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A crown for a queen

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I’ve never really had a good relationship with my hair – it was always “k***ir hare” that needed to be controlled.

“Did you put your finger in the plug again, Tabacco?” the kids at primary school would ask me, followed by a chorus of ignorant laughter that tugged away at the coils of my Afro and any confidence that came with it.

“Hamb’ okama amahliphihliphi, Nontobeko! [Go comb that messy hair],” my mother would instruct. If I didn’t, I’d find my head tucked between her thighs as she unknotted with an Afro comb.

You shiver while trying to figure out which evil is coming your way – the painful pulls of Benny and Betty? Ama’Blocks? is’Snoopy?

Oh no! Here comes the raging chemical warfare. “Ungasheshi uwashe! [Don’t be too quick to wash off the relaxer]” meant the burning sulphurs of hell...

This neat and tidy, sleek, middle parted hair came at a cost, including childhood happiness.

My fondest memories are not that of our regal African queens and their powerful crowns. These were the 90s, not the bold and brave era of #PretoriaGirlsHigh. We sat in assembly lines, neatly squeezed between racist school policies and the hair police patrolling any coil that dared to slip out of place.

This bold and brazen era we live in now gives me goosebumps. Black womxn “coming for the win” (and the land) with “Yaaas Honey!” It’s breathtaking to watch them own their hair in the most creative and relevant way. A thorough stalk on my Instagram leads to @urban_mimz, @Nix_Indamix and @originalbedoo.

Nikiwe Dlova

The 29-year-old Nikiwe Dlova, AKA @Nix_Indamix, is celebrating hair street culture through her year-old blog own-ur-crown.com. Together with her stylists, she pushes the boundaries, unapologetically advocating that black womxn rock it, pat it and flaunt it.

Her earliest memories go back to the Da Brat hairstyle of her high school days and, inspired by hip-hop, the zig-zag line.

“I used to dye it, relax it and do all these crazy things – it was a free canvas,” she tells me. Her hair was thick and big; everyone loved playing with it. She had “iphondo” and the “waterfall vibe”, and used tongs until they burnt the edges of her ears.

But the Benny and Betty hairstyle, as for most of us, remained her childhood constant. It was only in her later years, after keeping an Afro, that she started acknowledging her hair as a potential crown. And her penchant for colour meant it was never just a black Afro.

After high school and the sulphur burn years, Dlova went natural while testing the parameters of “how low can I go without looking like a boy”.

When her mother passed away, the bald head was inevitable. She says the journey of starting afresh after shaving her hair off tested her through all the pain that later led to the birthing of her hair street culture movement #ownURcrown. “I wanted to challenge myself with patience ... I didn’t rush it; it became a closer relationship, I had to own it!”

She serves heat on the Grams, encouraging people to embrace their individuality through their hair.

She is different. It’s obvious to see. It’s in how she wears her crown; how the wool on her head intimately wraps around her hair; how it towers over our envious gazes. She wants to pave a way for the next generation, to cement the words “this is what you can do – this is what you can change”.

She’s recently revealed her Betty Evolves Hair Series, an exhibition that revisits an old and “oppressive” hairstyle. Together with her stylist, she creatively reimagines it, unapologetically recreating and redefining the childhood crown. After googling various ancient African hairstyles, she discovered nothing much had changed with Benny and Betty. Suddenly, an urge was born to explore the look some more – even if it meant bringing out all the wool in its rainbow nation colours.

She has plans of “fauxing” with South Africa’s first Afropunk Festival in December and at Rocking the Daisies this month. She’s already combing out ways to put together pop-up hairstyle stalls for a quick in-and-out festival-friendly hairstyle on the go.

“I want to create that liberating feeling of Yaaass, I’m rocking this! And to give them a certain perspective of who they are. Instilling confidence.”

Currently busy with her Hairitage campaign for Heritage Month, Dlova has another series up her sleeve. She’s shy on the details, but she lets slip that her whole line of cousins – aged between three and 21 – will be out in formation for this one.

Ncumisa Mini Duma

I’ve been generous with my likes on the socials, but I hadn’t given much thought to the stylists behind these various looks, such as @Urban_Mimz. A 29-year-old natural hairstylist and creative, Ncumisa Mini Duma’s professional relationship with hair dates back to 2007.

“I had an existing clientele base, but very little knowledge on the different strands and textures. Back then, it was difficult – there were no products that spoke to Afros, no fully equipped stylists educated in natural hair. It’s gotten better with the natural hair trend,” Duma says.

Her biggest gripe? “None of the hair academies had modules on natural hair.”

It’s a gap in the education system at hair schools that she wants to one day fill by owning a natural hair academy.

“I see a hairstyle as a way of expressing what I’m feeling – it’s all about emotion.”

Her work is a labour of love inspired by African queens, their people and the continent.

“I pay attention to details. It’s a great responsibility looking after people’s crowns, and that’s what I think keeps photographers, models and other clients coming back.”

Dubbed “the hair whisperer” by her clients, her signature style – tapping into ancient looks and adding wool and accessories – has brought many feet to her door.

“My style is easily identifiable, but very flexible depending on the client’s personality and lifestyle. But, most of the time, I like it when a collaboration between the client and the stylist takes place organically,” Duma says.

While not shying away from traditional and conservative hairstyles, a popular demand from her clients is for her creative yarn.

“It’s wool creations, taken back from a concept Nikiwe [Dlova] and I shared of the Benny and Betty hairstyle – we all have a Benny and Betty narrative in our lives ... It’s a relationship with the people who did our hair – the pain and love that came with it – I just wanted to evolve it and give it a new interpretation.”

She pauses. “You know what? I’ll share an amazing story with you...”

Among her endless list of clients is a string of young women eager to look dashing for their matric dances. After years of weaving, lashing and sleeking, something has changed. This year, girls are blowing her away.

“One asked that I make her Bantu knots with beads, another wanted a Miriam Makeba-inspired style ... It’s such a proud moment, but so long overdue,” beams the naturalista.

She preaches the gospel of celebrating the wealth that is in our continent, saying it didn’t have to take Alicia Keys, Beyoncé and Solange Knowles to make us respect our crowns and our greatness.

Original Bedoo

It’s a weave, its a wig … no, it’s an Original Bedoo. It’s so easy to catch feelings over the custom-made beaded headgear on @OriginalBedoo’s social-media pages. Even renowned musician Thandiswa Mazwai has a personalised collection of Bedoos.

Founder Nondumiso Qba Nkosi from Bethal, Mpumalanga, says she didn’t really intend to make a business out of beaded crowns. She was a young hip-hop artist at the time – a self-confessed rebel unleashing bars and rhymes on stages.

“It was the early 2000s and I was looking into Black Consciousness. Back then, the community was active ... aboLebo Mashile, aboThandiswa, the ideas of self love...”

She remembers a confusing time, trying to navigate a purpose for her life while explaining back home what it was she actually did. Her family didn’t really know what it meant to be an artist.

Depression came, interrogating her contribution to the culture, her calling and who she was. It paused her life. After a show and during an “aha” moment in 2013, she cut all the hair off her wig and started placing strands of beads on the base.

“It was important to make luxury with our crowns – the luxury and craftsmanship, what we naturally possess as Africans. I wanted to make it out of real gold beads and real diamonds, I wanted to make the most of our Africa.”

This kick-started a journey that, years later, has come full circle. The very first crown took her a year to make – self-taught and determined to iron out the kinks in her products – as she invested in the dream of crowning whoever placed an order in her inbox.

Initially, her mother failed to entertain the idea of lacing herself with brown beads, saying it looked too much like a sangoma’s beads.

But Nkosi pressed on. She tried techniques and colours to suit her mum’s taste, but still adamantly says: “We will not demonise the things that make us who we are. This is our opportunity to say who we are; to say what is Africa – to say we are crown people, our heads are crowns.”

This plunged her deeper into the African hair history books, specifically the Egyptian royals and their crowns. Since then, she’s been creating chic works of art rooted in heritage, including pieces that are proudly adorned by brides on their wedding days.

Nkosi certainly stands out. She’s now based in her home town, and is galvanising her community to embrace her kind of beading.

“It’s not the traditional beadwork that they are used to – it needs patience and concentration, and finding the right people to help is hard,” she says, meaning she still had to do most of the work herself.

It takes 10 days to make a Bedoo crown.

“It’s a sacrifice of the eyes – there’s a lot of tediousness; it involves focus ... but it’s also a spiritual task and it gives me fire.”

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