Innovations in Black Magical Hair Care
Black hair has been important even within Black wizarding communities. Using magic to cut down on time has always been used — easy things like bewitching shampoo and conditioner bottles, hair butters, leave-ins, and combs have gotten Black witches through wash days in half the time it would take for a Muggle.
In the 1920s, Fleamont Potter invented Sleakeazy’s Hair Potion, which he adapted from American witch Belladora Picquery (cousin to President of MACUSA, Seraphina Picquery), who’s Black Magic Curl Release Solution had swept the American wizarding world in the early ‘10s. Potter made a fortune for himself and his family, but Black Americans and Brits continued to be faithful to Picquery, as her potions were known to be kinder to Black hair, keeping it healthy even while relaxing their curls. While Sleakeazy’s was extremely popular in the mainstream, Belladora’s company Black Magic, Inc. did well for itself in Black communities internationally.
Belladora went into retirement in 1963, passing ownership of Black Magic to her daughter Geralyn Picquery, who used her mother’s maiden name in her professional life. In 1967, she invented the hair thickening charm. This charm was once used as a curse against Gryffindor Chaser Alicia Spinnet in 1995 by Slytherin Quidditch player Miles Bletchley, but has otherwise been used to prevent balding and thicken the edges of Black witches and wizards everywhere.
In the 1990s, Angelina Johnson created the Hair-Parting Spell and taught herself to charm braiding hair to install itself into her own hair, making it so that it only took two hours to install a full head of braids. After perfecting both spells, Angelina began to teach her closest friends and family, and upon graduating Hogwarts opened up a hair shop in Diagon Alley called Angelina’s Angelic Afros, where she did Black hair and taught classes on basic hair care spells and potions. In the early 2000s, Angelina partnered with Kleo Kente, a Ghanaian-American witch, Potions prodigy, and creator of the Detangling Spell. Together, they founded the Johnson and Kente company and created the Anti-Shrinkage Potion, revolutionizing the Black wizard hair care industry. The company is especially known for their House-Elf Equal Opportunity program, where they hire previously fired house-elves and pay them wages equal to their human counterparts.
In the present day, Black Metamorphmagi have emerged as trendsetters in field, most notably Trinity Shacklebolt, columnist for the Daily Prophet and daughter of former Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt. While Metamorphmagi are able to change their appearance at will, Trinity came to popularity with her Daily Prophet column “You Can Morph It Too!” detailing the more difficult Transfiguration spells that will give regular magical folk the ability to change their hair in an instant. The column was originally geared towards Black people, and still is though it has become more popular in the mainstream.
