British hair care brand John Frieda has recently unveiled TV personality Rochelle Humes as the face of its "curl positivity" campaign.
Brand @JohnFriedaUK is excited to partner with @RochelleHumes as part of its new Frizz Ease Dream Curls campaign, Designed For Demanding Hair. Rochelle will be helping to spread curl-positivity & share her own journey towards curl acceptance. Read more: https://t.co/YR1o135LZ4 https://t.co/jbiNtCRpnT
The mother of two has been open about her journey to embrace her naturally curly mane after being inspired to set an example for her two young daughters.
She regularly uses the hashtag #CurlCrushWednesday and runs a separate Instagram account dedicated to spotlighting natural hair called Curls Like Us.
But some people are not entirely happy that the 29-year-old is the face of a "curl-positive" movement. They claim that her account doesn't feature enough black women.
Curls acceptance? Her hair Insta page mainly features white & light skinned women w/ curls that have always been accepted. Dark skinned women are with 4C hair are too few and far between on the page for this to be credible. Unless the product isn’t for black women with 4C hair. https://t.co/3m7UvOWnfz
@HairUKShow @JohnFriedaUK @RochelleHumes This is such a poor collaboration especially when platforms like @curltureuk exist that represent all hair types. Rochelle’s Instagram page is notorious for the erasure of dark skinned black women with 4C hair. Despite being called out about this she just ignores people.
People aren't entirely impressed with the choice of language in the campaign either, which is described as "designed to meet the demands of curly hair".
Demanding hair.. yikes.. https://t.co/3343nsUJt0
@HairUKShow demanding hair?
@HairUKShow @JohnFriedaUK @RochelleHumes Yeah. Put this whole thing in the bin.
Jay-Ann Lopez and Patrina Charles, who together form Curlture, a UK-based platform that works to empower women to embrace their natural hair and beauty, agree with the criticism.
And John Frieda has stood by its decision to name Humes as the face of the campaign.
And the company insists that the language is inspired by "customer feedback".
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A spokesperson for John Frieda said: “It was inspired by our customer feedback — that they have demanding lives and high expectations, and that their hair demands the best. We provide products that help transform her demanding hair, whether that be dull into the brightest blonde, flat into hair with volume or frizzy to smooth curls."