“We do not know what’s going to happen,” laughs hairstylist Vernon François. “Ever,” Amandla Stenberg chimes in. “You’re just going to figure this out with us in real time,” François continues. Today, the pair are taking us on their journey to a Nina Simone-inspired updo.
Stenberg arrives with her hair in red-hued waist-length braids, which François first hydrates with a nourishing water mist from his eponymous collection. “This just really helps to keep the hair soft, malleable—it’s really important for me having flexibility,” he says.
Both François and Stenberg appreciate experimental, thought-provoking looks. “Because I am a gender fluid and queer person I feel like the way that I want to express my identity through my hair can change a lot,” Stenberg laughs. Lately, she says, she’s in a more feminine phase—“which, who knows when that will end, it could end at any moment!“
With Stenberg’s braids and scalp prepped, now it’s time to add in some two-toned extensions. As François is about to begin braiding them in, he has an a-ha moment: to do a knot instead. “I’m divorced from any idea that I have, like there’s no commitment,” he says. “But what I am committed to is continuing to keep exploring.”
He knows the base of the style is set when there is balance between the structure, the skull shape, and even what Stenberg is wearing. François knots more extensions atop the structure, shapes the hair with pins, then creates a face-framing swoop which he sews in place. To groom edges, he uses the water mist to finger coil a few curls around Stenberg’s hairline. “It’s really important you register the direction of how the hair is falling rather than trying to push it into a direction,” he notes. “You’re just not going to win trying to get the hair to do something that it’s not genetically designed to do.”
With the look nearly done, Stenberg wishes she were attending a ball to show off the style. “It feels really expressive and celebratory…and spunky, while also being deeply elegant and sophisticated and structural,” she says as François executes his finishing touches. Et voila, Stenberg now has her “champagne darling” ’do.
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Director: Tajana B-Williams
Director Of Photography: Sade Ndya
Editor: Tajah Smith
Producer: Naomi Nishi
Associate Director, Creative Development, Vogue: Billie JD Porter
Associate Producer: Courtney Walden
AC: Kayla Billons
Cam Op: Briana Monet
Gaffer: Nate Riedel
Audio: Glo Marie
CCO: Moe Sherwood
Production Assistants, Phillip Arliss and Marquis Wooten
Filmed at: Carte Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton
Floral Arrangements by: Sister Blooms
Special Thanks: THE VISIONARIES
Production Coordinator: Ava Kashar
Production Manager: Kit Fogarty
Senior Director, Production Management: Jess Schier
Associate Talent Manager: Phoebe Feinberg
Post Production Coordinator: Andrea Farr
Supervising Editor: Kameron Kay
Post Production Supervisor: Marco Glinbizzi
Director of Content, Vogue: Rahel Gebreyes
Senior Director, Programming, Vogue: Linda Gittleson
Executive Producer: Ruhiya Nuruddin
VP, Digital Video English, Vogue: Joe Pickard
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