page_title: Shea Moisture
hierarchical_section_title: Shea Moisture
caption_attribution_description: English: Different varieties of SheaMoisture products.
context_page_description: Shea Moisture is a personal care company which focuses on shampoo, conditioner and body wash. The company was founded in Harlem in 1991 by Liberians Nyema Tubman and Richelieu Dennis, who were part of the Liberian Diaspora to the United States. The company was inspired by Dennis' Sierra Leonean grandmother, Sofi Tucker, who sold shea butter at a village market in Bonthe, Sierra Leone in 1912.
  In 2015 and 2016, Shea Moisture was voted Overall Favorite Brand in Naturally Curly's annual Best of the Best survey.
  In 2015, the company generated controversy for featuring a white and asian baby. This is because their customers, mainly black women, felt that the company was betraying them as their loyal fan base. The advertisement is a picture of a little girl with bows and pigtails in a polkadot dress holding a phone to her ear with the saying "Uhh...we have a problem, we ran out of Shea Moisture" in brown writing on a white background. Shea moisture apologised for the ad and pulled it back from the market.
  In April 2016, the company launched the "#BreaktheWalls" campaign, which promoted more ethnic inclusion and empowerment.
context_section_description: Shea Moisture is a personal care company which focuses on shampoo, conditioner and body wash. The company was founded in Harlem in 1991 by Liberians Nyema Tubman and Richelieu Dennis (and his mother Mary Dennis), who were part of the Liberian Diaspora to the United States. The company was inspired by Dennis' Sierra Leonean grandmother, Sofi Tucker, who sold shea butter at a village market in Bonthe, Sierra Leone in 1912.
  In 2015 and 2016, Shea Moisture was voted Overall Favorite Brand in Naturally Curly's annual Best of the Best survey.
  In 2015, the company generated controversy for featuring a white and asian baby.  This is because their customers, mainly black women, felt that the company was betraying them as their loyal fan base. The advertisement is a picture of a little girl with bows and pigtails in a polkadot dress holding a phone to her ear with the saying "Uhh...we have a problem, we ran out of Shea Moisture" in brown writing on a white background. Shea moisture apologised for the ad and pulled it back from the market. 
  In April 2016, the company launched the "#BreaktheWalls" campaign, which promoted more ethnic inclusion and empowerment. The next year, the company released another commercial with the message "Break free from hair hate", featuring mostly white women and one racially ambiguous woman. The commercial generated controversy for barely featuring the brand's original customer base, which were black women with diverse hair textures including kinky and curly. The company soon issued an apology, saying that they “really f-ed this one up”, an apology that was still perceived as lackluster and insincere by those upset by the ordeal.
  In 2017, Unilever announced its intent to acquire Shea Moisture.
  
  In 2018, Davina Bennett (Miss Jamaica Universe 2017) was contracted as "the face of Shea Moisture", representing the company's Black Castor Oil product line.
caption: Variety of SheaMoisture products
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