4 Skin Tone Bandage Brands for Black & Brown Skin Tones

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.

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Good morning family! Welcome to all of our new followers and 👋🏽 to all the oldies but goodies! We would like to express our sincere and heartfelt thank you for all of the tags, shares and purchases over the last couple weeks. We know it’s a turbulent time we are living in, so that’s makes us even more grateful that you all have taken your time and resources to support. We thank you and we love you all. #browndages #blackownedbusiness #smallbusiness #blacklivesmatter ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 #perfectbandageforbrownskin

A post shared by Browndages (@browndages) on Jun 13, 2020 at 7:48am PDT

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.

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We hear you. We see you. We’re listening to you.⁣ ⁣ We stand in solidarity with our Black colleagues, collaborators and community in the fight against racism, violence and injustice. We are committed to taking actions to create tangible change for the Black community.⁣ ⁣ We are committed to launching a range of bandages in light, medium and deep shades of Brown and Black skin tones that embrace the beauty of diverse skin. We are dedicated to inclusivity and providing the best healing solutions, better representing you.⁣ ⁣ In addition, we will be making a donation to @blklivesmatter.⁣ We promise that this is just the first among many steps together in the fight against systemic racism.⁣ ⁣ We can, we must and we will do better.

A post shared by BAND-AID® Brand Bandages (@bandaidbrand) on Jun 10, 2020 at 7:00am PDT

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.

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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/