Shaeri ❤️ Jessica
!My name is Amelle. I am an actress, comedian, director. I am curious about everything and I don’t restrain myself, I try to do different things. I love the theater. I created "Amour sur place et à emporter" firstly for the theater, and then I adapted it for the cinema: it’s about the racism that can exist between two communities, Black and Arab. When we think about racism in France, we think about white racism to the others, but we don’t know that there is a racism between what we call " the communities" ...
That's what I like to do: do things that make you laugh, to make you think... but without not giving lessons!
I was born in Paris, in the center of Paris, in a modest environment... and when you’re born in Paris, you quickly become a chameleon: in class, I was with the upper class... Very young, I understood that there was differences, and humor in this context is an exceptional weapon... It has nothing to do with the hair subject but still... At first I was always making a lot of blow-drys in order to look like my girlfriends, and then I got tired... One day, someone told me that I was very pretty with my curls, and I had a click - I stopped it!
But then we need to learn to control our hair: we have to take care of it, know how to brush it, control the curl, understand how to have healthy hair, how to have shiny hair... and for that why we need good products (;))! Otherwise, it's just a mess!
When I'm in Morocco, people don’t understand me, they call me "the shepherdess" or "mishkina"... because the trend there is to have a beautiful blow-dry! And then one day I said "I don’t care" to my mother and to all the people around me!
Many people in my family, my mother and my aunts, wear the veil, and under their veil they have a blow-dry, or the hair tied with a black elastic - or you know, THE blue clip... The hair is very rarely assumed, free! It may be due to education, related to the fact that they don’t want to be noticed, something about modesty... It's true that if you arrive in a coffee shop with loose hair, eyes are in you only!! In Paris, at the beginning I was embarrassed: we take so much space with our hair! Like when I go to a movie, I always tie my hair: I'm afraid to bother people with my hair, to be noticed, or that someone would say something to me!
It’s related to a lover who told me ‘I prefer you with curly hair’! So I started mixing. In my private life, I had them natural, and for interviews or important meetings, I made a blow-dry to look "neat", to be taken seriously… you always had to look ‘perfect’!
But when I think about it now, I find this ridiculous: curly hair means ‘not neat’?! Where does that come from?! Now I make blow-dry only from time to time, to change my look, to have fun! And I also know now that the what other people think of me doesn’t matter to me anymore!
Yes maybe... you should read Rokhaya Dialo's book (“Afro!”) Where she interviews people, either arab or black, about their hair...
Oh yes, Leila Slimani: I was so proud! So proud to see her with her curls on the cover of Elle Magazine. You see, we are frequently reduced to physical stereotypes: like the curly brunette who is a physical fantasy but definitely not l an intellectual! And then she won the Goncourt award and she goes with her curly hair fully assumed!
- Do you have a hair flop? One day I was invited to a weekend in La Baule: so of course I was in "blow-dry mode”! The guy who invited me, he thought I was the girl with long, straight black hair! And then he proposes to do jetski, I refuse, he insists - and of course what this happened: I fell into the water, and so, back to the curly mode! It was a bit like a "lie on the product"! It was a mix of fun, and a good lesson learnt: best not to lie about who we are! I played the ‘bella’, and I ended up looking like a wet dog, with the haircut of Maradona!
- And a hair top? When the man who is the father of my son told me "I love you as you are"! It's true, when someone really loves you, he loves you as you are!
- A Hair Tips? A little recipe of grandmother: I put a red onion (with garlic as an option) in a mixer, then I put it in a tights and scrub my scalp with it, and I let it pose all night long... Well, better not to have meeting during the 2-3 following days (the smell..!), but it makes the hair so much denser! I do this twice a year! Because our hair is like this: it seems there’s a lot of it because it’s thick, but often it’s actually ‘empty’ inside! We’re just all looking for more density!
And also, second tip: the famous Afro comb, which allows you to have more volume... it creates a great optical effect!
I was born in the heart of Paris, not in the suburbs. Very young, I saw Cyrano de Bergerac at the Comédie Française: and I knew that was what I wanted to do. I studied in a theater school, and I was sure that I would make a living out of it! I knew what I wanted, I was determined and I went until the end... I was working on Wednesdays to make money, and also I was never going out at night! That's how I started creating my circle of friends, my network!
I went to school and high school in Montorgueil, and my mother, who is traditional and has always worn the veil, was close to the upper class of the neighbourhood, the moms of my friends! That actually opened her mind… for sure, if we would have been in the suburbs, it would have been different, there would have been other influences and we would not have accessed to the same things... at the end, all this is a matter of localization!
]]>‘Bokja’ is the regional word for ‘bundle’ or the piece of fabric that is used to wrap the dowry of a bride. A familial tradition, a typical ‘bokja’ always bears the treatment of hand-embroidery from different female members of the family. Since its inception, Bokja has grown into a very successful multi-level design studio building the story of Beirut’s numerous co-existing cultures through their famous assemblage fabric, establishing itself as a disruptive and innovative brand, breaking down barriers and weaving human connections.
Through trade and travel, textiles, patterns and colors are gathered from around the world, re-assembled to create each Bokja assemblage. In every Bokja assemblage, the integrity of each piece is upheld as it is connected with foreign cultures and fabrics.
Bokja brings together poetic fragments of a time and place and situates them in unusual arrangements.
We find beauty in the interaction between different elements. It is through these juxtapositions of disparate surfaces and its final application that the importance of each component becomes magnified; a rich and unexpected visual language is created.
Huda- During my teenage years I used to blow dry my hair. Letting it flow freely, gave me another level of freedom.
Maria- I am like Delilah, my hair has always been my secret weapon.
Huda- I am a Leo and my hair plays a big role in my astrological identity.
Maria- Part of becoming aware of my femininity involved letting my hair grow and feeling empowered through it.
Huda- I was once cut my hair asymmetrically, back in the 80s; it didn’t suit me at all.
Maria- My most expensive hair cut was the worst I have ever wore; I looked like Rod Stewart.
Maria- I braid it after washing, right before it dries completely.
The brand’s mashup of textures and eras has revived heirlooms, reclaimed furniture pieces, and provoked conversations through textile. Using the same aesthetic language, the brand expands its conversation into the world of wearables.
I am a young mother of 32 years old who loves all forms of scenic expression. Dancing chose me very quickly at the age of 6 and since then we have never let go ;)
Because my sister used to do it. And a family friend offered to take me and her daughter there every Wednesday ;)!
Success... I don't really like that word ;)
I would say that I worked hard and then was lucky enough to be in the right places at the right time I guess...
I had beautiful hair when I was younger, with beautiful, soft, shiny curls and very long hair :)
Today, it is thin and greasy very quickly: it is fragile and I can lose it a lot at times...
It's complicated: unfortunately I tie it up way too much! I had a lot of painful episodes related to my hair: I regretted bleaching my hair, I also went from beautiful long and curly hair to short and thin hair... :(
Then I also had a patch of hair on the back of my neck: it took a good year to grow back! On stage on tour I used to use fake hair to densify my poor, thin, flat hair, and by the time I got to the stage it had taken a good chunk out...
I often don't have enough time to take care of it so I end up tying it up, which obviously makes it greasy and breaks it!
I think I just listed my hair flops above 👆🏽
And do you have a #hairtips?Rinse your conditioner with cold water!
And also sea water has a magical effect on my curls ;)
Photo: Benjamin Boccas
My father was "the Paris Forger" during World War II, and then continued this clandestine activity for 30 years! His story - and the fact that he's always refused to be paid for it - has been kept a secret for a very long time. I discovered it growing up, and that's why I wanted to make this book: to tell it, so that everything is written somewhere. And for me, this book has a particular resonance with current events, it is in a way quite hopeful for the current generation: at the level of a single person, it is possible to change things...
Well of course, my father is white, of Ashkenazi Russian origin, he was born in Argentina, a nationality I inherited. And my mother is Algerian, black, Tuareg, Muslim - and they have a big age difference. For me, there is nothing exotic about it since it is my universe, at home we never asked ourselves the question of the difference! It is only through the gaze of others that we feel these things or not, it is the gaze that outside people have on us that makes us feel comfortable or not ...
As a kid, I wanted to have smooth, very long hair, princess hair... in Algeria where I was born, there was no conditioner! My hair was washed with Marseille soap: it was a nightmare! Then when I arrived in France, I had a mop of curly hair that went down to my buttocks. My mother would put tons of detangler on me, sometimes several bottles, but it still took several hours to break through the knots - I remember entire Saturdays spent in the bathtub... Then as a teenager I was quite rebellious, I've had an Iroquois crest, then no hair at all... I wanted to break the 'wise girl's image'.
Later, I realized that if I wanted beautiful curls, I had to stop taming them! I started to untangle them with my fingers (and not with a brush), to let them freely dry in air... And then, miracle, they stopped tangling!
Today I find that the physical characteristic that represents the most my personality is my hair, natural, as it is! As soon as I modify it, it feels like disguise... Besides, last time I did a brushing goes back more than... 8 years!
When I got a real afro haircut that was pretty loose - that was 17 years ago, when my son was just 1 year old. The curls were super beautiful, I had nothing to do in the morning, just apply a bit of cream, shake my head and hop! And I remember, I was walking with my head held high, I felt so good.
I have many! I did a lot of crazy things with my hair, colors, pink, blue, green, I shaved completely, did bangs, braids ... - but I wouldn't say those were really hair flops, it was kind of funny... I would say that 'hair flop' moments usually happen when you have complicated moments in your life... for example when you're young and struggling, with more issues, and then just when you decide to do a brushing the rain comes... so nothing is going right!! I remember this New Year's Eve when I was walking in street with my hair just brushed, going to a party, and then the rain came and the drizzle made my hair all swell up - but without making it curly either! Just as if if I had received 100,000 volts of electricity... it was terrible..!
Yes: never use a hair brush!!!
As the first transgender performer to win a Golden Globe, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez recently made history. In addition to winning the first Golden Globe for the series, which centers on New York City's queer- and trans-led 1980s dance scene, she received the prize for best actress for her work as housemother Blanca on FX's Pose.
Rodriguez has always been proud of her Afro-Latin heritage. She was born to an African-American mother and a father who is half-Puerto Rican and half-African-American. She believes that everyone should be looked at equally as a person
Feminist activist, militant and queer, dancer, choreographer, speaker, teacher, performer Both Habibitch's Instagram account and her biography are diverse. Habibitch, an acronym for "habibi" (Arabic for "my beloved") and "bitch" (you get it), is advertised as a "Swiss army knife." She deftly alternates between posting about anti-racism, police brutality, and the dance she does with Kiddy Smile or Yseult.
Her aim is ambitious: to dissect, learn, and mobilize. She is quite active on social media. However, this prominent member of the Parisian voguing and waacking scene, a dance that originated in the homosexual bars of Los Angeles in the 1970s, did not decide to use Instagram as his primary platform for advocacy and expression. The epidemic denies the person who planned the dance conference "Decolonizing the dancefloor" a stage and an audience.
Dr. Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju is a well-known LGBT social media influencer with over 195k Instagram followers. She also has a YouTube channel where she uses it to inform and educate viewers on a variety of subjects, including gender and sexuality. She has also worked together in the past to spread awareness of the LGBTQI+ community alongside individuals like Kusha Kapila and Srishti Dixit. She just made history by becoming Karnataka's first transgender surgeon
Christopher Caldwell, best known by his stage name Bob the Drag Queen, is a reality television star, actor, comedian, drag queen, and musician from the United States. He is most known for winning RuPaul's Drag Race's eighth season. Bob was ranked ninth out of 100 past Drag Race competitors by a panel of judges from New York magazine in their assessment of "the most powerful drag queens in America" in June 2019. He was the first Black Drag Race queen to gain one million followers on Instagram as of the year 2020.
His acting career continued after Drag Race, as he had appearances on the television programs High Maintenance (2016), Tales of the City (2019), and A Black Lady Sketch Show (2019). Alongside fellow Drag Race competitors Eureka O'Hara and Shangela, he started co-hosting We're Here on HBO in 2020. Critics have praised the television series.
Undoubtedly one of the most touching personalities there is: her gentleness and her sensitivity are rare! In 2006, Taia became the first publicly gay Arab writer, and as of 2014, he is still the only openly gay Moroccan writer or filmmaker, according to Interview Magazine, which called him a "literary transgressor and cultural paragon." Salvation Army, his debut film, is credited with creating "the first homosexual protagonist" in Arab cinema. Taa "has become an iconic figure in his hometown of Morocco and throughout the Arab world since coming out, and a light of hope in a nation where homosexuality is banned," one source claims.
To my surprise - you can call it chance or "mektoub", Manal answered straight away and we chatted for a while... this is the Magic of social networks really! Then we met a few hours later in a café in place de la Nation, in Paris.
That's where I told her about our project, our vision of Woman and Beauty, the issues we wanted to address, and how she could help us to embody a certain idea of Beauty. She agreed to help us within a second, and with so much enthusiasm... and 15 days later, we met for a photoshoot in the beautiful Parisian apartment of a friend!
She was photographed by a friend, Maeva Delacroix, and was filmed by another friend, Mai Hua: that's how the first episode of our series of portraits "about Hair and Women" was born!
With so much spontaneity and simplicity, Manal told us about her career, about how she became an actress and held a first role (for which she was nominated for the Césars!), and about how she lived - and still lives - between two countries, France and Lebanon.
She talked about her relationship with her curly and dry hair: "My hair, well... they are here!" She told us that as a little girl, she was always screaming as her mother (who had straight hair and didn't understand that "you don't brush curly hair!") was brushing her hair . Then, growing up, she finally understood that she "had very beautiful hair" and that she could play with it.
“شِعر” “shaer” in Arabic means a few things such as “hair”, “motto”, “poetry”, “rhyme” and lastly “song”. The first form of Arabic literature is poetry, which is known in Arabic as ash-shi'ru al-'Arabyyu. Oral poetry is said to have existed before the sixth century, when written poetry in Arabic came into being.
"Shayari" is an abbreviation of the Urdu/ hindi word "shairi," which means "poetry." Shairi are poems that have at least one couplet or "Sher" in them. A "Ghazal," the most popular Urdu poetry structure, is made up of many couplets strung together.
While creating Shaeri, we loved the idea that Hair can be deeply connected to Poetry and we strongly believe that even Hair might be the most visible part of ourselve, it is is also deeply connected to our inner spirituality and emotions.
"Ada Un Kaale Kaale Gesuon Ki Kuchh Niraali Hai,
Banaane Se Bigadte Hain Sanwaare Se Bikharte Hain."
-Urdu Poem
Translation
"Beauty of those black black hairs they get spoiled by making, they get scattered by decorating"
My name is Anaelle Myriam Chaaib Franco-Moroccan I make colorful paintings, happy, full of details
From the city where I live, Tangier, and from this region in the north of Morocco, but also from my other country, France, from my childhood memories and from life!
I never touch my hair color, I use a boar bristle brush to make it shine and give it volume, and I use masks with oils that I can get my hands on (olive, castor, coconut...)
To open a pastry shop/tea room full of color with my sister in Tangier, to make beautiful books, animations and great collaborations like with Shaeri.
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After working in the medical skin care industry for over 10 years, I found brands that challenged the status quo and knew that Canadian consumers would respond well to their message. Too many distributors focused solely on logistics and existing retail channels, but we knew that professional beauty and lifestyle concepts were an untapped opportunity.
My hair is healthy and probably my best feature. :)
It is neither too dry or too oily, so I can wash it once a week, which I think has kept it even healthier over time.
My hair has supernatural powers over me! It makes me feel beautiful and I will do anything for it, so it’s become this spoiled monster that controls my life. The pandemic relieved me of a lot of this stress because I was forced to do my own hair and deal with rain and humidity. It’s a funny love/hate relationship, but I feel my best when my hair looks amazing.
My parents used to live in New Hampshire and I made an appointment to get a blow dry at a local salon. The stylist was lovely but when she blew out my hair, her round brush kept bonking me on the head like a “whack a mole” carnival game. She didn’t stop no matter what I said, and the Canadian in me kept me quiet and too polite. It was so painful.
Toronto has some of the best hair talent in the world, so I have incredible experiences every time I go to the salon. My colourist, Tony Pham, is a genius at creating dimension with highlights and maintenance is so easy. If you are in our city, treat yourself to a blow dry with Ramzi or Thuy from Tony’s team at Lac + Co.
]]>My name is Hicham Bouzid, I am 29 years old, I was born in Tangier. I work as an art director and curator, my curatorial practice lives around different projects: I organize exhibitions, seminars, podcasts, artist residencies, open studios and more recently, I came back to something that really fascinates me which is publishing, by creating a magazine called Makan. The different mediums that I practice tend towards the same objective, around the contemporary issues that cross Moroccan society today. I try to create a narrative that emanates from our specific context.
I didn't study in the art world but I learned on the job, I started working as a bookseller at the Insolites bookstore in Tangier before moving to Marrakech in 2013 where I had the great pleasure to be part of the launch of 18, Derb el Ferrane, a multidisciplinary cultural riad in the heart of the medina of Marrakech. This space of cultural and artistic experimentation has been an extraordinary experience for me and has opened the door to many opportunities and encounters.
In 2016, I relocated to Tangier and created the ThinkTanger platform, a cultural project that explores the social and spatial issues of the city of Tangier.
This year, ThinkTanger celebrates its 5th anniversary, although the project started as a one shot.
When Amina Mourid and I launched the project, the question was simple: what's going on in Tangier? Around us, there was a lot of change: exploded streets, new neighborhoods, new urban infrastructure. ThinkTanger is interested in the impact of urban change on people's lives and thinks about the city of Tangier through a cultural lens. It is very important to highlight the experience of the people of Tangier, a city that has suffered from a false image: that of the Beat Generation, trashy, sexy and bohemian, at the crossroads of continents... But this image does not fit today's reality.
Our cultural program takes shape around a cycle of reflection, a theme. We structure it around meetings with artists, researchers, urban planners, activists, who are interested in living together in a city. We also have a program of artist residencies, open studios, exhibitions and publications through the Makan magazine, trying to involve an ever-wider community. Our studio is located in the center of the city, but we create links with the outskirts through an urban laboratory program that we develop with communities from these neighborhoods, always to reflect the urban and social change of the city of Tangier through people's experiences.
Atelier Kissaria is a space dedicated to the production of printed objects and images, launched one year after Think Tangier. In Morocco, the kissaria is the ancestor of the mall, the place where you can find everything. We wanted to create the kissaria of practices, a place where you can screen print your poster, produce a fabric, etc.
I was lucky enough to meet and collaborate with the artist Yto Barrada, also from Tangier, whose work is an inspiration to us, who offered to share her Tangier workshop with us. When I launched the Kissaria workshop, it was less to produce than to question production, the role of craft as an artistic practice in itself and to reinscribe craft practices in a process of artistic production, because in Morocco and in other African countries, the history of art is extremely linked to craft. Personally, I consider that a carpet produced by a weaver and in which patterns and symbols reflect something beyond decoration. There is also an obvious link between the craft and the city, today artisans find themselves, because of the massive industrialization of a city like Tangier, away.
Today we focus on printing and independent publishing, through silk-screening, which I also practice personally and which, itself, is a craft practice, ancestral, at the center of artistic production. The Kissaria workshop will evolve into the Tangier Print Club.
Tangier still has a small town or even village atmosphere even though it is a metropolis of 2 million inhabitants (which lacks the infrastructure of a metropolis...) People have a routine, I run into the same people at the Café de Paris every day. I love this city enormously, I am fully committed to it because it gives me a unique opportunity to develop extraordinary things. Tangier inspires me, I observe what happens on a daily basis, I observe the people. In the city center, where I live, extremely different backgrounds and socio-economic categories come together, which is not the case in other cities. I really like this absurd human mix.
I define myself as Mediterranean first by food: eating a tomato and feeling the sun inside. In Tangier, despite the super and hypermarkets that have sprung up everywhere, there are still places like the jbala market. Three times a week, the jebliat, these women who live in the mountains, come down to the city to sell their products, vegetables, fruits, seeds, farm eggs, excellent olive oil, etc. For me, the Mediterranean is all about these small daily pleasures that are not very expensive and that have all their importance. I am also thinking of the mix of cultures found in Tangier and in the Mediterranean. I also want a southern Mediterranean identity, where borders still exist. I feel that I don't belong to the same side of the Mediterranean as some people who can go back and forth: I see Tarifa every day but I don't have access without a visa!
We talked about family, music, couscous, freedom, sorority, and hairstories of course!
I grew up in a family that could look like the beginning of a Woody Allen movie: between a psychoanalyst mother and a gynecologist father... Freedom, enthusiasm, generosity, work, personal expression - and also good couscous, have always been respected values.
The paradox, the nuance are for me essential in this world and in everything in general... I find that we attend more and more towards a confinement, a radicalization of words... with more and more decrease... and I find it sad and scary. I find the complexity so human, so it's true that when I write, I like to mix laughter and tears, hard lyrics on soft music; proposing paradox is offering another listening, another reading of things that in my opinion is more like the real life, where our emotions are not monochrome, and where maybe we take ourselves a little less seriously...
I also have in mind this amazing moment when you and Sylvie went on stage (on the set of Quotidien) with your sisters, mothers, daughters, friends... it was so intense! Are you very much 'girls' gang'?
My life is surrounded by wonderful women, my daughters, my sister, my mother, my wonderful friends and all those I meet on the road. My world is essentially feminine. Sometimes I dream that I will end up living in a big house where I will live with them all, all generations... I love women, their career, their struggles, their stories, I like that we are different but together.
I am Berber, my father and my mother are from Tunisia. At home everybody has curly hair, and our hair is always a subject... it takes so much space in our lives... As a teenager and until late, I wanted to be like my girlfriends of the schools Lamartine and Condorcet, with very straight hair... I admit, I straightened it under the iron sometimes... Today I fully assume this free hair, which I must admit reflects my moods pretty well...
With Sylvie we like to have fun, Brigitte is a real playground in image, it was so exciting on the second album to work on the twinning - although we don’t look much like each other, to wear wigs, to find in us what made us similar.
I would say after giving birth, during several months I had the hair of my dreams... But all of this was just a dream obviously, and at the end of the hormones everything is gone...
I love when I just washed my hair, it may sound silly but before important appointments, I always found that it helps to have confidence in itself ...
❤️
]]>My name is Sarah or The Arabic Novel. I'm very passionate about Arabic literature and culture, I share this passion on my social networks and also in some specialized magazines.
The Arabic Novel is the sum of who I am, a story, an Arabic novel. I often say that I am "the sum of the rhymes of my ancestors", by which I mean that the Maghrebians of Arab-Muslim culture, we are peoples of oral traditions, within which poetry, eloquence and stories have an almost sacred dimension. These worlds, this literature and these cultures are my passions, and then, almost two years ago now, I felt the need to share all this, so I created The Arabic Novel.
The first is "Forgotten Sultanas", by Fatima Mernissi. The author, an internationally recognized sociologist, draws up an impressive list of women who have assumed the role of head of state in Islam, women whom history has carefully erased, and whose stories, beyond being inspiring, are necessary to enlighten the steps of thousands of women today.
I'm lucky enough to have very ambitious hair, but I didn't always realise it. It's never been interested in pushing down to the ground, it's always aimed for the stars. While we've had a complex relationship over the years and through fashions, my hair mass has always been a central and singular part of me. We just had to understand a few things to get along:
1/ don't try to impose anything to my hair, my hair does it for me;
2/ inventing, tinkering, fiddling with your own beauty rituals for your curls; 3/ don't try to comb your hair at night before going to sleep like Wendy in Peter Pan, or you'll wake up looking like Angela Davis;4/ mourn the loss of dynamic coattails; in another life perhaps...5/ Beware of hairdressers like the plague;6/ realise the political significance of free hair in the public space;
Hair as a political object may be a debate we've grown tired of in the United States, a faraway land where the "nappy" live happily on Instagram (the nappy movement is the French name for the "natural hair movement", which was born in the United States in the 2000s and refers to black women who want to keep their frizzy hair), but on this side of the Atlantic it's a completely different story. If the ardour of Myriam Fares (Lebanese singer with curly hair) has undoubtedly helped to play down the curl for a generation brought up on the Pantene pro-V bottle, we Mediterranean women from the South, from the North, are still subject to a definition of beauty that doesn't suit us.
Doubly, caught between European and Arab criteria, these converge on the same definition of hair beauty: straight, smooth and silky hair, preferably long. As women with non-straight hair, we were taught that our natural version was not acceptable in society, that our hair was never really styled, that it didn't look serious at work, that it had to be straightened for a wedding and so on. So we had our hair straightened, tied, ironed, straightened, Japanese style, Brazilian style, keratin style...
While Pantene ads still work on my grandmother, who regularly asks me if it would be better if I straightened my hair "to keep the peace" - or rather, to keep her peace - things have certainly changed a lot since I was 15. In the media, in films and especially in music videos, but also in supermarkets with products dedicated to the care of our hair which, behind their invasive appearance, are in reality very fragile. Today, curls are increasingly worn, and little girls with curly hair no longer necessarily have to wear their hair up.
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I started modeling at a very early age, as a baby, and at 19 years old, after graduating from my literary baccalaureat, I decided to start a modeling career. In 2012, I participated in 'Miss La Rochelle' election (I was not selected), and in 2015 I became 'First Dauphine' of 'Top Model Chad'.
Participating in 'Miss African Union' contest was obvious: for so many years I didn't win the supreme title of Miss, so I had to try one last time, having acquired maturity and confidence over the years .
As Miss African Union, I have two projects. One being the committee's project to help homeless children and war orphans. The second is my personal project which is to help young entrepreneurs of African origins, from the diaspora or living on the continent. By setting up conferences to put them in touch with entrepreneurs, mentors and investors. To enable them to realize their dreams and highlight their projects.
I started by creating an association called "Millennials Entrepreneurs", to meet young entrepreneurs and organize conferences.
Every morning! All day, my hair is free, brush or like a pineapple. It highlights my face or my outfit. But as soon as the moment to rest comes, I have to tie it in a certain way, so that the next day it's as beautiful as the day before... but as soon as I wake up everything is gone, the texture, the curls and the shine! This is our daily life for my hair and I.
Treat your hair like a salad! All products that are good for your body are good for your hair. Avocado, mayonnaise, okra, egg, mustard oil. Mix everything, rinse and your hair, it will be less dry and your curls will be highlighted!
Shaeri ❤️ Jessica
Big question ;) My name is Axelle Tessandier, I am the founder of Axl Agency, a think tank on the major issues of the digital revolution and a consultancy that I created in 2013 in the USA before returning to France in 2016. I created it to be able to create, explore, collaborate, and to allow me to make my curiosity my profession. I am an author and speaker. Committed and passionate about everything I do.
My hair is wavy, voluminous, it's part of my personality. I never brush or straighten it. I feel like it protects me sometimes. When I was younger, I used to dream about it being straight. As I got to know myself, it's the opposite. I always want more curls!
It's an obvious way of being. I don't wear much make-up either. I like them the way they are... I feel like they reflect who I am. A bit of a wild and free idea. I haven't used a hairdryer in... I don't even know, years! So the thoughtful thing to do is not to do too much of the right thing! Which doesn't mean I don't take care of it.
Thank you! There is a family thing, a fairly common hair nature. I wash it every day, it's too much, but it's almost a toc, I need even with a frequent use shampoo to do it! But it doesn't take me long. I have never done a colour or perm in my life. I haven't used hot air and blow dryers for years, so I don't know if that keeps them free of abuse. I'm veggie too... and I don't smoke nor drink. Like our skin, I think our hair is sensitive to our lifestyle choices.
My hair is perhaps my favourite thing physically, so it gives me a bit of confidence sometimes!
The lock of hair that falls into my eyes all the time. The short haircut which, with my hair type, gave me a "helmet" look that was not very flattering.
I always feel that the conditioner takes away my volume... So I put a small amount of shampoo after... I have no idea if it works but it's my amateur recipe ;))
My name is Kenza, I am 34 years old and I live in Paris. I have been blogging "Kenza's review" since 2008, and all the social networks associated with it. I talk about fashion, beauty, Lifestyle and other subjects that touch me.
The same way! It's all about the cycle. Those we call the new generation will be the old ones, and new influencers will emerge through maybe other platforms that will be created in the meantime. But I strongly believe that it is now a profession that has taken root, and that it is not going to stop any time soon.
I had curly hair when I was younger. Until I started sweeping, straightening , I was always very curly. Now it's still as thick as ever, but I would say more wavy than curly. I don't know if the nature of my hair has changed, or if I've used too many treatments, but it takes up a lot of space 'physically speaking' (long and thick).
Yes, rather! I've always heard my family and friends tell me that I had beautiful hair, so I was very confident about it. But naturally, like most teenage girls, I felt like going against the nature of my hair. I had a period where I systematically read it!
I've always taken care of my hair, but where I found it hot was during my pregnancy. We were in the middle of our confinement, I had time to take care of it, to apply oils to it, and to let my masks stay on for quite a long time.
The worst thing I could do to them was a raven black dye, combined with a straightening, and a haircut like a rat tail. It was awful, but 15 years ago it was a real box !
With a mantra like Power is in the Hair, it's clear that hair is a real issue for Kenza - and one that goes far beyond mere appearances. It is a central part of her personality. For her, "everything is political and everyone can be an actor of change!"
She has "always felt it was important to wear her hair natural", even though there has always been a huge pressure to straighten her hair and "conform to 'foreign' beauty standards".
"It's my hair that chooses, not me!" From this realisation, she "learned to accept the randomness in her life from what's on my head".
At 17, the day she arrived in France, someone stopped her in the street and told her she had "incredible hair potential"!
In fifth grade, when she got an Alizée haircut, a straight bob: of course, after the first wash, her hair took over and she "went from Alizée to Angela Davis"!
All the high hairstyles, the big buns, it's very pretty and easy to do... and then "it works even better when the hair is dirty"!
My name is Sofiia and I live in Paris. I am an actress, director and the founder of the website My Beautyfuel food:)
Tell us about My beautyfuel food, how did your project come about?
I've always been passionate about food, I've done a lot of dancing, and as an actress, our bodies and our skin are our working tools.
I had a very early hollistic relationship with beauty, and especially with the impact of food on health and skin. Nutrition obviously has a major role to play, as it is our cellular fuel. I want to look good without any artifice; especially with film shoots and photo shoots our skin is solicited, so outside of work I am without make up 7 days a week.
In 2017 I had an auto immune disease that made me sick for almost 1 year (loss of vitality, of my hair...), and to make it short I cured myself going through a 100% alkaline and anti inflammatory diet (no more gluten, white sugar, processed products, dairy products) and I cured myself in 10 days. I decided to create MY BEAUTYFUELFOOD to share my vision of beauty and well-being through food, my lifestyle, my beauty tips, my obsession to have a beautiful GLOWY skin, and all this with good vibes and beautiful pictures.
Beautiful? Thank you! My hair is a big part of my identity, I try to take care of it as much as possible, I don't colour it, I don't put oil on it, I cut my fringes by myself and above all I pamper it by feeding it with good fats (chia seeds, avocado, walnuts: their best friends for shine) and by giving it all the nutrients it needs. I am a big consumer of collagen, superfoods (spirulina, klamath, chlorella: magical for hair).
Once a week I go to my hairdresser Francine (France in Paris) who is a hair doctor, I follow a Floratherapy protocol followed by a clay poultice, all 100% natural and without any endocrine disruptors. I am a fan of your "no poo" which follows me everywhere and especially the Detox Scrub which is incredible and which I used during my trip to Morocco in March!
I wash my hair every day with the no poo and after rinsing I apply a little mask that I don't rinse out. I let my hair air dry and then apply a defining cream and lightly spray with a seawater spray.
I avoid blow-drying, straightening my hair and I let it air dry (even in winter)!
And do you have a hair top?
When I'm in Marrakech my hair is amazing! I think dry climates really suit it.And what about a hair flop?
Hahah! Yes, every time I try to do a blowout for an event or a red capet it's a disaster! The latest one was at the opening of the Roxie club last November, what a hair drama!
My artist name "Raïssa Leï" is a combination of the word Raïssa which means president and director of a troupe, which I was given in Morocco as president of the association Diaspor'Arts Marocaines and director of the Kif-Kif Bledi troupe.
Leï is the diminutive of Leïla, a nickname I was given about fifteen years ago when I started hiphop dancing. I am a dancer and choreographer specialising in traditional North African dance, Waacking - a funky 70s style from Los Angeles, and I have created a fusion of these two styles as well.
In parallel I have been working as an engineer in computer science and applied mathematics for the last ten years. I am of Moroccan origin from Oujda, born in Paris 20th, from an Amazigh (Berber) Zenet tribe.
I have always been fascinated by the parties in Morocco where we danced as a family or just between women, I still have memories at around 4-5 years old on the "stah" (roof of the house) where we danced in the evening for a wedding or party, my grandmother's sister having particularly marked me by her dexterity in the dances of our regions.
In France, it was a little ballet dancer I saw on TV that made me want to dance, I said to my mother at the age of 6 "I want to do that". Coming from a modest family, we received a municipal grant for sports and dance activities. I was very lucky that the nearest dance venue to our home was the Georges Bizet Conservatory in the 20th arrondissement.
I was therefore able to benefit from high quality training in modern jazz dance from the age of 7 to 18. Our teacher also brought us teachers of world dances: Indian, African, Charleston, Oriental, Gypsy.
At the age of 18 I already had a thirst for world dances and stage experiences. I always wanted to go further by getting into hiphop, funk being my favourite musical style (I have 3 older brothers born in the 70s).
I then discovered Waacking, which is not very developed in France, and I travelled to the United States, Japan and Europe to improve my skills.
I have been teaching Waacking in Paris for 9 years. At the same time I had a return to my roots, noticing that the traditional dances of North Africa, in particular Amazigh (Berber), were neither valued, nor programmed in theatres, nor widely taught in Europe, most people associating it with oriental dance.
This is how I developed my work around teaching and performing traditional dances from North Africa and the Middle East via my troupe Kif-Kif Bledi or solo, in France and internationally.
Les Figues de Berbérie (Figs of Berberia) is a twist on the name Les Figues de Barbarie (prickly pear). In the past, North Africa was called Berberia, inheriting the word "barbarus", which means "foreigner" or "one whose language I do not understand" in Greek and Roman.
It was only in ancient times, following various invasions by different peoples, that the word barbarian took on its current meaning of savage / aggressive.
Les Figues de Berbérie is therefore a 60-minute dance piece that gives back its letters of nobility to the Amazigh people of North Africa, which includes about ten countries. The choreographic approach is contemporary, using strictly traditional Amazigh gestures.
We tell the story of the initial uniqueness of our people, then the splits linked to the different invasions and colonisations that have formed the countries and borders we know today.
In this way, each of us can question our own origins and what we can each initiate to ensure that our large intangible cultural heritage continues.
My sources of inspiration are mainly family. We have always had strong, courageous women with character in the family, and the men of my grandfathers' generation and above were resistants and warriors. Then being from Oujda, 15km from Algeria, I have a double Moroccan-Algerian culture. The artists who have marked me are the Raïssas Chleuhs of Western Morocco: Aïcha Tachinouite, Raïssa Tabamrant, Fatima Tihihite, Raïssa Kelly, the singers of my region: the Bouchenak brothers, Hassan El Berkani, Talbi One. Also the stars of Moroccan chaabi: Najat Aatabou, Daoudia, Tahour. On the Algerian side: Cheikha Rimitti, Warda, Lounès Matoub, Malika Domrane, Taous Amrouche, the ONB, Rachid Tahar.
But also in the 90's I was strongly influenced by new jack and funk bands: BlackStreet, Teddy Riley, Shalamar, Delegation...
And more recently I'm very inspired by the electro-Arabic or North African musical movements because it corresponds to my dance fusion: Ammar 808, Acid Arab, Hello Psychaleppo, Emel Mathlouti.
Otherwise I love to see dance shows from other countries like Ukraine, Thailand, Gypsy and read traditional tales.
To be Berber above all is to be Amazigh, which literally means "a free being". Secondly, it is to be the heir of a civilisation of which we have traces since 10,000 years before Christ. Despite invasions, colonisations, exodus, immigration to Europe, we have managed to preserve our traditions, customs and language without any written records, which is exceptional.
Today I am worried about the loss of this heritage through the bursting of the family bubble and the disinterest of the younger generations in traditions in favour of new technologies.
Fortunately, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, for example, are developing the promotion of festivals, moussems and noubas in order to maintain our traditions.
I love my hair like crazy :) On my mother's side all the women have very straight, fine and silky hair, a bit like Native American women. On my father's side, a lot of mass!
So I have a mixture of both. I tried to curl my hair but it would never hold, my only way is to tame it with a smoothing treatment based on silk proteins once or twice a year.
I have never coloured my hair and I use sulphate-free shampoos, which is reflected in their quality.
Getting fringes on your forehead to keep up with the fashion! I did it once and used tweezers for several months to hide it because I was so uncomfortable.
Prickly pear oil for the ends before (or after dry) shampooing, and an invigorating grape seed and green tea spray after shampooing :)
Created by Dr. Ghada Hatem Gantzer, La Maison des Femmes has been welcoming vulnerable women or victims of violence since July 2016 and offers them a complete care pathway. The Women's House has become a resource centre where patients benefit from multiple workshops to improve their self-esteem and participate in discussion groups.
The Women's House welcomes between 50 and 70 women a day.
As an independent brand committed to all women, we have decided to support the Maison des Femmes, especially financially. Through this support we wish to illustrate our desire to act in favour of women, the inclusion of all populations, solidarity between communities and multicultural beauty.
This is why Shaeri decided to support La Maison des Femmes through various actions:
We donate 1% of our total annual turnover to the Maison des Femmes,
and throughout the year we organise Beauty Workshops, or Hair Power Workshops, to take care of our patients to enable them to recover and to rediscover self-esteem .