Black Beauty Culture: Advocacy, Legacy, and the Work That Continues

When Samantha Dixon Slawter founded the Black Beauty Culture Association in 2016, it was not simply the launch of a nonprofit—it was an act of advocacy rooted in history, lived experience, and cultural responsibility.

“I started The Black Beauty Culture Association as a non-profit business in 2016. It was a way to advocate for myself and my community.”

As the organization approaches its tenth anniversary, that advocacy has evolved into sustained work focused on equity, recognition, and structural change for Black beauty professionals in Nova Scotia and beyond.

Rooted in Nova Scotia’s Black History

For Samantha, anchoring this work in Nova Scotia was essential—not symbolic.

“Black people started arriving in Acadia, what would become Nova Scotia, as early as 1604. The Black community in Nova Scotia is where Black culture began in Canada.”

With more than 400 years of documented history and 52 historical Black communities, Nova Scotia represents one of the deepest roots of Black presence in the country.

Samantha also points to one of the earliest recorded Black figures in Canadian history—Mathieu Da Costa—as evidence of how deeply Black culture, language, and hair presence are woven into the nation’s origin story.

“The first documented account of Black hair’s arrival was in Acadia with the arrival of the Black interpreter Mathieu Da Costa.”

Beauty as Culture, Not Cosmetics

Samantha’s understanding of beauty culture was shaped early through family, work, and lived experience. Her uncle owned one of the longest-running Black-owned salons in Nova Scotia, where she began working in 1984 as a receptionist and bookkeeper.

“The school I attended did not teach or offer Black hair services.”

Instead, she completed her required hours in her uncle’s salon and challenged the provincial exam—earning her license within a system built entirely around European beauty standards.

That experience clarified something fundamental: Black hair care was never informal—it was simply excluded.

“Black hair care is art, spiritual, historical, scientific—it’s political and technical. It’s been hated, abhorred, and called everything but human hair, but it is still hair and still here. Now it’s being adored.”

Community, Resilience, and Black Hair-itage

Historically, Black hair care in Nova Scotia has been sustained through community.

“Black people have been taking care of each other since they’ve been on this side of the hemisphere. Anyone who could do hair did it—and that person became the hair gem.”

Without institutional support, Black communities became their own educators, innovators, and archivists. Techniques were self-taught, refined, and passed down generationally.

“Much of today’s technology is built on or enhanced by what our foreparents taught us—or taught themselves.”

Carrying Forward the Legacy of Viola Desmond

The influence of Viola Desmond runs deeply through Samantha’s work—not only as a civil rights icon, but as a beauty pioneer. Often referred to as the “Rosa Parks of Canada,” Desmond was a Nova Scotia businesswoman whose 1946 arrest for challenging racial segregation became a defining moment in Canada’s civil rights history.

Less widely known is her role as the founder of one of Nova Scotia’s first beauty schools for Black women—creating professional pathways at a time when access to formal beauty education was denied.

“I learned of Viola Desmond’s work from one of her first graduates—Verna Skinner, whose hair I had the privilege of doing. Miss Skinner gifted me her tools of the trade.”

The exchange represents more than mentorship—it is a literal passing of legacy.

“She changed the culture for Black women in Nova Scotia and challenged not only the unwritten law of Jim Crow here, but the European beauty standard that still exists today.”

Government Recognition—and the Work Ahead

In recent years, Black Beauty Culture achieved government recognition as a designated trade. In Canada, a designated trade is a formally recognized occupation governed by provincial standards, training pathways, and apprenticeship frameworks—granting legitimacy, structure, and access within regulated industries.

While historic, Samantha is clear-eyed about what that recognition truly represents.

“The work is not done. The designation is the beginning of the real work.”

Although the Nova Scotia government and the Nova Scotia Apprenticeship Agency have designated the Black Beauty Culture Hair Innovator trade, its only offers an illusion of inclusion. Mainly because it has not yet been fully acknowledged within the Cosmetology Act or recognized by the Cosmetology Association of Nova Scotia.

The Nova Scotia Government can provide further direction towards full inclusion through change to policy and legislation. 

“My work has just begun. The Revolution Continues!”

Education, Health, and Economic Empowerment

For Samantha, culturally specific beauty education is about more than certification—it is about recognition of personhood.

“This acknowledges our personhood.”

When Black Beauty Culture is fully integrated into the beauty industry, it creates pathways for employment, entrepreneurship, and economic growth within Black communities.

She also emphasizes the deep connection between beauty and health.

“Beauty culture is health.”

Historically, barbers provided healthcare services, and in Nova Scotia, the health department once oversaw the beauty industry. Access to proper hair care and treatment directly impacts physical health, mental wellbeing, and overall quality of life.

Looking Forward

Looking ahead, Samantha envisions Black Beauty Culture being recognized not only in Nova Scotia, but globally—as a legitimate and complete pathway toward full hairdressing licensure within cosmetology.

“We are still here. What I hope people take away is respect—for our history, our self-care, our self-determination, and our self-education.”

Her message is both grounded and resolute: Black Beauty Culture has endured centuries of exclusion, and its future will be shaped by continued advocacy, recognition, and respect.

The work continues—and so does the revolution.