It was during the famous BAM Dance Africa Festival of 2003, where I found myself for the first time in my life in an environment where frizzy hair was the norm. The vast majority of women walking around the festival wore their hair naturally frizzy as if it was the most normal thing in the world. The influence that had on me was immense.
As a Black girl raised in Suriname who had her hair cut into an afro at the age of five, I knew what braids were. I had also seen dreadlocks and even kwie kwie ba, but the hairstyles I saw walking around here in Brooklyn at this summer festival were un-be-lievable! I had never seen so many beautiful variations.
Although I had only been frizzy for a year, I had no idea of what was possible with frizzy hair. It was here during this summer festival that I really got to know the hair I was born with. For the first time I could literally see what was possible with frizzy hair. Not only did the hairstyles surpass my most beautiful imagination, the possibilities seemed endless.
It was an overwhelming experience that inspired me to photograph afro hairstyles. At the same time, I realized that this environment was not unique to me. What really struck me was that Black girls all over the world, just like me, grow up with a very limited view of afro hair. I thought, “If girls growing up today see these hairstyles, there is no way they will not think differently about afro hair later on.”
Because if I had grown up in an environment where frizzy hair was the norm, with an infinite number of beautiful hairstyles, I know for sure that my hair history would have looked completely different.
Not that I would never have relaxed in my life, no. I think I probably would have relaxed my hair at some point but what I know for sure is that I would not have continued to straighten my hair after it had broken off over and over again until I was almost bald. That makes a world of difference.
With the aim of changing the perception of frizzy hair for the better, I started photographing hairstyles. What followed was something I could not have imagined myself.
More than 1,000 portraits and three exhibitions later, I was nominated for the Kuumba award from the Sankofa Empowerment organization last December. Lurie Daniel Favors, one of the first afros I photographed, presented me with the award saying: In the time before Facebook and YouTube, when afro hair wasn't that popular yet, when no one could see the beauty of afro hair, it was Mireille who walked around with her camera, capturing the hairstyles and saying: Afro hair is beautiful, the hairstyles are gorgeous.
The presentation and especially Lurie's words have moved me very, very much. The fact that I can now go to Suriname with this exhibition only makes everything even more beautiful.
Kuumba Award from Sankofa Empowerment
Kuumba (Creativity): To always do as much as we can, in the way we can,
in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
It looks like everything I have worked so hard on for years is coming together in this wonderfully beautiful event. The exhibition is complemented by a frizzy hair workshop, a documentary, a dialogue and a hair show.
You are cordially invited. View the program and click to register for the UMA! Conference 2015 in Suriname.
If you would like to help me select photos, go to naturalsofnewyork.com and vote for the hairstyles you like.
Would you like to support the UMA! initiative like our UMA! Empowerment page
A selection from the Kroeshaar exhibition
Written by Mireille Liong