BEYONCÉ HAS BECOME iconic for a myriad of reasons: selling over 100 million records worldwide, winning 22 Grammy Awards and being the most nominated woman in Grammy history, to name just a few of her many achievements.
She’s also become an icon for her glorious mane of hair that at times appears to have a life of it’s own.
What witchcraft is this? Tell me with a straight face that her hair is not a sentient being.
Anyone who has seen Beyoncé perform live knows the extent to which her hair is used as a prop. Her hair is flipped, whipped, twerked, twirled, thrown and blown about. Just type in ‘beyonce hair’ into giphy and you’ll have a kaleidoscope of magical moments of her hair werking it.
Definitely witchcraft – mere mortals would throw their back out with that hair flip.
But the Chamber of hair-secrets was opened this week when Beyoncé’s long-time hairdresser, Neal Farinah, opened up about working with Beyoncé.
Farinah first met the singer in 2005 when a client of his salon in Brooklyn said a friend of theirs needed her hair done.
Fast-forward thirteen years and Farinah is on his fifth world tour with Beyoncé, where he’s been spilling some beans.
He divulged on the reasons why Beyoncé has been sported an Ariana-esque half-up/half-down look of late:
This is a summer tour and it is hot. And, a girl cannot dance with a bunch of hair in her face. So I love [it] because people get to see more of her face.
Farinah thinks the style is flattering on every woman, as:
[A]ll you have to do is put some earrings on and that’s it. Nothing more. You don’t need a lot.
Well, you might need some of Bey’s bone structure to look like Bey, but we like his positive attitude.
When asked how he kept Beyoncé’s hair is place, he colourfully explained that:
The one thing that I don’t do as a hair stylist—and people will be like ‘No, you’re full of shit’—but truly, I don’t use a lot of products.
Explaining the method behind his madness, Farinah said:
I don’t want to confine the hair. The thing people don’t understand is that when you start using a million products, you confine the hair. I think hair should be beautiful, blown, carefree, and magical.
That’s the thing about me versus other stylists: They use too much products. You restrict the hair from what it’s supposed to do in these natural stages.
When asked what his favourite look that he’s created for Beyoncé was, he humbly answered with:
There’s so many favorites. I would not lie. Sometimes I look back and say, “My God, I can’t believe I created so many iconic hair styles.”
TBH, why be humble when you’re clearly a hair god?
He said that he loved the aforementioned sentient braid:
During the Formation tour, that magical braid had its own life. It’s just the moment. You look on the internet…and it broke the internet! So I love it. I just love every moment.
On his Instagram last July, he shared a pic of the Beyonce swinging her braid, captioning the video with
ONE YEAR AGO TODAY. I CREATED THE MOST ICONIC BRAIDED HAIR TREND IN DÜSSELDORF,GERMANY
When asked what tips he would give someone who wants Beyoncé’s gorgeous locks, his advice was what you’d expect from the man behind the hair of the envelope pushing, boundary breaking Beyoncé.
It’s easy. Always think outside the box. Don’t be scared, never be scared of a style. Go for it and if you don’t like it, you can change it in a second. There’s times when I do stuff and I say ‘Hey, you know what, it didn’t work.’ It’s ok, try something different.
His parting words should be turned into an anthem for the feminist wave that is sweeping the western world:
This is a different time. We’re not in the pageant world where things have to be pretty anymore. It’s a different world and women have to stop being so bothered about everything being perfect. Just live.
Ya hear that folks -we’re not living in pageant world so just live!
Who needs a life coach when you have Neil Farinah as your hairdresser?
Personal favourite, FYI, is this:
