Monique Rodriguez, founder of hair care brand Mielle Organics, is not letting the once Black-owned brand fall out of favor with out a fight.

On Saturday, November 23, Rodriguez posted “very important news” on her Instagram, condemning influencers who’ve made what the founder calls defamatory claims that Mielle products have caused damage to their hair.

After thanking all the “explorers and mavericks” who stuck with the brand during difficult times, she revealed something about the original TikTok creator who began a hair care “witch hunt.”

“This creator was paid by one of our competitors,” she said of the creator, who Rodriguez said “falsely” claimed that the brand’s Rosemary Mint Oil formula had modified, causing her hair to fall out.

She claimed that the creator was “earning commission” by running a smear campaign against Mielle products while promoting one other brand’s products. Rodriguez then said the creator’s videos were “removed because people deserve to know the truth” and whether there have been “ulterior motives” behind spreading misinformation.

“Yes, this creator received a commission to promote a competitor’s product, spreading misinformation about our products for his own benefit,” she explained, noting that she tried to handle the matter “quietly” before being transparent with fans online.

The 39-year-old entrepreneur assured her followers that Mielle products were made with due care and asked them to spread the message of this discovery.

After adding thoughts on acting truthfully and telling the truth, Rodriguez concluded the video by emphasizing the importance of “standing by your business.”

Her comments section video proved that the brand owner has solid supporters of the multi-million brand.

“I said this at the beginning because I am a publicist and crisis manager. It was easy to tell it was a calculated smear campaign,” one person said.

One person commented: “I wish you would have gone lower and named the tik toker and competitor. Some people don’t deserve grace,” in response to Rodriguez’s statement in her film, “when they fall, we rise high.”

This one person provided an important testimonial about the product. “Your mint rosemary line is the reason my hair is healthy and growing. People are unfortunately petty. However, I am glad that the issue has been raised.”

And this follower, one other said: “This is so nasty!!! Ugh! There is room for victory for everyone. This is so low. I hate it. I’m sorry, Mo!”

While there have been outcries of support for these products, some commenters claimed that Mielle’s had torn off the edges reasonably than put them in place.

One disgruntled user said: “No…. I even have experienced this personally with my daughter using peppermint oil. Her hair fell out. Now she has stopped taking it and is simply taking castor oil and her hairline is back to normal. This is near, if not gaslighting. Something is occurring and I, my daughter, are loyal customers, but after this I don’t need to return back. I feel betrayed by the brand and product. As a black woman in tech, I realize it’s vital to advocate for one another, but when something fails or goes fallacious, black or white people will step up and come clean with it. I won’t come back.”

Another wrote the same review: “My hair has definitely fallen out and thinned. I still have leftover products that I don’t want to touch.”

One person wasn’t convinced the videos contained any malice. “There is no sabotage, I have first-hand experience. Your product made my hair fall out. When I complained, I was told it was due to a formula change. Something is wrong @mielleorganics.”

Reactions to Rodriguez’s latest video seemed significantly better than her September post.

In the video, Rodriguez addressed these allegations, emphasizing that the formulas of Mielle products haven’t modified since the brand was acquired by Procter & Gamble. She assured consumers that these products are made of healthy ingredients and formulated to supply protected and effective results.

Apart from the claims of hair thinning and hair clumps falling out, many individuals weren’t satisfied with the owner’s attitude and lack of transparency.

“You said nothing in response to these allegations as someone who has purchased your products for years. It’s time for transparency. We don’t need a story,” one person said regarding the alleged change in ingredients since the merger.

This comment echoed the same sentiment: “I used these products before she sold the company to Proctor & Gamble (P&G), which owns many products in most of the United States…Disappointed to no longer be Black Owned.”

Despite the fallout from quite a few videos from creators claiming Mielle’s is behind their hair disasters, the Black Hair community stays divided on whether or not they need to proceed supporting the brand.

As any woman in or approaching midlife (including this creator) can let you know, there is a certain sense of invisibility that comes with it, irrespective of how “pretty” you might be or were. For Halle Berry, now 58 and arguably considered one of the beautiful women on this planet at any age, this invisibility manifests itself in not feeling known for all of her other qualities.

“I always knew I was more than just a shell I walked around in. I dreamed that someone would tell me something other than: ‘Oh my God, you’re beautiful,'” says the Oscar winner for the film an extremely popular interview with Fortune magazine while speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit on October 15. “I wanted to hear different words. I know I’m more than that, so as I get older, I’ve decided to age gracefully and naturally.”

“I think it’s a shame that we as women are told that we have to find a way to stay ‘forever young’ (or) ‘forever 30,’ as if we can’t be human and do what we were born to do.” Berry continued. “We are born to get older and die. But in some way, as women, we’ve to do the unthinkable; we’ve to discover a way to do it and unfortunately we turn into monsters in trying to do it. That’s why I want to be an advocate for the thought of ​​allowing yourself to age gracefully, knowing that you simply are more than simply the shell you walk around in.”

After a long time of being a Hollywood star, Berry is no stranger to reinventing herself; a task that always proved difficult in a beauty-obsessed industry. Its latest evolution concerns the role of the entrepreneur, startup menopause-focused wellness brand Re-Spin. Having been an advocate for “change” in recent times, even lobbying for health care laws, Berry proudly declared on stage on the summit, “I’m in menopause… How liberating is that?”

Elaborating on the subject for Fortune, she explained: “You know, historically speaking, women just get older as they get older, right? Men are becoming sexy – they are graying, they are silver foxes. We’re just old, right? We are haggard and society tells us or has told us that our time is up; we should go out to pasture. We’re done with the years of having children – we were seen as the main purpose of being here – having children – and when we’re done with that at the age of 35, 40, we’ll have nothing left.

“Well, I know we’re just getting started,” she continued. “We’re just getting started, but women don’t understand it yet because society tells us otherwise. So they don’t want to talk about being middle-aged because it means there’s no room for them; they are not wanted. So it’s about us as women reclaiming that narrative, right, and changing the way we are perceived throughout our (lives).”

For someone like Halle Berry – a girl blessed with beauty, fame and fortune – this may occasionally seem easy to say. But irrespective of who you might be, she says the important thing to being confident in aging is maintaining not only our physical selves, but a holistic view of the nonphysical traits and interests that every of us brings to the table.

“When you only focus on your physical self, it’s really hard, if that starts to change, to feel confident – ​​and it will change. Everyone needs to know this: it will change,” she emphasized. “But if you’ve been focused on this your whole life, you’ll feel like you’re completely out of control and you’ll start to feel like you know your value is declining. But when you know that you are something more and you work on your inner self – you continue to read, develop, learn, be curious and educate yourself, start new companies; you know, follow your passions, follow your dreams – when you do all of that, you have no choice but to feel good about yourself,” she added.

For women especially, Berry hopes to emphasize that aging is not only inevitable, but potentially exciting.

“Getting older is a privilege. “Getting older is a privilege and we should look at it that way,” she said. “We should feel this way as we get older. We should feel like we are the crown jewels of our society.”

DALLAS (AP) – While the turkey is probably going to taste savory, airports and highways are expected to be crowded during Thanksgiving the week during which the vacation period will probably end one other record day for air travel throughout the United States.

Persons answerable for maintaining the safety line, boarding areas and jet planes in motion – from the USA transport secretary and airline executives all the best way – I swear they’re prepared for the crowds.

But service employees strike at Charlotte Douglas International Airport threatens the middle in Carolina.

Airline passengers could also be as lucky as they’re last 12 monthswhen relatively few flights were canceled through the holiday week. Replay will probably be required weather cooperation. And even when the sky is blue, it’s missing air traffic controllers may cause delays.

Thanksgiving in numbers

The automotive club and insurance company AAA predict that between Tuesday and next Monday, nearly 80 million Americans will enterprise a minimum of 50 miles from home. Most of them will travel by automotive.

Drivers should get some rest gas prices. On Sunday, the typical price of gas nationwide was $3.06 a gallon, down from $3.27 this time last 12 months.

The Transportation Security Administration expects to the screen 18.3 million people in US airports through the same seven-day period. This could be 6% greater than on the identical days last 12 months, but could be throughout the schedule established for the whole 12 months 2024.

TSA anticipates 3 million people will go through this border airport security checkpoints on Sunday; greater than that might break the record of three.01 million set on the Sunday after the Fourth of July holiday. Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be the following busiest days for air travel during Thanksgiving week.

TSA says it’s ready

“This will be the busiest Thanksgiving in the history of air travel,” said TSA Administrator David Pekoske. “Fortunately, our squad is also at an all-time high. We are ready.”

Pekoske said TSA could have enough screeners to keep general security lines under half-hour and features for individuals who pay extra for PreCheck under 10 minutes.

“Strike”

Service employees at Charlotte Douglas International Airport have walked off the job to protest what they call unlivable wages.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport officials say the present holiday season will probably be the busiest on record, with an estimated 1.02 million passengers flying from the airport between last Thursday and the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Several hundred employees were expected to miss work and proceed the work stoppage throughout Monday.

FAA staffing shortages may cause delays

However, a seamless shortage of air traffic controllers may cause flight delays.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker said last week that he expected his agency to use special measures to cope with shortages at some facilities. In the past this included, amongst others: airports in New York and Florida.

“If we are short-staffed, we will slow traffic as necessary to keep the system safe,” Whitaker said.

The FAA has long grappled with a controller shortage that airline officials say will last for years despite the agency’s ambitious recruiting goals.

Holiday schedule shapes travel patterns

Thanksgiving falls late this 12 months, with the fourth Thursday of November falling on November 28. This shortens the standard shopping season and changes the rhythm of holiday travel.

With more time upfront holidaypeople tend to unfolded a visit abroad over more days, but everyone returns at the identical time, said Andrew Watterson, the corporate’s chief operating officer Southwest Airlines.

“A late Thanksgiving ends up leading to a lot of crowds – the Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday after Thanksgiving are usually very busy with Thanksgiving at that late time,” Watterson said.

Airlines did a comparatively good job of handling holiday crowds last 12 months, when weather was mild across much of the country. Fewer than 400 U.S. flights were canceled during Thanksgiving week in 2023 – about one in every 450 flights. So far in 2024, airlines have canceled about 1.3% of all flights.

Combining work and leisure

The increase in distant work also prompted the Thanksgiving holiday travel period for expansionsaid AAA spokeswoman Aixa Diaz.

“The pandemic changed everything,” she said. “We have seen post-pandemic people leaving at certain times, perhaps even the weekend before Thanksgiving, working remotely for a few days outside their destination, and then enjoying time with their loved ones.”

The nightmares of Thanksgiving’s past have further shaped holiday traffic. Drivers who I learned to avoid Traveling the day before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving creates recent bottlenecks on other days, according to Diaz.

“Because we warned for so long that Wednesday and Sunday were the worst days to travel, people said, ‘OK, I’ll leave on Tuesday and come back on Monday to avoid the rush,’” she said. “So now these two days are also crowded.”

Advice for travelers

Airport security officials are asking passengers to arrive early, not to place lithium-ion batteries of their checked luggage in case they overheat, and never to place weapons of their carry-on luggage. TSA discovered over 6,000 guns on checkpoints this 12 months and most of them were loaded.

Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas attract many infrequent travelers, and questions often arise about what will be taken on a plane.

The TSA does list on their website items which can be prohibited or restricted.

Drivers should know that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons will probably be the worst time to travel by automotive, but highways needs to be smooth over the Thanksgiving holiday, according to traffic evaluation firm INRIX.

According to the corporate, the very best time for a return trip for drivers is before 1 p.m. on Sunday and before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m. on Monday.

In metropolitan areas similar to Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Washington, “traffic is expected to be more than twice the normal volume on a normal day,” said Bob Pishue, an INRIX transportation analyst.