A new partnership between Mielle Organics, a Black-owned hair care brand that’s recently gained traction on TikTok, and P&G Beauty isn’t landing well with most of Black Twitter.
On Wednesday (January 11), Mielle Organics announced that it will join P&G, a major conglomerate that owns many of the biggest personal care brands in the world, NBC News reported.
Lela Coffey, the vice president of P&G’s multicultural hair business, said the company will help expand access to Mielle products in Black communities, and further, fund research in hair care for underserved communities.
“I am thrilled that we will make an even greater impact in how we give back to the community,” Mielle co-founder Monique Rodriguez said of the partnership.
Prior to the partnership, Black women have expressed concern on social media for weeks about the brand becoming “gentrified” after Mielle’s rosemary mint scalp and strengthening oil went viral on TikTok. In late December, Alix Earle, who is white, reviewed the product on the platform for her 3 million followers, saying it gave her “tremendous hair growth” after a months-time.
Black and white users alike quickly filled the video’s comment section with remarks like: “Great now Mielle is about to be gentrified.”
“Hey girly that hair oil is not for us,” one TikTok user said.
After Earle’s promotion and reviews from other white creators, TikTok users claimed that Mielle products were selling out in stores.
Najeera Williams, a Mielle Organics customer, said Black women were right to be concerned about the product reaching white people given “a similar situation with another brand known as Shea Moisture.”
“By now you know that there are not a lot of products on the market for us,” Ronelle Tshiela said on TikTok. “If you go in store, you have to march to the ethnic hair section, and you notice that this section is significantly smaller than all of the other sections.”
Amid the controversy, many Black Twitter users expressed further frustration with Mielle joining P&G.
See their reactions below.
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