Bandage Brands can make a difference. I received a small envelope addressed to my six and four-year-old boys from a family friend in Ohio in 2017. It was “bandages”! However, to my great surprise, my then-six-year-old understood the significance of this bandage. It wasn’t any bandage; it was a bandage that matched their skin color from the brand Tru-Colour Products, LLC.
Why didn’t I think of this? But more surprisingly, Why didn’t the brand Band-Aid which has been in business for 100 years, think of this? Nevertheless, more corporations have started to think about the black and brown community during the recent Black Lives Matter movement. Well, thanks! And now the Band-Aid brand has diverse colors for us.
About Tru-Colour Products, LLC
Tru-Colour® Products, LLC was started in 2013 by a white Chicago dad, Toby Meisenheimer. He has two biological kids, three black kids, and one black foster child, whom they adopted in 2009.
“I just want my kids, who are already gonna struggle with the fact that they don’t have the same skin color as their dad, I want them to see they were made as just as authentic and just as beautiful and the bandage market needs to reflect that”
– Meisenheimer said to Huffington Post
According to their website, the company standard is to “embrace Diversity In Healing.” Tru-Colour believes in the beauty of the individual and exists to provide skin-tone shade bandages and kinesiology tape for everyone. They offer three skin tone shades based on the Fitzpatrick scale(See below) that categorizes different complexions according to their tolerance to sunlight.
The four different shades are:
- Pale White to Fair skin tone bandages are available in aqua packaging.
- Olive – Moderate Brown skin tone bandages are available in green packaging.
- Brown – Dark Brown skin tone bandages are available in orange packaging.
- Dark Brown – Black skin tone bandages are available in purple packaging.
Tru-Colour Bandages are cruelty-free. No animals are involved in the making or testing of our products. These bandages can be purchased at any Target store/online, on Amazon or on their website.
Browndages
Founded in 2018 in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, Browndages is a small black-family business. Browndages was the idea of a husband and wife duo trying to fill a void they saw within their own family. My boy’s only issue with the Tru-Colours brand was that they wanted characters on their bandages. Nevertheless, Browndages offers six boxes of bandages with characters on them.
They are not in large stores like Target or Amazon yet. However, they can be purchased on its website and in specific countries.
Johnson & Johnson – Band-Aid
Band-Aid is a parent company of Johnson & Johnson (founded in 1920). They finally announced it would launch a new range of inclusive bandages that don’t just match white skin. This comes after the recent protests of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. The makers of the brand, Band-aid told NBC News in a statement that it applauds “the work of Tru-Colour on this inclusive product.
After recent protests regarding George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, Band-Aid pledged to donate to the Black Lives Matter movement. A company spokesperson told CNN that Band-Aid would donate $100,000 to the protest.
Heal Like Me
Heal Like Me was started by a Registered Nurse that worked with people of color every day. She became frustrated that there were only light tan shades of bandages. One of her patients ever told her she wanted a bandage that looked “like me.” Another patient was surprised by the contract of the tan bandage on his cheek on black skin and said, “I look awful.” This nurse knew at that moment that she had to do something. The next evening, she discussed the idea with her son, and he was excited to help start a bandaid that would match brown skin tones.
Other bandage brands
- The Ebon-Aide business folded almost 15 years ago. They sold colors with names like Black Liquorice, Coffee Brown, Cinnamon, and Honey Beige. Some of their products are sold on eBay and/or Amazon.
- Nuditone is an up-and-coming UK/EU brand. They now offer ‘wound discretion’ to people of color in the UK and Europe. They will soon be available on Amazon.
Work Cited
Our Story | TruColour Bandages – Tru-Colour Bandages. https://trucolourbandages.com/pages/about
How to Find Band-Aids That Match Your Skin Tone. https://lifehacker.com/how-to-find-band-aids-that-match-your-skin-tone-1834380659
Band-Aid Adds Non-White Skin Tones – Adweek. https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/band-aid-adds-non-white-skin-tone-bandages-after-a-previous-failed-attempt/
Browndages. https://browndages.com/
My Wife also makes bandages for people with dark skin. Because the others were not affordable for most. “Heal like Me” is the name of the company, https://www.facebook.com/HealLikeMe