The most recent additions to the Hoot Market’s hair product inventory reflect equality efforts across campus by including options for students with type four hair. Inspired by the Multicultural Hair, Art, and Empowerment Club, Student Union leadership successfully pushed to get multicultural hair products to be sold in what is colloquially known as the C-store. These hair products work best for students with kinky, type four hair. 

In a Nov. 24 interview with The Justice, Student Union President Rani Balakrishna ’25  explained that she’s living by the words of Massachusetts State Representative Manny Cruz in response to a US Representative’s transphobic comments “he has two ears and one mouth, and he needs to use them with that proportion.” This year’s Student Union administration’s “goal is big-picture equity, and we’re doing everything we can,” starting with making hair care accessible to all students on campus. 

The initiative started when Vice President Ria Escamilla-Gil ’27 read an article from The Justice by Justice contributing author Eleanor Jones ’27, entitled “Let's get into it: Hair care on campus.” Published on Sep. 19, 2023, the op-ed discusses the lack of hair products for type four hair on campus, pointing out that the closest inclusive beauty supply store is 30 minutes away from campus. Jones stressed the societal and cultural importance of taking care of one’s hair, as well as the expense of monthly trips across town, estimating $225 per semester just in transportation costs. 

Sharing similar sentiments, Mirabell Rowland ’25, President of the Multicultural Hair, Art, and Empowerment Club, said in a Nov. 29 email correspondence interview with The Justice, “In a [Predominately White Institution] like Brandeis and in the small town of Waltham, there is a lack of products for multi-cultural hair and especially places like Beauty salons for [People of Color] communities, so it is amazing to see the products actually in the store.” The senior added, “this is just one step of many we see for our club to support our community and cultivate a sense of belonging.”

As Escamilla-Gil stated in the interview, “it may seem like something small but it’s hair products, and not having that in a school for social justice was a little shocking to me, so that’s when I got the idea to start an initiative to bring those things to campus.” Escamilla-Gil was co-chair of the Student Advocacy Committee (formerly the Social Justice Committee) during the 2023-2024 school year, and introduced the initiative then. At the time, Balakrishna was director of the Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and therefore a member of the committee. The two started working on the project together, and in the spring, decided to test the waters to see if the idea was possible. With some Student Union money left in the budget, Balakrishna and Escamilla-Gil organized a “Pop-Up Shop” of Mielle hair products on April 11. The two purchased the higher-end products with the extra budget money and had students donate on a sliding scale to buy a product. Those donations went to the Black Woman’s Health and Imperative Fund, “because we knew this was a population of primarily Black students and those with type four kinky hair who we’d be trying to level the playing field for,” said Balakrishna. She adds that the event was “super popular.” They planned to be open for three hours but sold out halfway through. 

Bringing this momentum into the fall, they worked alongside the Multicultural Hair, Art, and Empowerment Club to determine which products would be useful in the C-store to Brandeis students with this hair type. They created a form for student input about “hair products, brands, accessibility and more,” said Rowland. 

Balakrishna and Escamilla-Gil’s biggest concern? “The price and affordability that we know is a big problem among college students, as well as the cost of getting the products, so we made that an emphasis to make sure students would be able to afford the products in the c-store.” This is why they went with brands like Husk, as opposed to expensive ones like Mielle. When asked to comment on the impact of this achievement, Rowland said, “hair politics has been in play for a long time, and the impact of representation is important because it means that your hair matters, and you matter.”

In their role as Student Union President and Vice President, Balakrishna and Escamilla-Gil envision a more equitable campus. The two frequently read the student newspapers and attend student events and clubs to learn how students are feeling, said Escamilla-Gil. “But it’s also hard when students don’t come to us, because we’re not gonna know if they don’t say anything. So when someone has an idea for a project, if someone has an issue with something, we can always help, but it’s hard to do that if no one says anything,” says Balakrishna. If any student has ideas or problems that the Student Union can help with, Balakrishna emphasizes their suggestion form and her open door policy. The Student Union office is located on the third floor of the Shapiro Campus Center, and Balakrishna says she is always open to hearing suggestions on a walk-in basis.