If you’ve been keeping up with Chloe and Halle Bailey (and if you’re anything like me), you’ve probably been in awe of how flawless they always look on red carpets. The one detail that never ceases to amaze me, is their hair. While both of them are known for their long locs, unlike the common misconceptions around the style, it doesn’t stop them from accomplishing a multitude of hairstyles.
From braids to wigs, in recent years, their hair never fails to be flawless. The woman behind these magical styles is Kenya O’Neal, best known as Fesa Nu. Along with Chloe and Halle, she’s also worked with Alicia Keys, Chika, Yara Shahidi, and much more.
Fesa Nu is a Los Angeles-based freelance hair and makeup artist who has been working in hair for over twenty years working on everything from editorial shoots to music videos. While living with her father and his Hispanic wife when she was young, no one in her household knew how to do her hair. So when she couldn’t go to her grandmother or aunt’s house, he would try to do it or she would try to do it herself. It often resulted in bullying at school. An experience many black women can relate to.
Hair has been a tradition in the black community forever. For many, it started with getting their hair done by their mother or another female figure in their families. When many of us spend hours at a time with members of our family and community over a bond of hair, it tends to bring us together. But with this comradery, it seems that for many of us, the people in our community can also be the most critical. I know personally I have watched time and time again both men and women in the black community get picked on because they can’t live up to the impossible standard of always having flawless hair. But this exact experience is what pushed Fesa to become the artist that she is.
The skill for survival eventually turned into a passion for beauty, and Fesa Nu went on to create “The Art of Hair”, an editorial project that she created with unique and gravity-defying hairstyles celebrating black women and their hair which is often seen as a burden by some. Inspired by her love for Africa, instead of using hair as an accessory, she uses hair as a canvas for art. In an interview, she said that the project was to, “…inspire, embrace, and help plant a powerful seed of love in our youth and those that need a small nudge to remember who we are, where we come from, and what we stand for!”
Fesa Nu is pushing the boundaries of hair and art in a way many of us haven’t seen before. Along with her incredible hairstyles, she has used art to uplift black women and their hair, which so many were taught to hate. She said, “A lot of times when styling, we’re put into a box, where we’re expected to do what everyone else wants and rarely get to showcase what we love. I call myself a hair poet so that people know what they’re going to get when they book Fesa. You’re going to get some poetry.”
While she already has an incredibly impressive portfolio, there’s still so much we can anticipate from Fesa, including a coffee table book. Fesa truly is a poet in the world of beauty.