Maahleek Discusses Why Hair Fashion Is A Dying Art, His Creative References, And How His Work Is Reviving Hair Show Styles.
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00:00Welcome to Beauty School, a new column about the history behind today's trending beauty.
00:04I'm India, Contributing Beauty Editor at Essence Magazine, and we're at the headquarters,
00:09and today we're uncovering the very black history behind hair fashion.
00:13From Halle Berry and Natalie Dizelle in the 1997 film Vaps, to Monique and Taraji P. Henson
00:22in the 2004 film Hair Show, hair fashion has had an extreme hold on black beauty culture
00:27since the 90s and early 2000s.
00:29Meanwhile, hair magazines and posters were spread across the hair salon, with everyday
00:33hairstyles looking like Buffon and Sheen sculptures.
00:37Since then, hair fashion has been a dying art.
00:39We're here with Maalik, who's one of the artists leading the revival.
00:43Hi Essence.
00:44Hey boo.
00:45Hello.
00:46So first I want to ask, what kind of inspired you to get into hair fashion?
00:52So I grew up in a hair salon with my aunt.
00:54She does hair.
00:55She used to be in hair shows a lot.
00:56I'm from Virginia, so that was kind of a thing down there.
00:59So I grew up watching her do hair, growing up in the salon, getting out of school, basically
01:04just watching what she does, watching the styles from back in the day.
01:10So I've always had an interest in hair.
01:11I just usually would do things with braids and whatnot.
01:14So recently, probably about last year or so, I've gotten more into actually styling hair,
01:18but more from like an artistic view.
01:20A lot of these styles were wearable back then, but now these days they don't really do them
01:24as often.
01:25So I just thought it would be a really good way to revive something that died out a long
01:28time ago, especially since it highlights black creativity as well.
01:32And what are kind of like the references behind your work?
01:34How would you describe your work in general as well?
01:36Honestly, whenever I do wigs, I have a few reference points that I'll do, but then I'll
01:41kind of just like freak it.
01:43So a lot of them is more so like the sculptural, big styles.
01:46I like a lot of like, we call them banana peels, which is what this is.
01:50I like a lot of like hard curls, a lot of like updos, things that basically defy gravity.
01:55I feel like black hair is meant to defy gravity, even how our natural hair is.
01:59So I feel like styles like this kind of like mimic that.
02:02And even like in a lot of like post-colonial African hairstyles are like very big and avant-garde.
02:07Well, what we would call avant-garde, but what they do culturally.
02:11So I just feel like black hair is meant to elevate and, you know, cause some attention
02:16and some stir.
02:18So kind of going back to the 90s, I feel like back then it was kind of like the standard
02:24for hairstylists to know how to do these hairstyles.
02:27But over time, it's kind of become like a dying art, like we mentioned earlier.
02:32So why would you say that these types of hair fashions, like these bouffant, gravity-defying
02:37hair looks aren't popular as much as they were?
02:42So I actually brought this up to my aunt who used to do these styles.
02:44She said the trends had just changed.
02:46Women wanted more like wearable styles, quote-unquote.
02:50The thing is, for me, I feel like, you know, you could work jobs back then with like gravity-defying
02:54hair.
02:55So I just kind of feel like we've kind of assimilated in a way.
02:58That's kind of how I feel.
02:59I feel like, but also black people are like trendsetters.
03:02So our styles do change over time.
03:04But I do feel like this is something that we should have kept alive, especially because
03:07it's waste, like the highlight black hair artists and stuff.
03:10So why do you kind of choose like certain colors?
03:13Because I feel like your work has a lot of color, whereas like some old school styles
03:18might just be like all black.
03:20Of course they had color too, but why do you feel like color is like essential to your
03:24work?
03:25I like color.
03:26I like my hair being black, but when I do hair and wigs, I like calling on the people.
03:30I always look at basically my model's Instagram or if I know them personally, I'm like, what
03:35colors would this person look good in?
03:36So I base it off of your undertones.
03:39So with you, since you have like more of a green undertone, I pick more like cooler shades
03:43to do on you.
03:44Or someone who had like a warmer complexion, I would do like maybe like a few, like maybe
03:47like some hot oranges, some hot reds.
03:48So I just go off basically your undertones.
03:51And I was a makeup artist before I did hair, so I kind of still have that knowledge of
03:55the undertones for people, especially black people.
03:58So can you tell me a little bit about why you chose this style?
04:00I know it's not all the way done yet, but just walk me through like your thought process
04:05and choosing like the color and like the shape for this one.
04:09So for this specific style, I was thinking about just doing like a big curled flipped
04:13hybrid, is what I would call it.
04:15I don't really have names for my style.
04:17I just basically feel it out as I make it on the person.
04:21So each one of my wigs, I never really plan.
04:25I kind of just let them come to me.
04:27The only thing I really plan when I do my hair or wigs is the colors.
04:30And I just let creativity take over, which I feel like it's always a bit more organic.
04:35And you create something that, you know, you can have references, but it's good to make
04:38something that's like yours as well.
04:40You can fuse together a bunch of stuff and just make it unique.
04:42So where do you kind of draw your inspiration and references from?
04:46So a lot of the inspiration I get is more so from like the older Detroit artists.
04:50I remember I watched Shane document your own hair wars.
04:54That really was an inspiration for me because a lot of the Detroit styles were very extravagant.
04:57You know, they could work with those hairstyles.
04:59They would be like bank tellers with big hair.
05:03And you know, they had a whole underground hair art scene and the styles that they would
05:06do were just very crazy.
05:07I feel like they were almost like movie quality.
05:10I feel like artistic styles, so I draw a lot of inspiration from a lot of like North American,
05:14like very North hairstylists, Detroit, Chicago, even New York stylists were amazing.
05:20I have a couple of New York hairstylist friends who used to do hair shows as well back in
05:25the day.
05:26So the East, the Northeast and the North has a very big history in hair.
05:31So I draw a lot of my inspiration from those people.
05:33Why is resurrecting these hairstyles important to you?
05:38I feel like it's important to me because it's something I saw growing up, watching my aunt
05:41do it.
05:42And I kind of actually witnessed it dying out as I got older.
05:45And it's something that I missed because I was always enthralled by these like beautiful
05:49black women who would come in with giant hair, like really crimped hard hair.
05:54So when I got older, I thought that would be the standard.
05:57And you know, at 28 years old, I see a lot of things have changed.
06:00So it would be a really amazing thing to bring it back.
06:03I feel like a lot of black hair nowadays, like hairstyles nowadays, really know how
06:08to do like wigs and lace fronts.
06:09And I feel like this was something that they could do to just like branch out because you
06:14can do a wig and a lace front.
06:15But I feel like if you do hair art, you can be in movies, set design, it's a lot more
06:19fun in my opinion than just, you know, slapping a wig on.
06:33Thank you Malik for giving me this 1999 hairstyle.
07:01And thanks for watching.
07:02We'll be back with the next lesson on Essence.com.
07:06See you then!