Sometimes there’s a richer story beyond the sheen of red carpet glamour: For the U.S. press tour of Spike Lee’s 2018 BlacKkKlansman, Lacy Redway styled star Laura Harrier’s hair in a series of homages to iconic Black women, from Cicely Tyson to Sade. “A lot of my inspiration are things from my past,” says Redway, referring to a Nina Simone album cover or the beaded braids of her youth in Jamaica. Early in her career, assisting high-profile hair artists for runway shows, “the only woman of color I would see was Pat McGrath, and she’s a makeup artist,” Redway recalls. This summer, with stylist Jason Rembert, Redway launched the Black Fashion & Beauty Collective, which aims to move the needle on industry representation.
Clockwise from left: Zazie Beetz in Vanity Fair, with hair by Redway; Patti LaBelle, 1986. “I love the juxtaposition of hard and soft,” Redway says; Nexxus scalp scrub, $15 (target.com).
Clockwise from left, photograph by Cass Bird, by David Corio/Redferns/Getty Images, courtesy of Nexxus.
Clockwise from bottom left: Redway and her older sister, Karen, in Jamaica in the ’90s; Materia Prima, by Lina Iris Viktor; an African portrait from a book in Redway’s archive that “feels like sisterhood.”
Clockwise from bottom left, courtesy of Lacy Redway, courtesy of Lina Iris Viktor and Mariane, © Carol Beckwith/Angela Fisher.
Clockwise from left: Redway’s Nina Simone tribute on Ebonee Davis; Design Essentials Scalp & Skin Care Vitamin Drops, $9 (target.com); Grandassa models photographed in Harlem by Kwame Brathwaite, circa 1964.
Clockwise from left, courtesy of Lacy Redway, courtesy of Design Essentials, courtesy of The Kwame Brathwaite Archive.— Ta-Nehisi Coates Guest-Edits THE GREAT FIRE, a Special Issue
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