It’s that time of year for holiday drives and one Chicago initiative is focused on hair care. The third annual “Love and Nappyness Hair Care Drive” kicked off Nov. 16 and runs until Friday Dec. 17.  It was launched in 2019 by Chicago hip-hop artist Matt Muse.

“It takes its namesake for my album I released the same year called Love and Nappyness, and after releasing Love and Nappyness, and releasing two projects where the focus was finding self-love and finding myself through the growth of my natural hair, I was like it would be really cool to do some type of give back related to this, and that’s what the hair care drive is,” said Muse, founder of “Love and Nappyness” which runs the drive.

The goal is to collect unused natural hair care, skincare and personal hygiene products.  Anyone can drop off items at six locations across the Chicago area. The products will then be donated to Ignite,  a shelter for youth facing housing insecurity, and Saint Leonard’s Ministries, a transition home for formerly incarcerated men and women.

The drive will culminate with “The Long Hair Don’t Care Show” at Metro Chicago, headlined by Chicago singer Jamila Woods and featuring a performance by Matt Muse. A portion of ticket sales will be donated as well.