Behind every memorable celebrity hair look is the stylist perfecting it. In the first installment of Vogue’s video series Hairdos, Jawara and Tracee Ellis Ross take us through a modern interpretation of the timeless updo which the pair have dubbed an “Afro-Billy.”
“I have a lot of hair, and I love wearing it out. But the truth is, particularly as I’ve gotten older, I love it snatched up,” says Ross as Jawara begins manipulating her mane. She’s already wearing leave-in conditioner, with her roots still wet. “Hair care is important before you start any hairstyle,” Jawara says before applying a bit of the Fekkai Shea Butter Intense Hair + Body Oil. He diffuses it dry, and Ross uses a pick at the roots for added volume.
Though the 49-year-old actor’s head of curls serves as inspiration for many, she notes that it’s been a journey embracing it. As a girl, she longed for the hair of her peers, so she visited a salon weekly to get a relaxer and blowout. “I beat my hair into submission. It was dry and fried and dead and tired,” she recalls. Her hair started to break. At 15, she decided to go natural, and began experimenting with the best ways to nurture and protect her hair—the beginning of her journey to create her own hair-care brand Pattern.
For his part, Jawara—whose sculptural work has been featured on the Met Gala red carpet and magazine covers, in exhibitions, and on countless runways—explains that his love for hair came from time spent at his aunt’s salon as a child, where he marveled at the beauty of the Black women who ventured in. His hair hero is his mother: “She’s had long natural locs since before I was born, and raised us to wear natural hair as opposed to what was being shown in school,” he tells Ross.
For the “Afro-billy,” Jawara plaits three braids at Ross’s temples. To add extra volume to the updo, he cuts a hair donut in half, then partly unrolls it to create the shape of his pleasing. He bobby pins the padding to Ross’s hair and coifs her curls around it, creating a sort of crown while leaving some pieces loose for a hint of texture.
For all the latest fasion News Click Here
