They are saying Black hair is political, however that’s too smooth of a take. Black hair is ancestral. It’s a language, a legacy, a residing doc handed down from kitchen stools and porch steps to editorial shoots and catwalks. Friday night time, excessive above town on the forty first ground of WSA’s Maiden Lane tackle, that legacy was reimagined—with all of the reverence, glamour and genius it deserved.
Black Hair Reimagined: The New Period of Magnificence, the debut hair present from Jawara Wauchope and Jarrod Lacks of Echelon Noir Productions, wasn’t simply an occasion. It was a religious revival. Hosted by none aside from Tracee Ellis Ross (a residing patron saint of curls), the night time gathered the Black magnificence world’s best to do what we’ve at all times accomplished—flip artistry into ancestry and celebration into resistance.
“I gotta snigger to maintain from crying,” Wauchope mentioned, standing backstage post-show, eyes nonetheless moist from the burden of all of it. “I really feel actually, actually good about tonight. I nearly bought emotional like seven instances in the present day. Simply seeing our neighborhood present up for us—and seeing all of the individuals who impressed me in the identical constructing, together with my household, the hairstylist who introduced me into this house, and my wonderful buddies… it was overwhelming in the easiest way.”
Lacks added, “Similar. I feel it was the help. Individuals confirmed up for us. We had a loopy, stunning thought and planted it in two months. And I’m simply extremely grateful we executed it so effectively. However the folks confirmed up and supported us—and confirmed out like they did.”
The present, equal elements theater and temple, showcased 5 deeply imaginative hair tales sculpted by a pantheon of stylists who deal with hair like sacred materials: Wauchope, Yusef Williams, Vernon François, Cyndia Harvey and Malcolm Marquez. Every look was a love letter to the textured strands that bind us. Hair wasn’t styled—it was summoned. Stretched, woven, constructed excessive and large, and defiant. Hair that advised tales our mouths didn’t have to.
“For me, that’s neighborhood,” Lacks mirrored. “It’s strolling into an area and listening to the noise that Black folks make—you already know, the ‘heyyy nawww!’ and hugs that really feel like dwelling. Tonight felt like a household reunion. We’ve grown up with one another, got here in as assistants, and now we’re all on the prime of our recreation. This was a reminder that we’ve bought the juice. Let’s use our energy. Let’s use us.”
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initiative—L’Oréal’s equity-driven textured hair training motion—solely deepened the night time’s mission: to make sure each Black head of hair has somebody educated and trusted behind the chair.
Make-up by Sir John and Sheika Daly turned every mannequin into strolling artwork, whereas stylists like Carlos Nazario, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, and Patti Wilson introduced full cinematic styling to the ground. Anok Yai, Alton Mason, Jordan Daniels and Julez Smith didn’t simply put on the hair—they wore the legacy.
And let’s speak cash. Money App, a companion for the night, wasn’t simply writing a examine. They have been investing within the ecosystem that’s Black hair—the stylists, the assistants, the entrepreneurs who do $75 silk presses on Tuesdays and editorial cowl shoots on Fridays. The message was clear: Black hair isn’t simply tradition, it’s forex.
Backstage, Vernon François was nonetheless taking all of it in. “Whew—too cross-eyed to cry, so I gotta snigger as a substitute!” he advised me. “I nearly bought emotional like seven totally different instances in the present day. Simply seeing our neighborhood present up for us, seeing the individuals who impressed me underneath the identical roof as my household, because the hairstylist who introduced me into this trade, and my wonderful buddies—who’re all so gifted and sensible—it was overwhelming in the easiest way.”
François added, “We have to have a good time us extra. There was a lot synergy, a lot pleasure in seeing Black creatives work collectively, not competing, simply creating. It felt like, ‘Wow, we’re truly wonderful at what we do.’ And we don’t give ourselves sufficient possibilities to really feel that pleasure amongst one another.”
So, let’s discuss Black hair, not as pattern, however as reality. “For me, Black hair shouldn’t be a science,” Wauchope defined. “It’s a sense. It’s a know-how. It’s nostalgic—you simply know when you’ve lived it. Black hair brings you again to a spot. It reminds you of who raised you, who poured into you. It connects you to the celebrities we love and the way their hair formed the tradition. That’s what Black hair is to me.”
Lacks nodded, his reply easy and religious, “I take into consideration my mother. Black hair jogs my memory of being in magnificence salons. For me, every thing goes again to like. And my mother.”
We’d like extra of this. Extra Black hair exhibits. Extra runways that raise us up as a substitute of becoming us in. Extra space for our stylists to shine—not as background gamers, however as architects of identification. As a result of hair, for us, isn’t simply hair. It’s story. It’s technique. It’s self.
Black Hair Reimagined wasn’t only a second. It was a motion. One which reminded us: we don’t comply with magnificence requirements—we set them. With a sizzling comb in a single hand and a imaginative and prescient within the different.