A photo installation titled “Beauty Plus” runs through May 31 in the Museum of the African Diaspora salon. Jasmine Ross, an Oakland-based Emerging Artist, photographed the beauty supply store’s last days in its 30-year New Haven, Connecticut location. The images show tools and products that shaped Black beauty standards, including hair relaxer and wig glue, while most Black women customers are missing. A few appear through family photographs owned by Melvanyia “Queen Mel” Hylton, including images taped above bottles and a scene contrasting Hylton’s naturally graying hair with dark-painted European doll mannequins wearing synthetic wigs. The store operated from 1995 to 2025, selling products urging conformity to white beauty standards. Text in the installation emphasizes empowerment from Black women having their own meeting place, linking beauty salons and barbershops to both personal styling and political activism. After Hylton retired in 2025, customers reminisced about shopping, socializing, and mourning at the store.
"What may be most striking about Jasmine Ross' "Beauty Plus," running through May 31 in the salon of the Museum of the African Diaspora, is missing from the photo installation. The Oakland-based Ross, a member of the MoAD's Emerging Artist program, captured the eponymous beauty supply store's final days in its New Haven, Connecticut location of 30 years. The images display many tools and supplies that have shaped Black beauty standards for years, from hair relaxer to wig glue. Missing are the many Black women who visited over the years."
"Yes, a few appear. Most are in the family photos belonging to the owner Melvanyia "Queen Mel" Hylton. Ross's photo "Yellow and Edge Worn" captures the wall behind the counter where images of Hylton's loved ones were taped above bottles of hair relaxer and wig glue. "The First Family" features the Obamas smiling from an autographed image personalized by Michelle Obama. But it's the photo "Mel and Her Ladies" that best illustrates the paradox of the shop's existence."
"It shows Hylton flanked by two mannequin busts, her aged African features and naturally-graying hair contrasting with the dark-painted European dolls with synthetic wigs. From 1995 to 2025, Hylton ran a self-made Black business that sold products imploring its customers to conform to white standards of beauty. That contrast certainly isn't lost on Ross. Yet, she fills her installation with text emphasizing the empowerment that came with New Haven's Black women having their own congregation point."
"American history is awash with stories of Black Americans finding their own meeting places after being segregated from those used by whites. Along with churches, Black-owned barbershops and beauty salons were where personal styling and political activism seamlessly intersected. When Hylton retired in 2025, Beauty Plus' final day of operation saw longtime customers reminisce on the place they went to shop, socialize, and mourn"
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