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In my other life, I am a vintage jazz dance teacher, managing and choreographing for the award-winning dance group, The Dinahs.

Photo credits c. Sudden Island

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Exhibition

Click to see more from the exhibition 'Plaits, Princesses + Pink Moisturiser'

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We want to show some appreciation to Mulan @mulannoir the mind (soul and body) behind Spring Melanin - the safe space for nurturing, healing conversation & relaxation for dark skin womxn of colour. We had the chance to chat about mental health and well-being, Mulan’s experience living with endometriosis, working as a model and building Spring Melanin from the ground up. Mulan is doing THE most! You can read the interview in The Salon zine, get yours from the link in bio 👆🏾Follow Spring Melanin @springmelanin for holistic events and workshops ✨🌿🌻 . . Beautiful photo, shot and styled by @natevisuals . . #blackhairstories #afrohair #photography #heritage #visualart #blackwomen #blackhair #melanin #blackgirlmagic #thesalon #blackhairandheritage #springmelanin #darkskin

Was so excited to be invited to Monoux College last week to talk about history, curating and erasure. Featuring some of my historical and archaeological faves (who we didn’t learn about at school/ during my Archaeology degree...👀) inc. the dark skinned Whitehawk woman who lived in Sussex nearly 6000 years ago, and the first Black woman to be published, Phillis Wheatley. Swipe ➡️ for a snapshot! Big thanks to @monouxcollege for having me! . . #blackhairstories #afrohair #photography #heritage #visualart #blackwomen #blackhair #melanin #blackgirlmagic #thesalon #blackhairandheritage #blackhistory

Last but not least, here is the queen of cabaret, Josephine Baker. You probably know her for her banana skirt dance (and people’s Halloween costumes) but Baker was also a civil rights activist and before that, a spy for the Allies during WWII, smuggling secret messages with invisible ink in her music sheets 🤯. Her perfect finger waves, glamorous style and comedic performances made her an instant hit as a chorus line and cabaret dancer in Paris in the 1920s. At one point, she was the most photographed woman and highest paid female entertainer in the world. Even though she grew up in the US, the still segregated country weren’t fans. Uncomfortable with a Black woman having such celebrity status, a New York Times article called her a “Negro wench”. Despite that, Baker returned often to the US to fight against racist laws during the civil rights movement in the 60s. Baker was incredibly independent, marrying and divorcing 4 times and was openly bisexual, most famously having a relationship with Frida Khalo. She adopted 12 children which she dubbed ‘The Rainbow Tribe’ (swipe to see a cute pic) and they lived together in her castle in Dordogne. Josephine Baker was still performing up until her death in 1975. . . #blackhistorymonth #blackhairstories #afrohair #photography #heritage #visualart #blackwomen #blackhair #melanin #blackgirlmagic #thesalon #blackhairandheritage #glamour #blackbeauty #blackhistory #Josephinebaker #cabaret #chorusline

I wouldn’t be coming correct if I didn’t mention Angela Davis, the woman who made the afro political. Davis is an author, activist and radical feminist who was a prominent member of the Black Panther Party during the 1960s and 70s. She was a member of the Communist party (which got her fired as a university professor by Ronald Reagan) and spent time in hiding after being branded a terrorist by the US government and placed on the FBI’s most wanted list. The uniform of afros, berets, sunglasses and leather jackets became synonymous with Black Panther activism. Davis is an outspoken prison abolitionist and has written a number of books about racial justice, gender and feminism. She wrote an essay about the significance of her hair, after a young man she met off chance described her as “Angela Davis - The Afro”. She wrote “… I am remembered as a hairdo. It is humiliating because it reduces a politics of liberation to a politics of fashion; it is humbling because such encounters with the younger generation demonstrate the fragility and mutability of historical images …”. The afro can still be used to embody political statements - swipe 👉🏾 to see Beyoncé’s dancers in a Black Panther inspired look at her Super Bowl performance in 2016. . . Photos by AP and Choupas Cyrille. Quotes from Afro Images: Politics, Fashion, and Nostalgia by Angela Davies (essential reading!) . . #blackhistorymonth #blackhairstories #afrohair #photography #heritage #visualart #blackwomen #blackhair #melanin #blackgirlmagic #thesalon #blackhairandheritage #glamour #blackbeauty #blackhistory #blackpanthers #angeladavis #afro

You’ve probably heard of Madam C.J. Walker, labelled as the mother of Black cosmetics, but you might not have heard of Annie Malone, who was her teacher and former employer. Annie was one of the first Black self-made millionaires in the early 1900s as the inventor of a pioneering hair straightening chemical. At a time where having straight hair meant better chances for Black women in America, Malone’s straightening cream was a miracle alternative to the damaging methods of straightening curls, such as poisonous potato, egg and lye mixtures. She started selling her ‘Poro’ cosmetic products door to door, hired a few assistants and became so successful she eventually opened the Poro teaching college for Black women in St Louis around 1917. The college taught women the basics in hair care, cosmetics and beauty. By 1926 she was incredibly wealthy and had branches of her college around the globe. Annie is also known as one of America’s first Black philanthropists, having given vast sums of money to different social projects, including sponsoring 2 student places at every historically black university across America. Walker learnt the Poro method from Malone and used it as inspiration for her own straightening cream - which went on to launch her infamous career in beauty (swipe right to see a pic of her). As well as Walker, one of Annie Malone’s students was the musician Chuck Berry! . . Read more at www.freemaninstitute.com . . #blackhistorymonth #blackhairstories #afrohair #photography #heritage #visualart #blackwomen #blackhair #melanin #blackgirlmagic #thesalon #blackhairandheritage #glamour #blackbeauty #blackhistory #anniemalone #madamcjwalker

One of my all time glamour icons is the silver-haired Joyce Bryant. She was known as ’The Bronze Blonde Bombshell’ because of her metallic hair, which she tinted with radiator paint (do not try at home). Working in the 1950s as an entertainer, Joyce Bryant was the first dark skinned African-American woman to be widely heralded as a sex symbol in mainstream media, and some of her songs were even banned on the radio for being toooo sexy. She has an incredible 4 and a half octave vocal range and was outspoken against racial discrimination (the KKK burnt effigies of her after she performed at traditionally segregated nightspots). Most of Bryant’s beautiful gowns were designed by Zelda Wynn, who was the creator of the original playboy bunny costume! After having her tonsils removed, and when her manager tried to prescribe her cocaine to keep her singing, Bryant gave up her career. She enrolled back into college, became a missionary, then worked as an Opera singer and voice coach. She’s now 91 and living in the US. A documentary of her life is coming out soon! . . #blackhistorymonth #blackhairstories #afrohair #photography #heritage #visualart #blackwomen #blackhair #melanin #blackgirlmagic #thesalon #blackhairandheritage #glamour #joycebryant #blackhistory

Grace Jones doesn’t need much of an introduction... From her iconic album covers to the front covers of Vogue, her performance in cult classics (Conan the Destroyer anyone?!) and her tapered high top and fade - she has inspired models, musicians, photographers and designers alike, including Andy Warhol, Rihanna and Jean-Claude Goude (the (kinda problematic photographer and father of her child) Grace Jones once said that the “ferocious” character she portrays on stage was shaped by her step-grandad, a leader in the church in Jamaica, who was quick with the whip. Her hairstyle is a legendary part of her androgynous style, which in her words, is neither masculine or feminine. Fun fact, I once watched Grace Jones hula hoop on stage for an hour straight and she apparently has a life time ban from Disney World for flashing on stage 🤷🏾‍♀️ . . Images by Jean-Claude Goude . . #blackhistorymonth #blackhairstories #afrohair #photography #heritage #visualart #blackwomen #blackhair #melanin #blackgirlmagic #blackhairandheritage #gracejones

To finish off the last week or so of Black History Month, I’m posting my top six black hair s-heroes ✌🏾. First up is Winifred Atwell, a Trinidadian born entertainer. Winifred Atwell opened one of the first (if not THE first) hair salons for Black women in London in 1956, on Railton Road in Brixton. NOT ONLY THAT she was also the first Black musician to sell a *million* records with her incredibly successful career as a ragtime and honky tonk pianist, and was the first Black woman to reach number one in the charts!!! The Winifred Atwell Show ran on the BBC from 1956 - 57 but sadly the episodes seem to all be lost. She was most likely the first Black woman to have a regular show on the air. Atwell’s salon eventually became a local welding shop and was burnt to the ground during an arson attack during the Brixton riots in the 80s. She immigrated to Australia and passed away in 1981. The last photo here is of Joyce, a woman I met at the Waltham Forest African Caribbean Elders club. She lent me this photo of her with her hair freshly pressed at Atwell’s salon when she was 18. . . Photos of Winifred Atwell from www.nickelfromthemachine.com and www.flashbak.com . . #blackhistorymonth #blackhairstories #afrohair #photography #heritage #visualart #blackwomen #blackhair #melanin #blackgirlmagic #thesalon #blackhairandheritage #winifredatwell #brixton #blackbritishhistory

Here to start your day right with the one and only @sonofatutu 🌞🌞🌞 . . #thesalon #blackhairstories #zinelaunch #launch #boroughofculture #blackhairandheritage #wfculture #wfculture19 #sonofatutu #dragqueen

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