Jawara

International hairstylist Jawara is one of the most sought-after names in fashion. The Senior Beauty Editor-at-Large of i-D Magazine has a number of notable accolades under his belt, including a British Fashion Council New Wave Creatives Award as well as Business of Fashion 500 and Dazed 100 rankings.

Jawara first started his career as a salon assistant in Brooklyn when he was just 16. After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Aveda Institute, Jawara moved to London and began assisting industry legends Guido Palau and Luigi Murenu on runway shows and shoots. It was after being mentored by icon Sam McKnight that Jawara reached the level of artistry at which he works today.

When Jawara left McKnight’s team in 2013, he began working independently. His extensive knowledge and remarkably diverse skill set and range of work soon garnered the attention of many influential names, including musical talents Cardi B, FKA Twigs and Solange – with whom he has worked extensively, most recently for the covers of Dazed and AnOther Magazine.

Jawara’s work is frequently featured in the pages of British Vogue, Vogue Italia, Re-edition, Dazed, i-D Magazine, Pop Magazine, T Magazine, W Magazine, and WSJ Magazine, among others.

His impressive roster of clients includes Burberry, Off-White, Gucci, Calvin Klein, Alexander Wang, Nina Ricci, Thierry Mugler, Chloe, Chanel, and Hermès.

COARSE: The Edges of Black Ingenuity

In this exhibition, Jawara explores the meaning of Blackness using hair as a lens to dive into the poetry and politics of culture, community, and personal identity.

The exhibition features images by the hairstylist’s frequent collaborators, including photographers Tyler Mitchell, Kristin-Lee Moolman, Nadine Ijewere and Kyle Weeks, among others, as well as unpublished images by Art Partner photographer Oliver Hadlee Pearch.

Of the exhibition, Jawara states, “It is my intention to use this platform to curate a storied journey of triumph through the power of our follicles. I was taught at a young age that “hair is strength” by my mother who hasn’t cut her hair in 43 years. I believe that the best way to convey this truth is through beauty.”

View the exhibition here.

I’m always doing things in a metaphorical way,” says the hairstylist Jawara, who created the gravity-defying shapes in this story. “I wanted to get across the idea of hair in motion to represent change—getting out of dark times and leaving uncertainty behind.”

The images on these pages might represent optimism for the future, but the hero reference on Jawara’s mood board was actually an ad from 1979. “When I was younger, there was a Maxell cassette commercial that I thought was so cool,” he says. “You know, the one where a guy is sitting in front of a speaker, and the sound is blowing back his hair, his face—it’s blowing everything. I love that idea of hair being alive.”

Inspiration locked in, the stylist began experimenting in his studio: “I just started playing around with ways to use resin in the hair, so some of the looks were beautiful mistakes, and others were quite intentional.” Jawara made each hairpiece on a different day, “so they all lived in different spaces,” he says. “Some are a bit more serious, or extreme, and some are more fun and upbeat, like the one embellished with bits of broken glass and confetti.”