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In case you missed it, quite a few of us are talking about hair. Last month Marc Jacobs sent faux dreadlocks down the runway and incited a debate over cultural appropriation. Not long after, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it was OK to fire someone for having dreadlocks. And let's not forget this recent incident.
Then earlier this week, Solange dropped her achingly beautiful fourth studio album (four years in the making), A Seat at the Table, featuring "Don't Touch My Hair," a nicely timed corrective. "They don't understand what it means to me/Where we chose to go," she sings. "You know this hair is my shit, rode the ride/I gave it time/But this here is mine." Later in a conversation with her mother Mrs. Tina Lawson and the journalist Judnick Maynard published on her website, Knowles continues:
I believe that hair is incredibly spiritual, and, energetically, it really encompasses and expresses who we are. Obviously, my relationship with hair, being that I grew up literally in a hair salon, is very deep and very complex. I think that one of the things that I'm also trying to communicate through that song is the way that people see us through our hair. It's almost my India.Arie "I Am Not My Hair" moment. I feel like when I cut my hair and I decided to wear my hair natural, I didn't feel any more pro-Black or like I identified any more or less in my walk as a Black woman. That just wasn't my personal journey. I think I've been on so many fashion shoots and anything in regards to fashion, which is still a predominantly white industry, and also feeling the void of tokenism through my hair being an afro and what that meant to the fashion world. There was a fashion editor of a major magazine who was white and for Halloween she wore an afro wig and had black face and called herself Solange. There was another magazine that composed celebrity-look-alikes, and they used a dog for me. They talked about my hair being like one of a dog, literally. So, hair just became so complex for me. I remember my mother came with me on a two-show run that I did, and all of the micro-aggressions of us traveling within those four days had me noting to her that whenever I would wear my hair straighter, I would typically have an easier time traveling. So, the song is as much as what it feels like to have your whole identity challenged on a daily basis, although physically touching the hair is extremely problematic!
A few days later, Knowles released videos for "Don't Touch My Hair" and "Cranes in the Sky," both directed by her husband Alan Ferguson. We called up Knowles' longtime hair guru, Nikki Nelms, who worked on the videos, to learn more about what went into their making. "We are both Southern girls and her mom is an amazing hairstylist," Nelms said. "I've always grown up around hair, hair is big to us culturally. No references were really needed. She could just tell me a situation, and I would just kind of get it." Here, Nelms breaks down every look in "Don't Touch My Hair."
"I couldn't tell you how [Knowles] came up with that, but it worked perfectly for the look. If there were to be a style that they could all wear and look amazing in, I would say a finger wave. The clips were what I used to keep the hair in place while she was performing or practicing. It turned out that it looked cool so we just left them. Sometimes the best things happen by just happening so the clips weren't planned, but the finger waves were. There was a lot of gel used, especially for the guys. It was very old school. I use three different [gels]. I like the Ampro black gel. That was really good for darker finger waves."
"We took our time and it was an experience. When it got closer to the time of the shoot, I had to solicit the help of the crew. I had the photographer pitching in, sorting through beads. I had Solange passing me rubber bands. Michael's, the arts and crafts store, was definitely one of my best friends for that look. Also I'm a big vintage shopper, so I was able to use vintage beads that may have been on a necklace or little trinkets to add to the texture of the total look."
"It's just very voluminous. It's blunt cut. Airy textured. Embracing the natural wave and the flyaways–just the lived-in look of it. There's very little hairspray. I tried to sneak in as much as I can, but she's not really big on hairspray. I like Sebastian Shaper Plus. That's my favorite hairspray if I don't know how extreme I need to go or if I need to bring it down a notch and quickly. I love it."
"The more you brush and tease, the more volume you'll get. So with that look, it was just more controlling, less aggravating because we just want it to stay flat. Maintaining the waves as opposed to fluffing them out. We didn't really embrace the flyaways for that. Preparation is always important. You do want your hair to be soft and conditioned. There's a shampoo by KeraCare called Hydrating Detangling Shampoo. Then the conditioner that I like is also KeraCare Humecto conditioner. I use a curling iron as a wand and I just don't open it because I'll need the versatility. I like to mix the curl patterns so you don't get uniformity."
"Once again, Michael's was my friend because I used really strong pipe cleaners with the braids and some wire so that the braids were easy to bend. It saved me a lot of time because if I needed to change the shape, I didn't have to re-braid and reshape. All I had to do was re-bend. That's how I achieved that. I used black pipe cleaners cause it matched the color of the hair."
"It's blown out and airy. We maintained the volume, but no curling techniques. If you wanted to curl it, you would curl it very loosely and brush it out. Just to give it some texture."
