South Carolina Gamecocks Protect Raven Johnson’s Collaboration with Hair Care Brand Black in New Deal with NIL – Andscape

Raven Johnson may be very excited. The Gamecocks guard from South Carolina is delighted with her first beauty ambassador and the indisputable fact that she is working with the brand Black Beauty, Parfait.

“I’m so grateful that beauty brands are working with athletes,” Johnson told Andscape. “I’m so excited to not only partner with a beauty brand like Parfait, but in addition a brand that’s owned by Black women. It means loads to me.”

Parfait co-founder and CEO Isoken Igbinedion is a giant fan of Johnson — that is all of the younger Igbinedion sisters can discuss — but she was fascinated about the inequities between opportunities for female and male athletes. She desired to set a precedent with the NIL partnership between Parfait and Johnson.

“Fundamentally, we believe that brands have a responsibility to amplify women’s voices in the spaces where inequality is most present and present,” Igbinedion said. “That’s why this partnership is so special to us. This is a historic event in the hairdressing industry that has helped us set a brand new standard for the treatment of female athletes and the way they’ll maintain and express their personal style without compromise.

One of the good things concerning the partnership is its organic nature: Johnson will learn concerning the products as she uses them, and Parfait will give you the option to create products that fit Johnson’s lifestyle.

“You know what they say, if you look good, you play good?” he asked Johnson. “It’s so real. I’m always in the mirror. My hair has to be like that.” She said she loves wearing her hair long on the court, especially when her wigs are in what she calls “sports mode.”

Johnson described her hair in sports mode: “There’s something on the wig that has a strap on the back that makes the wig tighter. And you may have a comb in your wig that you may insert under the tied headband, which is able to make it tighter. It ensures safety, so the wig won’t wander off anywhere. It’s good for athletes.”

Here’s her match day routine – eyelashes, lip gloss, wig in sports mode and he or she’s able to hit the pitch.

“I like flying. I think I have Atlanta in me,” Johnson said of her style. “You have to look good.” Johnson plans to wear her hair in parfait pieces, resembling a U-shaped, half-up, half-up curly wig.

In July 2020, Igbinedion co-founded Parfait with her sister Ifueko Igbinedion. The line of wigs and extensions may be tailored to customers’ head sizes based on their skin tone using artificial intelligence. Isoken Igbinedion was inspired to attach artificial intelligence with black women’s hair care after attending a panel at AfroTech in 2019.

“This year at AfroTech there were many different panels with industry leaders such as Google, Meta and Twitter. It was very interesting to see how they used their platforms and positions of power to address many of the inequalities they saw in creating physical products,” Igbinedion said.

Inequalities may result from artificial intelligence biases, for instance, the soap and water dispenser in the bathroom doesn’t recognize darker skin tones and doesn’t activate when black people put their hands under the sensor. Igbinedion and her sister desired to make sure that the Black community was a part of the revolution.

“This is where the genesis of Parfait was born, with a mission to create beauty experiences using technology that truly recognizes and prioritizes everyone,” Igbinedion said. “The first category included wigs and hair extensions. We want to solve women’s problems because of how difficult the experience can be and because of the lack of education that many of our communities have not had when it comes to how to care for and protect our natural hair.”

The name Parfait is paying homage to a dessert that may be prepared on the fly, she said. “The actual dessert, the parfait, is a very layered experience,” Igbinedion said. “You can construct the parfait any way you wish, with any additions, and it’s going to be unique and unique to you, similar to the experience with your hair.

“We already knew this as black women, but black women are not a monolith, right?” Igbinedion said. “We are all very different, we come from very different backgrounds. We have different preferences. We have different hair structures. We have different experiences.”

There are many alternative reasons to wear a wig. “This may be a protective style because you simply don’t have time to safely manipulate your hair due to the beauty of everyday life,” Igbinedion said. “Either you just had a baby and you’re shedding postpartum and for the first time you don’t know how to deal with it, or you’re just using it as a fashion accessory in between outfits.”

Parfait creates custom pieces using selfies. Customers take 4 selfies and let the camera scan biometric information from their face. Selfies help the AI ​​process understand the curves of your hairline and head circumference. It also captures skin tone color palettes, and Parfait uses this information to expand its production capabilities.

After collecting all the data, Parfait creates a custom hat tailored to the scale of your head. “We then make sure that the lace shade actually matches your skin tone so that we can continue to serve more consumers,” Igbinedion said. “We will give you the option to learn more concerning the true depth and range of Black faces and skin tones that will not exist in the wonder industry, in order that we will proceed to evolve and develop products that actually fit all of our unique profiles. “

But really, Igbinedion is happy about Johnson’s opportunity to construct her brand and wealth. “(Parfait) is very excited to support her and provide her with opportunities that are not available to women. I know it’s starting to happen, but it’s not happening fast enough or as fast as it should. We are excited to be part of this much larger movement.”