Meet Leia, afro-hairstylist multidisciplinary creative
From helping to style hair for Bridgerton’s ‘Queen Charlotte’ series, to creating documentaries for the TATE - Leia is an artist putting her own stamp on Black History.
To round up our Black History Month celebrations, the Dr. Martens Foundation caught up with Leia to find out more about their art, how they’re developing it and where they want to take it.
This year, Leia was able to take their crafts even further with the help of DINN Enterprise’s Creator Fund. DINN are a Dr Marten’s Foundation Partner who exist to fill the gap in resources, skills and tools that inequality has created in the UK Black community. In turn, people like Leia are empowered to lead, influence and create the future for themselves and their community.
As an afro hairstylist first and foremost, could you tell us more about how you create art through hair?
My mission with using hair as a medium is to always bring light to the versatility of afro textures, and to help diversify the playing field for high fashion and the outside world. Kinky, curly hair has faced so much adversity both inside and outside of the black community through beauty standards, employment standards and, honestly, everyday social standards. There has definitely been a resurgence in glorifying and normalising afro hair around the world but I don’t think this has hit the fashion sphere as intensely yet, or at least not in the European space.
There have been so many people before me who have paved the way for afro textured hair and Black beauty standards to become part of the general beauty standard – I’m just playing my part of the generation removing stigma behind afro hair.
You mentioned that there are so many people that have paved the way before you, and that your art draws from your culture. Are there any particular people you take inspiration from in your creative process?
There are so many people I’ve been taking inspiration from even from before I even knew I was going to create art through hair. In general, I’d like to give honour to all the black women who have come before me - from Africa, north America, South America, the UK and everywhere in between – the African diaspora all across the world. I’ve learnt so much about how to do and care for my hair from these women on YouTube – especially African American women, they’ve done so much to push black culture forward.
Like @AfricanCreature - I found her on YouTube in secondary school, just through her general blogging content, not even anything to do with hair. But when I went on her Instagram I saw all this amazing work she does using shapes, colours and styling to highlight all the boldness, freedom and confidence that comes in rocking afro hair.
Then there’s other artists like @nolizw_16063. She’s from South Africa and creates hair sculptures that bring in more social, philosophical messages. Like her recent piece on “The Uncomfortability of Being Comfortable”
There’s so many more names I could reel off, like @faiththedesigner @muholizaneli @shamara_roper, that’s just a few.
How has DINN's creator fund helped you and your mission?
Despite achieving my goals and receiving accolades, I don’t always find it easy to not feel imposter syndrome. It’s not just the funding that DINN that has provided, but the wider programme has boosted my notions of self-belief and motivation to step into new projects and lead them more fluidly. The experiences of talking to successful people about how they built success was priceless.
My friend actually told me about the DINN Creator Fund and it was at a time where I was feeling a lot of doubt about my work. Being brought into a community of amazing creatives pushed me to do what I know I was capable of doing, but didn’t have the confidence to at the time. I really, genuinely, want to say a massive thank you to DINN for the programme.
It sounds like DINN’s creator fund came at the perfect time for you, it just shows the importance amazing initiatives like these can have on people’s journeys - and we’ve loved hearing about your journey today!
We have one more question for you: what mark on Black History do you hope to make with your art?
I want to be able to change perspective outside the Black community and within it. There is still stigma that sits within the diaspora. I want to add more fuel to fire of Black people accepting themselves fully and entirely. It’s not just about hair. Hair is just one way of giving Black people reasons to accept, love and express all the different parts of themselves.
But also, a lot of the time when I’m researching and pulling inspiration for my work, it comes from outside of the UK. Relatively, we haven’t been here for that long and we haven’t been able to capture the love and joy in our culture as much as other, bigger Black communities have. So, I feel blessed that through my work and being in this space, at this time, I get to contribute to the legacy of Black British history and help document our growth, our movement and everything that comes from it.
We can’t wait to see you keep doing more and more of this. Thank you for speaking with us today, Leia.
Find Leia, and all of their work, on Instagram: @styledbywasike
