Black hair care

Under the dappled amber glow of sunlight streaming through the towering window of the Substation workspace in Roslindale, community members filed through a maze of framed pictures. The display wasn’t that of a traditional art gallery, however. Instead, the photos showed personal care products, the people who use them and, most importantly, hair, to bring focus to cosmetic products and the chemicals that are in them.

Stores in Roxbury, Mission Hill and other low-income and predominantly Black neighborhoods in the city are more likely to sell hair care products that contain potentially harmful chemicals when compared to stores in more affluent communities, according to a study conducted in Boston by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.