How is naturally short hair challenging beauty ideals?
REPORT
4 Mar 2019
How is naturally short hair challenging beauty ideals?

The natural hair movement has seen many black women cast off their wigs, weaves and relaxers, yet the media’s focus on women with longer, looser curls has been obvious. Now, women are proudly opting for shorter, natural styles. How will this impact the black beauty industry?

Charlotte Mensah

Charlotte Mensah is the owner and artistic director of the Hair Lounge salon in Notting Hill, founder of the Charlotte Mensah Manketti Oil product line, and three-time winner of ‘Afro Hairdresser of the Year’.

Khembe Clarke

Khembe Clarke is the founder of health and wellness festival Return to your Roots.

Kadian Pow

Kadian Pow is a queer, Black femme who has lived in three different countries. She is currently a lecturer at Birmingham City University, where she teaches courses in sociology and Black studies. She hails from Kingston, Jamaica but spent the majority of her life in Washington DC. Prior to moving to the UK and earning her PhD, Kadian focused on informal education and inclusion at such institutions as the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Smithsonian, the Barber Institute, and the University of Birmingham. She is also the founder and managing director of her own beauty brand, Bourn Beautiful Naturals.

Patricia Akingbe

Patricia Akingbe is a photographer who lives and works in London. She specialises in fashion and portrait photography, but doesn't mind what she's snapping so long as she's behind the lens.

Lynda Cowell

Lynda Cowell is a London-based writer, web editor, and former BBC television researcher. Having written for the likes of The Voice, Pride, The Guardian, Time Out and Marie Claire, much of her work has focused on race and gender, but not exclusively. In her free time, she likes to read, drink red wine, and watch the kind of television programmes other people sneer at.