Black-owned hair care brand The Doux is venturing into the gaming world with a new Roblox experience.
Late last week, the company launched “My Salon Empire,” a free game on Roblox where users can simulate the culture of a beauty salon and immerse themselves in that world. In “My Salon Empire,” players can prep and style hair, earn rewards, deliver quality customer service, grow their business, run their own salon, and visit other salons and welcome clients. Exclusible, the same studio that developed e.l.f. Beauty’s virtual game last year, and is based on Maya Smith’s own experience before founding the Doux.
An integral part of the game is the different types of hairstyles and hair textures as Smith seeks to increase hair representation in gaming for Black women.
“Textured hair care isn’t a sidequest for us; it’s our everyday experience,” said Smith per an interview with Essence Girls United.” The people who understand these communities should be involved when the worlds are being imagined, designed, and built, because that’s when you get the details right.”
For decades, video games have failed to be inclusive when it comes to hair representation. As part of an initiative to increase hair representation, hair company Dove released a report on the topic.
According to their findings, 85% of Black gamers said that they felt underrepresented in video gaming, particularly when it comes to the depiction of hair textures. About 91% of gamers said they want to see characters that reflect them while gaming.
The lack of inclusivity in gaming hairstyles is most often found amongst the most popular games as well. Amongst the top four games in August 2023, only about 7% of the hairstyles offered depicted textured or protective hairstyles.
As a result, an average of eight out of every 10 gamers say that they have felt that they were “excluded, discriminated against, or felt as if they were not good enough” due to the lack of accurate portrayals.
To help increase representation, The Doux’s latest game is set on encouraging young Black gamers to get involved as creators as well.
“I hope we eventually get beyond treating inclusion like a feature that gets added at the end,” said Smith per Essence Girls United. “And beyond being represented in these spaces, I want to see more of our young people becoming the developers, designers, founders, and owners creating whatever comes next.”
