Vs Behind The Scenes: Adut & Jawara Talk Black Hair | Victoria'S Secret

And i'm jawara international hair, stylist and we're here today with victoria secret speaking about black hair. Speaking about our experiences, the changes we'd like to see we're having an enlightened conversation. Hopefully, you get something from it, if not to inform just to understand a bit more another side, and we hope you and you guys enjoy it. We work together quite a lot. Yes, we do, and we wanted to have a conversation today about specifically black hair care within our industry and what the industry is like currently and what we'd like to see yeah. So, with your experience as one of the top models in the world so successful so proud of you by the way, what do you think you would like to see moving forward as it pertains to black models backstage and care and treatment based on the experiences i've Had since modeling something i would like to see and something i've been seeing a bit more diversity in the industry in terms of it's yourself, it's maybe one more other black hair stylist who are mainly used for editorials and shows. But there isn't too many of you and that's something i would like to see change and i want to yeah talk to me about some of like your backstage experiences and what have that been like as far as your hair concerns the bad ones, not the good Ones as far as those are the good ones later, but right, okay, we'll save the good ones for later. So i started in this industry what six years ago, almost six years ago, internationally and when i started i started with you know not super short hair, but it was shorter than it is now and as time went, it started growing more and more right, and i Just was ready for a different look. One hairstylist in particular soared and decided. He wanted to straighten it that day. So we straightened it. There was no heat protectant, so it was. It was just fried and then, throughout that entire fashion season fashion week season, everybody just wanted to straighten my hair yeah. I remember being backstage at a show and there would be 10 girls in the bathroom hiding because they didn't want to get their hands because they were. They were waiting for me and they didn't want to go to another history like ten. Whatever all the black models will be in the bathroom, hiding one by one like i'll wait, they're still like models who will once they leave them, make the hair chair yeah if they're lucky enough to not have their hair fried yeah they'll. I know a lot of black models that feel like i need to come to the shoot done already. Something i would also like to see is hairstylist not getting offended when a girl says something is not right. I'Ve experienced it one too many times even now. I think it's ego, i think that's the beauty. I think it's an ego thing. Somebody is brave enough and courageous enough to tell you when. Luckily, like i, i have that bravery and courage where i can say something doesn't look right, but i know a lot of girls who are scared to say something because yeah they don't want to be labeled as dramatic. Yes and that's another thing too. Whenever a model speaks up for herself and she happens to be a person, a model of color, just because of something going on with her look, she is immediately labeled, problematic, dramatic heart she's like no. She knows how she looks: you need to be willing to to educate yourself, yes on black hair textures and how to care for black hair, because i've had so many bad experiences with my hair got to a point where i have to cut my hair off, and I remember that i went bald and you even cut my hair. I remember from me that something that a lot of people need to understand about our hair. It doesn't grow overnight. Yes, it takes time, but you really have to care for it. You have to care for it for sure and nurture it, and i just you know i braid my hair. I think that's another thing that everybody needs to understand. It'S not just about, because we like braids yeah, because of how it looks it's protectively, a protective hair. It'S a protective hairstyle and there's so many different hair textures within just black hair yeah. You range from tight curls all the way to loose to made mixed it's a wide range of loads of different types. I think that the misconception with thick black hair is you have to go at it with loads of heat, or you have to kind of attack it yeah, and that to me, is a problem in itself. I think that it's about, like approaching the hair with some softness and it's very many yeah yeah - i mean it's the most versatile as far as like bringing it back from straight to curly to to whatever you want to do, and i think it's about people really Stopping and understanding i feel like nowadays too there's so many resources right yeah, to learn something as simple as youtube: yeah. We teach you so much how to do an effort yeah or how to stretch out a black girl or even if you want to really straighten. If that's the look they're going for yeah, there's ways to a healthy way to do it? Absolutely, when have you felt like some of the conversations that you're having will it still change or like ignite people to really understand like what's happening? Have you felt like that? With any of the conversations or any of the moments that you've been having one of the conversations being this one that we're having right now, yes, absolutely i've had a few of them. You know one that i can remember is. I did for victoria's secret not long ago for the podcast, and i got to have a platform where i could just speak of the same thing that we're speaking about right now, which is a big issue. I did an exhibition last year. It'S called course the ingenuity of black beauty and it's about just a celebration of black hair as a whole and, like you know, like all the stereotypes that kind of like played on them, and you know, try to make like a beautiful body of work that people Understand it's something to be celebrated. Hopefully we will start doing a lot more education so that we never have to feel like this again exactly