'll add wigs, weaves, or hair extensions to create even more looks.

It can cost a lot of money for women to keep up this pace. In 2004 , sales of black hair- care products exceeded $1.7 billion , according to a report by Mintel International Group , a consumer research company. And that doesn't include the synthetic and human hair additions that are also extremely popular.

Women don't usually buy these products at their local CVS or Walgreens. Instead they travel to beauty supply stores, often in urban neighborhoods. A new documentary called "Black Hair" by Newton native Aron Ranen sheds light on an old but little-discussed phenomenon in the industry: The predominantly black consumers of these products often buy them from stores owned by Korean immigrants.

"You always hear jokes about it," says Tiffani Odige , 23, a black woman who lives in Cambridge, who suspects she spends $2,500 to $3,000 a year on hair and hair products. " 'Go to the Koreans and get my hair' -- it's something we all hear about."

In "Black Hair ," Ranen reveals that Koreans dominate not only the beauty supply store business but the distribution companies that sell to the beauty supply stores and the wig and extension manufacturers as well. The situation can make it difficult for non-Korean store owners -- particularly fledgling ones who don't have established contacts -- to obtain products .

The Korean distributors maintain their presence, Ranen's documentary suggests, by relying on their language to exclude non-Korean customers. Ranen 's film shows that the informational magazines handed out to the beauty supply stores are written in Korean. The store owners Ranen interviews complain that the distributors answer their phones in Korean and circulate product order sheets written in Korean. They also claim that the Korean distributors sell their goods to them at higher prices -- if they sell to them at all.

While the documentary, which Ranen began filming three years ago, focuses on this phenomenon in California, Texas, and Illinois, it is a nationwide situation witnessed by beauty salon owners in the Boston area as well.

Phil ip Cooper owns Venus Cosmetics , in Central Square in Cambridge, a family-owned beauty supply store started in 1975 . His business's veteran status helps him keep the shelves full, but he says he's had problems getting supplies from Korean-owned companies . "They won't sell to us," says Cooper, 59, who is white. "They really only sell to their own. They will not say that, but they make it very hard."

It's difficult to get a response to these allegations from Koreans in the industry. Sensationnel , a major Korean-owned wig and extension distribution company in the United States, did not return a detailed phone message requesting an interview. When Korean owners of local beauty supply stores were asked about the documentary, they said they didn't know about it. When questioned about the Korean dominance in the industry, the response was silence or a shake of the head.