Asian founders work to steer the narrative as beauty trends pull from their cultures
The latest obsessions in America's wellness craze are rooted in South Asian practices. Industry leaders who grew up with those rituals are caught between joy and a battle against cultural erasure.
Growing up in Detroit, skin care brand founder Rooshy Roy kept cherished parts of her Indian culture to herself.
Staple Indian ingredients — like the turmeric abundant in family dishes and the coconut oil she used to condition her hair — became a source of shame outside of her Kolkata-native parents' home.
"It was girls telling me that I like smell like curry or that my hair is like I haven't showered in ages," she said. "Things like that, I just started to pick up over time and kind of assimilated myself to fit in the best I could."
She started washing the "greasy" coconut oil out of her strands before going to school. She stopped eating turmeric meals that would stain her fingernails bright yellow when a fourth-grade
