Beautycon’s “Texture On The Runway” Was A Front Row Seat To A Celebration Of Black Hair

As ESSENCE’s Content Director, Nandi Howard, explained at Beautycon’s “Texture on the Runway” show, textured hair is often excluded from the luxury fashion world. That said, Naturally Curly– who presented the fashion show– gave the audience a front row seat to a much needed celebration of kinky textures.

The models– who were decked out in vibrantly patterned BruceGlen attire– received gravity, and mainstream beauty standard, defying hairstyles by Allen Tater Pazo. A range of looks–from floor-length box braids and blowouts, to curls dipped in rouge and copper hues– made their way down the runway. Meanwhile, the room roared with the crowd’s enthusiasm and quippy comments from the host, “Legs and hips and hair to the ankles!”   

To close out the show? As Howard enthused before introducing a special performance– that included death drops and duckwalks– from the legendary House of Balenciaga, “you’ve got a runway show for the gods!”  

The celebration of various body and hair types was a fitting way to wrap up the first day of the beauty conference. Afterall, “our hair is probably the best hair of all,” as Tater Pazo told ESSENCE. “You can do so much with it. We can straighten it, wear it curly, wear it bushy, braid it, and everything works. Texture is in.” Need it be said? 10s across the board.