Student Union President Rani Balakrishna ’25 and Student Union Vice President Ria Escamilla-Gil ’27 have successfully spearheaded a movement to get “multicultural hair products into the C-Store to help black students with kinky, type four hair get these products in a more equitable manner.”

According to an email sent to The Hoot by President Balakrishna, “Ria and our Student Advocacy Senate Committee last year actually started the project as a result of being inspired by [a] Justice Op-Ed.” Hair care products from brands like “Hask” and “African Pride” can now be found on shelves in the C-Store, and will soon be placed in the bookstore, too.

The Hoot spoke with Balakrishna and Escamilla-Gil about this initiative. During the interview, they provided insight on their effort to get multicultural hair products on campus and what they think the future may hold for similar initiatives.

Hoot: Can you describe your initiative in some more detail?

Escamil Gil: We worked with the, it was known as the SOJU [Social Justice] committee [at the time], looking at things going on on campus. I wanted to just kind of talk to students, [and] read things like The Justice, and that’s when I found the article. I actually found out about the article through social media, through a lot of people reposting it…I clicked it, since I saw so many people talking about it, and it was about a student complaining about the lack of access to multicultural hair products on campus. I was surprised to hear about that, because it’s not something I had really thought about as someone with mostly straight hair. That’s when I decided to bring it up to the committee. 

Balakrishna: We were looking to support marginalized students…[and] we really wanted a tangible specific goal we could work to[wards]. The Multicultural Hair, Art, and Empowerment Club help[ed] to gather specific products and brands that students on campus actually use, because we knew that if we wanted this project to actually be effective and to be sustainable, then…students need to want to buy the products. We polled primarily black students [who have] kinky, type four hair [and] had been kind of overlooked in the general grand scheme of the hair products at Brandeis. Last year…we did a hair product popup with Mielle products…It’s one of the more expensive products. The way that we sort of handed them out or “sold” them was [by taking] donations on a sliding scale to the Black Women’s Health Imperative Fund. We were supposed to be there from 12:00 to 3:00 that day, but we were there from like 12:00 to 1:00. It was super successful. People were really excited, and we got such positive feedback. It really motivated us, seeing how happy the community was.

Hoot: Many items in the C-Store are overpriced when compared to off-campus stores. How do you plan to address concerns about pricing for these products?

Escamil-Gil: That’s one thing we mentioned to Assistant Vice President of Campus Planning and Operations Sue Scannell to emphasize. Once we do have these products in the system, we know that the C-Store usually has elevated prices. The whole point of this is that a lot of students are working jobs, already struggling to pay tuition and [if they’re made to] pay extra for something that, they may as well just go outside of campus [for hair products]. So that’s one thing we brought up and that’s why she asked for different brand names. [We] asked, for like a wide range [of brands] and for affordable brands. 

Additional Note: These items are currently for sale in the C-Store for between $4.59 and $7.99. These prices are higher than off-campus store prices, but the percent difference is relatively low when compared to other, triple-digit-percentage markups present in the C-Store, though.

Hoot: Are there plans for any other future initiatives to continue making campus a more accessible place for those who may not see themselves represented in the products that are for sale here?

Balakrishna: We’re always open to more feedback. I keep a very close eye on our feedback form and I encourage students to come to us. We really try to listen to what students need. We can do all the listening we want, but if students don’t bring what they want to us, then we’ll never know. Communication is really important on both ends. If you want to see a change on campus, even if you think it may not be our department, we’re really good at rerouting people to the right office, division or department.