Colorful Black Silk: 22 momme silk for your hair

Why did we create a natural silk collection? The story behind Colorful Black Silk

For over 15 years, we at Colorful Black have been supporting people with wavy, curly, coily, and kinky hair in their hair care routine. Fifteen years of testing, comparing, listening, and starting over. Fifteen years during which we never sought to follow a trend simply because it was trending on social media. Our only compass has always been the same: to find the best products, the best techniques, the best accessories for textured hair — and to offer nothing we weren't convinced of ourselves.

It is this demanding approach, year after year, that led us to a simple and, in hindsight, almost obvious conclusion: you cannot talk about a complete hair care routine without talking about what happens at night. And you cannot talk about quality without, one day, focusing on silk. The birth of the Colorful Black Silk collection is therefore not a marketing ploy or a fad. It is a natural, almost logical evolution of everything we have learned since 2009.

The history of Colorful Black and the continuous pursuit of excellence

It all began in 2009, when Anne-Marie Mendy — whom our entire community now knows as Anna — decided to found Colorful Black. At the time, finding products truly suitable for textured hair was almost an achievement. Shelves were sparse, the offer was generic, and women and men with curly, coily, or kinky hair often had to settle for products designed for other hair types. Anna experienced this herself, noticed it around her, and decided to provide a solution.

Colorful Black was therefore launched as an online store, with a simple mission: to offer a rigorous selection of products truly designed for textured hair and black and mixed-race skin. Two years later, in 2011, this conviction took physical form with the opening of our store in the heart of Paris. Today, nearly 100 m² are entirely dedicated to this expertise, where personalized advice, a hair salon, and a selection of brands meet.

Over the years, this expertise has been built brick by brick: through direct contact with our customers in-store, through accumulated experience in the salon, through hundreds of hair routines built with our clients, through continuous monitoring of new brands and new formulations. What has driven us since day one has never changed: to offer the best, without compromise, even when it requires more time, more research, more rigor.

When accessories become as important as products

For a long time, attention — both ours and that of the entire industry — focused almost exclusively on formulas: shampoos, conditioners, hair masks, leave-in conditioners, styling creams and gels. And to some extent, this is legitimate: these are the products that deeply nourish, moisturize, and define the hair fiber. A good formula remains, and always will remain, the foundation of any effective hair care routine. But we learned, conversation after conversation with our customers in-store and at the salon, that a hair care routine does not stop with what is applied in the shower or in front of the mirror.

What touches the hair daily, outside of active care moments, matters just as much. This is the whole point of hair accessories: a poorly chosen comb that breaks ends, a brush that is too aggressive for the scalp, and above all — much more decisive than one might imagine — what you rest your head on every night, for six, seven, eight hours straight. We have known this for a long time at Colorful Black, as our satin pillowcases have been among our bestsellers for several years now. Our customers tell us again and again in-store: fewer frizz upon waking, better-preserved curls from one day to the next, a feeling of comfort on the skin that they did not find with a classic cotton pillowcase.

This success is no accident. It confirmed something we already suspected without formal proof: the quality of a hair accessory has a real, measurable impact on the health and beauty of textured hair, just like a good care formula. It also confirmed that our community was ready to invest in accessories that matched the attention they already pay to their hair — that a hair accessory could also become a care gesture in itself, and not just an everyday object chosen by default.

An ever-higher standard in material selection

The success of satin pillowcases was not an endpoint for us. It was a starting point. Because in parallel, we never stopped strengthening our requirements across our entire offering — both in-store and at the hair salon. Year after year, we re-selected, re-tested, compared compositions, sometimes withdrew references that no longer met our quality standards, even when they sold well and had long been part of our shelves. A brand that no longer sufficiently respects the scalp, a formula whose composition seemed to us to have deteriorated over reformulations, a partner who no longer shared our values on transparency or the origin of ingredients: we have always preferred consistency to ease, even when it meant losing a popular reference or restarting an entire selection.

This quest for excellence has never been limited to cosmetics. It applies exactly the same way to textiles that come into daily contact with hair and skin. If we are constantly improving the formulas we offer — by testing new brands, following advances in hair care, listening to customer feedback — why should we stop at accessories? That would be inconsistent with everything we have stood for since 2009. Satin had already allowed us to take a decisive first step away from classic cotton, by reducing friction and better preserving nocturnal hydration. But as our expertise grew, and as we deepened our knowledge of textile materials in contact with hair, a question naturally, almost inevitably arose: is there a material even more respectful of the hair fiber than satin? A material that would push our standards even higher, as we had done for our care formulas?

Why silk today represents the culmination of this approach

The answer has long been known in the world of textiles and luxury: it is silk. A noble, natural material, sought after for centuries for its softness, fineness, and luster — and which has proven to be, for textured hair, much more than a simple symbol of elegance. It is a functional material, almost technical in what it concretely brings to the hair fiber.

Many still confuse satin and silk, even though they are two fundamentally different materials, both in their origin and their properties. The satin commonly found on the market is almost always a synthetic fiber, usually polyester woven in a particular weave to obtain that characteristic shiny and smooth appearance. It is this weave, more than the fiber itself, that gives satin its name: you can technically make a silk satin, but in the vast majority of hair accessories on the market, satin refers to a synthetic fabric. Silk, on the other hand, is a natural fiber, produced by the mulberry silkworm, spun into a long continuous filament that has properties that synthetics can never fully replicate: it is non-absorbent, which means it does not absorb the moisture deposited by your hair routine during the night, unlike cotton and, to a lesser extent, polyester. It is thermoregulating, able to adapt to body temperature for constant comfort. And its smooth filament structure, almost without asperities at the microscopic level, significantly reduces friction on the hair fiber — the number one cause of frizz, knots, and undone curls upon waking for textured hair.

To develop Colorful Black Silk, we set precise specifications, commensurate with what we usually demand from our care brands. The entire collection is made from mulberry silk weighing 22 mommes. The momme is the historical unit that measures the density of silk, inherited from the Japanese textile trade: the higher the momme count, the denser and more resistant the fabric. At precisely 22 mommes, the fabric achieves a rare balance between softness to the touch, resistance to daily use, and longevity over time, without ever sacrificing that very particular feel that is the whole point of natural silk — too fine silk wears out and tears quickly, too thick silk loses suppleness and comfort. We also required Oeko-Tex certification for each piece in the collection, which guarantees the absence of harmful substances in all components of the fabric, from dyes to finishes, and not just in the raw material. This is a level of finish and traceability rarely found in hair accessories sold to the general public, and it is precisely this level of excellence that we wanted to offer our community, without compromise on any of these criteria.

The birth of Colorful Black Silk

This is how Colorful Black Silk was born: from a simple desire to offer the best possible accessories to those who have trusted us since 2009.

The first two products in the collection embody this philosophy. The 22 momme pure mulberry silk pillowcase was designed to integrate naturally at the end of your evening routine: after the leave-in, after the styling treatment, after all the work done on your hair during the day. It protects the hair fiber during the hours when it is most vulnerable, while offering an immediately perceptible skin comfort — fewer pillow marks, less friction on the face.

The 22 momme pure mulberry silk scrunchie addresses an equally daily need: tying your hair without creating tension, without breakage, without unsightly marks when untangling. Designed for both day and night use, it is even suitable for fragile or transitioning hair.

Two products, therefore, but designed with the same rigor that we have applied to the selection of our care brands for fifteen years: premium material, careful finish, and total consistency with the values that have always driven Colorful Black.

A collection destined to grow

Colorful Black Silk is just the beginning. This collection is intended to gradually expand, with other accessories and other high-end textile essentials, always with the same pursuit of excellence. We don't yet know exactly what Colorful Black Silk will look like in two or three years — but we know the principles by which it will continue to advance: uncompromising quality, expertise in textured hair, demanding standards for materials, and a deep respect for the hair fiber and skin of our community.

It is this same logic that led us from cotton to satin several years ago, and then from satin to silk today. And it is this that will continue to guide every new reference we add to this collection.

Who is Colorful Black Silk for?

The collection is aimed at anyone who wants to:

• Protect their hair (coily, kinky, curly, wavy or straight) at night
• Reduce frizz and breakage caused by repeated friction
• Preserve the hydration provided by their hair routine until morning
• Maintain their curls' definition from one day to the next
• Take care of their skin with a soft and non-aggressive accessory

A simple, elegant and durable investment in the health of your hair — and, we sincerely believe, one of the most underrated steps in a complete hair care routine.

Colorful Black Silk, or the logical culmination of our demanding standards

Colorful Black Silk is not just a product launch. It is the culmination of several years of in-store experience, salon advice, attentive listening to our customers, and a continuous search for quality — the quality that has allowed us to grow since 2009.

We often tell our customers who come to us to build their routine: what really works is never an isolated miracle product, but an overall consistency between the treatments applied, the gestures adopted, and the accessories chosen. When you continuously seek to improve products, advice, techniques, and accessories, silk becomes an obvious choice. It was only a matter of time before this demanding approach led us there — and we are proud that it is leading you there with us today.