For South Asians, Hair Slugging Is More Than A Trend

“And to think I used to be scared of hair oil 🤦‍♀️,” posted TikToker @kayli.boyle, showcasing the positive effects of castor oil on her hair in a video with 1.6 million views. Hm. Using oil on your hair and scalp has also been rebranded as ‘hair slugging‘ on the app, where the phrase has 311.9 million views. TikToker @shrekislove777 stitched an influencer’s ‘hair slugging’ video, which shows her saturating her hair in oil to make it soft and shiny. @shrekislove777 calls the video into question, captioning her clip: “South Asian people have been doing this since forever and now y’all calling it hair slugging?” The comments echo her scepticism. One TikTok user observed: “So tired of POC cultural practices being coined by white ppl and treated like rare discoveries 🤦🏻‍♀️.”