Make Artist Kay Montano steams into a café in Soho announcing that her car is about to be towed from the single yellow line it’s precariously parked on. Much flap- ping ensues as excuses are made to traffic wardens threatening fines, before she charms the uncharm- able into letting her off the hook. It’s a moment of brilliant chaos that only serves to highlight Montano’s energy and the tenacity integral to her career.
It was the then “precocious” 16-year-old’s charm and guts that secured Montano her first make-up job. As a regular club kid from the age of 14 (“I had a very liberal mother”), the West Londoner was immersed in the post-’New Romantics’ club scene, where nights playing with make-up were her training ground.

There, she was introduced to a photographer and she made her beauty debut shooting the cover of The Face with Ray Petri, stylist and creator of iconic underground style group ‘Buffalo’, later to become one of the defining looks of the ‘80s.
“I was absolutely terrified,” she says. “i didn’t sleep the night before because I felt like I was a complete impostor. I guess I still do sometimes. But I went to work and I remember just thinking, ‘Oh my god, this is amazing’.”
it was a pivotal moment at a fertile time in fashion.

Heading to Paris, Montano worked for the brilliant, but short-lived French magazine ‘Jill’ and later shot her first British Vogue cover and created looks for John Galliano and Jasper Conran’s shows. But by 19, with Vogue already snagged, Montano felt she’d exhausted fashion and swapped it for pop stardom. However, it proved to be a short-lived decision. “record companies were full of foul men,” she says, prompting her to revert to her previous career.
Luckily, Montano met photographer Mario Sorrenti when he was on the up and the pair worked together for the next couple of years. In the ‘90s they jetted off to the Virgin islands and shot the Kate Moss for Calvin Klein Obsession ads. She remembers it fondly. “Calvin Klein with Mario and Kate was amazing. We were all so young. Kate was 18, Mario was 20, I was 25. We were all babies and we had that amazing sense of excitement. there was such a good vibe.”
New York followed and almost immediately Montano began working with Steven Meisel, Bruce Weber, Patrick Demarchelier and Helmut Newton.

Though working with the heavyweights of the industry was an incredible time of creativity, for Montana, it’s the friendships that stand out. “For me, it wasn’t so much about the actual shoots; it’s more about the cama- raderie and the amazing spirit that you share with people. that’s what’s really special.”
After eight years she began beautifying A-listers such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Kidman and Rachel Weisz for the red carpet before London beckoned and she became a consultant to Chanel. Now her career is shifting again as she harnesses the internet with her blog and tutorials. “it’s becoming a little bit more executive, my job. it’s becoming more entrepreneurial.”
The changes she’s seen in the industry have been vast, largely thanks to technology. she can recall flipping through ‘80s magazines before airbrushing was introduced.        “There was no Photoshop; you could see what was real and make-up was blended in a way that I could only fantasise about ever achieving.”
There is room for further changes, she believes, adamant that the industry must become more inclusive. “Fashion is one of the most powerful ways of creating and breaking stereotypes and we have a creative responsibility to do that. With the ‘mixed race’ person being the fastest growing minority, it’s important to see them represented in an inclusive and beautiful way. I’d like to see more varieties of women represented as we come in so many wonderful shades, shapes and styles.”
Among her many attributes, it’s her ability to adapt that keeps Montano at the top.     “The thing I’m most proud of is being so cross- genre over the years.

And being contemporary. I hope to always be contemporary.

Originally posted in ‘O” quarterly supplement for The Observer by Tank Magazine

Although it’s mythical and iconic, I’ve never had a desire to visit the mecca of artifice that is Vegas.  vvvv    I must be one of the few fashion people who’s worked in the US that hasn’t done a shoot there. * * * * * * * * * * * * * There is no denying it’s tawdry, ‘Toytown gone bad’ appeal; all neon promises, daylight-denying casinos full of diamante encrusted, Marabou-feathered showgirls who can can. I am, however, very*inspired*by what it inspires in others.

            *Vegas Show Girl *                                                                                             *Vegas Chanel Collection*

“The Night before I left Las Vegas I walked out in the desert to look at the moon.

There was a jeweled city on the horizon, spires rising in the night,  but the jewels were diadems of electric and the spires were the neon signs ten stories high.”  Norman Mailer

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                

For many, it is the birthplace of the ‘Rock n Roll Wedding’, inspiring many a hedonistic rush to the drive-in alter.

bbvvmbvbmvmnbmbmbmbmbmbmbmn,nbmbnbmnbmbm

* **showgirls and another laid-to-rest neon** *  **                                                                                                                                                                    Especially*now*that Vegas‘*razzle dazzle*has*inspired*CHANEL*to*create*a**make-up**collection in it’s name.*** ** *  *  *   *    *     *      *       *        *         *          *            *

It’s amazing and I don’t mean to sound horribly sarcastic but it’s as though suddenly, in the last year, someone has informed the beauty brands that there are black people in Britain.                                                                                                                      ‘Hey, I’m over here!’                       

Everywhere you look, women of colour (not in the darkest variety I know- but baby steps ladies-it’s going to happen!) are being represented on the sides of British buses, all over the glossies and at Boots ‘the chemist’ counters.

Maybe Mintel told them that mixed-race people are the fastest growing minority in the UK or heard the recent research by the BBC that the mixed-race population is now near 2 million.

When I was a kid there was the Fashion Fair cosmetic range which had a sophisticated and colour-true range of foundations and although I’m light-skinned (my father’s mixed race, Trinidadian-born) I loved the eyeshadows and blushers because the pigment was so dense. Plus it was the 80′s and I was all over the plastic pink packaging.

Since then, great products for women of colour have been randomly discovered amongst the bizarre attempts by laboratories to replicate the hues within darker skin. Dark- beige seems to have been the consensus.    Hey Mr Lab man, I’m not dark beige!

Mac is a trailblazing brand but I’ve never found the foundation formulas to be as high in quality as those I use by Chanel, Estee Lauder and MyFace.                                       As for concealers, Bobbi Brown, Laura Mercier and YSL  now have a superb range of colour matches for darker skins and although I like Iman’s loose powder, and respect her as a woman, I was a little disappointed by the foundations, I found them a little ashy.

Oddly, it has been an Australian brand Becca, designed by Rebecca Morrice Williams that’s been the ‘face-saver’ when working with subjects such as Sophie Okenado, Thandie Newton, Jourdan Dunn and Naomi Campbell.

Isn’t it ironic that the products I’ve relied on the most for darker skins in the past decade have been designed by a fair-skinned Australian.

Another brand that have noticed the gap in the market for brown faces has been MyFace Cosmetics.  I am their creative director so if you don’t believe me- try it! You’ll love it. MyMix foundation is a big industry fave and their medium/dark range is perfect for Indian and mixed-race complexions.

For now, they don’t yet go as dark as the typically West Indian or African complexion.

Being a Chanel Ambassador, I was thrilled when this luxury heritage brand of great influence and prestige finally brought out a range of foundations to suit dark skintones. Peter Phillips, global brand ambassador for Chanel cosmetics said “since joining the brand in 2008, I’ve made it my goal to create a perfect foundation; one that adjusts to the skin needs of every ethnicity and stays in place with a flawless finish”.

A selection of the 16 shades of Perfection Lumiere Fluide Foundation available in the UK

Trinidadian model Alissa Ali shot by Solve Sundsbo for the recent campaign

Meanwhile in 2009 the Dominican Republic’s Arlenis Sosa became the face of Lancome, soon afterwards Beyonce the face of L’Oreal, then in Spring 2011,  Britain’s own Jourdan Dunn (below) became the face of YSL’s Touche Eclat, shot by Terry Richardson.

I’m kind of amazed of how little has been made of this in the UK press because it looks like a pretty monumental acknowledgment to me.  The media has remarked more on the economic global market angle, the recognition of Asia as the new super economy etc with beauty brands using Asian models such as Liu Wen. My point is slightly different, it’s more about celebrating what the UK has been for decades; a place full of a fabulous variety of differently coloured people, who have made a huge impact on our culture. And they too are beautiful.

For a West Londoner like me, who has had the pleasure of being brought up around every type of culture and economic status, it’s great to see more of what’s made Britain an inspiring place for me to have grown up in.    Jourdan Dunn below

The late Naomi Simms, ‘the first black supermodel’ who graced the cover of Life magazine in the 1960′s would be so happy to see the beautiful black women who are now the faces of brands traditionally catering to wealthy white women. Click her name above for more.

                                              Arlenis Sosa below

Girl, you’ve come a long way babe.

Check out my Pinterest HERE for more positive and inspirational representations of black culture.

I know, of course it’s a silly title. The likelihood of me being swept away with an actress-  who just happens to require my services on a desert island is pretty remote.. but trust me.  Far stranger things have happened in the movie business..

So just say I was, here are the essentials that would make the most washed up (on the desert island remember) actress into a movie star.

MyMix Foundation by MyFace Cosmetics, once used, never absent from kit.

Jurlique Rose Scented Powder

Laura Mercier Secret Concealer (under eyes) +Secret Camouflage (blemishes).

Bobbi Brown BBU pro Concealer palette, because movie stars come in ALL shades.

Bobbi Brown Cream Blush Pink Truffle. The most natural flush of them all..

EYES

Chanel ‘Magic Night’ and ‘Amethyst’ eyeshadows, MyFace BLING TONE. Purples; The ‘new browns‘.

Chanel Illusion D’Ombres in Embloui right & Mirifique

Chanel Eye Pencil in Brown

Japonesque Eyelash Curlers

CHEAP MASCARA’S usually the best!

Max Factor…Maybelline…this is one m-up area where most women are good at knowing what they prefer. Though IF you want an everyday basic, that doesn’t smudge, isn’t clumpy, looks natural AND you can get it off easily when you do want to- Clinique Glossy Black sets ‘the standard’.

LIPS

Bobbi Brown Lip Liner in Blush

MyFaceCosmetics.com Lipliner for Med/Dark

Chanel Rouge Coco Shine -Love them ALL

So next time you’re stranded on a desert island AND happen to have a red carpet event, make the above bad boys your cosmetic castaways.

I had the pleasure of working on one of my childhood beauty icons Miss Piggy on a press junket recently. As we talked satin dresses, nylon wigs and how all men were pigs, I asked her what we’re all thinking-how does she manage to stay looking so young, slim and toned, and also, for my fellow cosmetically obsessed friends, HOW TO GET HER LOOK.

Miss Piggy, what everyone wants to know is-how do you stay looking so young?

You know, it’s weird, I get asked this all the time and the thing is, I don’t know! Between my last movie and my new one, I was kind of uh, stuck in a cupboard for a while you know? But my publicist said I needn’t mention that , cut that part out- NOW.

Fashion Icon, below

So tell me about your make-up, it’s been around so long that it’s actually bang on trend again!

I know, everyone keeps saying that! I’ve never followed trends, I just make them. I LOVE my face to feel and look like felt, to hell with this dewy, transparent finish, I want COVERAGE dammit! I apply ample helpings of Mineral Powder as I love the way it mattes out my face with it’s super-dense texture. also- can we discuss the way that my ‘ten-coats-of-beige’ skin has become THE reference point for retouching skin nowadays? They caught on -finally! Who wants to look like they’ve got real skin? One word- euuhww. And I love how the new generation of celebrities are so heavily influenced by me! Kim Kardashian has totally ripped off my make-up look, but I see it as more of an homage. As for the- what are they called- WAGS? Hellooo- who raided Piggy’s dressing room ladies? No, seriously, it’s the highest form of flattery.

Your eyes always look beautiful, are those, um, real lashes?

OF COURSE THEY ARE HYYY (KM dodges a hefty right hander) YAAH!

I just accentuate them with an industrial strength mascara made especially for me by Max Factor himself, who I was seeing at the time -but that’s giving away my age-cut that OUT!

Any hair tips Miss Piggy? Your big 70′s hair has never looked so modern! Are you a natural blonde?

Well, let’s just say I’m of the Dolly Parton school and just buy it off the peg, I ‘put on and go‘.  I have a lot of them (wigs), in every shade of the only hair colour worth having- BLONDE!

Below with Meryl Streep at a celebrity do.

I know you once had a fitness video, how do you stay in such great shape-any diet tips Miss Piggy?

?

When a girl has a perfect figure like mine, she has no use for that ugly four letter word. Kermit loooves my curves.

There are a lot of details that aren’t mentioned on a make up artist’s call sheet and my very recent trip to Paris was no exception.

Rather importantly I knew who I was doing (Salma Hayek), who’d be shooting (Patrick Demarchelier) and who the hairdresser (Renato Campora) was.

I assumed I’d be in a studio (Pin-Up) as is usually the case so I didn’t bother looking for details on pre-French Revolution ancestry.

It was not until I hauled myself and kit into the van that I heard a strong Parisian voice saying “It will be forty five minutes, maybe one hour to Versailles” .

I decided to talk about politics with the American editor (time flies discussing Obama with a gay, like-minded democrat) and before I knew it, we were on Avenue De Chauchard, pulling in outside Le Paviion De Musique, previous home to Marie Antoinette’s sister Josephine.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Plastic cup detail courtesy of the crew..

Trompe L’Oeil  in the large circular entrance hall. 

      A Hand-painted screen and one of the many portraits of Josephine.

In the Sophia Coppola screen version of ‘Marie Antoinette’ (adapted from Antonia Fraser‘s biography), Josephine was played by Clementine Poidatz.

From Wikipedia:

“Marie Joséphine had a private pavilion built in the city of Versailles called the Le Pavilon de Musique [de la Comtesse de Provence]. The architect for the project was Jean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin, who also designed the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Her sister-in-law Élisabeth de France did the same in 1783. The Pavilion was later bought by the Mellerio family. After many a mutation, it was acquired by Alfred Chauchard, who was the founder of the magasin du Louvre. It was then bought by Jacques and Lydie Bazaine in 1960. The couple restored the pavilion which is a classified historical monument.Today it is privately owned by their great grandson. The pavilion was featured on the July 2008 cover of World of Interiors and in the book, “Folie de Batir,” by Bernd H. Dams and Andrew Zega. The Comtesse also had another mansion on the grounds which became the lycée privée Sainte-Geneviève in 1913.

When you travel a lot for work, you can get a tad spoiled in the the travel and hotel dept. But they do make such a difference to a job-juggling mua’s attitude. Especially when so much of our lives are spent in transit.

A bad hotel (and I’ve stayed in more than my fair share to ‘earn’ a Ms Fusspot title) can make you feel quite lonely and confined- not conducive to providing fabulously warm energy on the shoot (imperitive as a make-up artist) the following day.

So I was pleased when I saw that the call sheet for my cover shoot (with Salma Hayek and Patrick Demarchelier) said I’d be staying at Hotel Castille on Rue Cambon for 2 nights.

It’s also next door to a lovely clothes store called Chanel. In fact, the original flagship store at 31 Rue Cambon, bought by Mme Chanel in 1910 to house her business.

The Chanel boutique is on the ground floor, haute couture is on the first, and the apartment on the second is where Mm Chanel herself once played host and entertained.

On the third floor is the atelier, and is where Karl now does much of his work. The building is topped with a rooftop garden with supposedly the best views in Paris.

Being next door, Hotel Castille is very well located , a short walk from the Jardin Des Tuilleries and Place Vendome. And Chanel-did I say that already?

For those (like me) who need to work off the world’s most irresistibly refined carbohydrates and dairy produce-ever, there’s a fitness room.

Hotel Castille.

The welcoming surroundings as you enter..

The lighting..

The colour of the walls, the mix of traditional and contemporary style is something that the French often master so well.

Night night.

Visit the website for more details HERE

I love this film. 

Directed by Wim Wenders and with a script written by Sam Shepherd, this story is told mostly in the form of Ry Cooder’s lingering music and a lot of poetic silence.

Harry Dean Stanton stars as Travis, husband of Jane, played by Nastassja Kinski.

Made in 1984, Paris Texas  may be too slow for modern audiences more used to colour-by-numbers emotion and fast ‘n furious edits than the rich text that can lie in the unsaid, but all good things come to those that wait.

The wait is a wonderful one. It is essentially a road movie, yet Wim Wenders lingering, static takes in panavision-esque landscapes coupled with voyeuristic camera stares in souless hotel rooms ensure that the film remains ‘still’ to the point of eternally present-tense.

You, the viewer are like him. He is recovering from Amnesia, you collect the pieces of his life as he does.

Jane, his mirage of a wife, is the ‘Rosebud’ of Paris Texas. Camcorder footage of her appears throughout the film, he’s brought it along with some dog-eared photo booth snaps, as the only vestige left of her, to show their ‘orphaned’ son.  A ruse, or a prop to prove that she was ever real at all whilst he quietly holds on to her. Maybe both.

Following Harry Dean Stanton’s ‘poker-face-in-rigor-mortis-Travis’ along his desert-driving quest means that the curiousity creeps up on you as he ineffectually keeps going, as all who she was fades away.

When you do eventually see her in a diner, she is a vision in watermelon angora and as distant and faraway as could be. The deliberately sparse dialogue reveals them both perfectly.

Watch the Paris Texas trailer HERE

Read Roger Ebert’s film review+purchase on Amazon HERE

When I was a kid, one of my favourite games was ‘Consequences‘.                                                                           For those who didn’t grow up with ye olde pen & paper games, this was when you folded up a piece of paper 3 times so that each of the 3 players couldn’t see what the other had drawn until the very end. Never revealing your drawing to each player, the first player drew a head and folded it away, the second player drew the middle of the body, the third drew the bottom half. When it was opened up it was the most hilarious thing ever, (honest).

What’s that got to do with eyebrows? Well, after reading about the TOWIE (The Only Way Is Essex TV Show non-Brits) local beauty salon ‘trend’ ‘The Scouse Brow‘, and it’s US equivalent ‘Chola Brow‘ I tried to put my finger on what exactly looks so weird about them.

It’s because, like Consequences, you don’t stick a brow that has nothing to do with your face onto yours and expect it to look normal.

I find brow stencils particularly disturbing in this regard. They are ‘made-up’ eyebrows, that arch does not belong on your face, you have your very own designed especially with your features in mind. You would never do this with your nose, your lips or your chin (unless of course, you’re a member of the Hollyweird massive/you like looking ‘cartoon surprised’).

Brows need a bit of help, sure, and most look better accentuated but to change them completely will give you ‘Consequence face‘.

Perhaps eyebrow references are as thin on the ground as they seem to be on the face?

Everywhere you look there’s images of TOWIE girls or ‘opiate to the masses’  X Factor contestants where it is obligatory to have Scouse/Chola brow in order to compete-and that’s just the men.

Coco the clown is, of course, the original Scouse/Chola.

Reference Queen of Nerdsville to the rescue, there are other brows to have,choose from and be inspired by. The ones you already own are usually the best.

Here are some examples of individually beautiful eyebrows that each owner has accentuated but not overly ‘changed’.

NOW BROW Arizona Muse; possibly plucked in the middle but otherwise left wild

 Brooke Shields; ‘what’s a tweezer?’

                         Jourdan Dunn; un-plucked with a lot to work with

                                                              Debbie Harry; insouciantly arched, post-punk-meets bombshell

Audrey Hepburn; stylised, demure and strong. Almost arch-free

Madonna Louise Ciccone, the early brows.

Jennifer Connelly; carefully cherry-plucked

Grace Kelly; maintained wildness

Jerry Hall; full-bodied, long and with heaps of attitude

                                                                                                                       Keira Knightly; un-plucked-right                                                                    Model Hilary Rhoda below; groomed

Elizabeth Taylor; willful, expressive & unique

Francois Hardy; undone & naturally chic                           

                                                                                                                                    Romy Schneider; sublime..

             Marilyn & Kate; ‘come hither’ brows, then & now……….                      

                Lara Stone; blonde brow-ed and beautiful

Scouse Brow and Chola Brow, your brows can’t compete here. Time to bin the look?

If you’re still not convinced, or want to learn about CHOLA STYLE click below in capitals  CHOLA MAKE-UP tutorial…

Bafta winning actress Thandie Newton and I first met on a Vogue shoot about 6 years ago. It didn’t take long before I felt that I’d always known her.  She is one of the most inspiring women I’ve ever met and I’ve been fortunate enough to make-up, wax lyrical and travel with her ever since. I have made her up more than anyone else in my whole career, in an entirely different way each time.                                                                 We often discuss what it is like to be mixed race, our experiences, what it means to us, what we continue to discover and most importantly perhaps, find ways of celebrating it. Our hair is not easy hair. It frizzes, it tangles and it knots and takes a lot to understand. There is still much stigma with a large ‘hair culture’ surrounding it, plus a multi-million dollar industry supplying women with ways of taming it.                                                  

Thandie has been growing out her hair relaxer for the last year and she’s now 100% Lye-free, (the controversial chemical in black hair straightening products) and is finding that wearing it big and natural is extremely liberating.                        

Your hair looks so different, what made you decide to go natural?

Its taken about 2 years to fully grow out my relaxer. I always thought I would go back to curly, because I didn’t want my daughters to judge their beautiful curls. I assumed they’d want to be like their Mum, and they’ve only ever known me with straight hair. However, it turns out they’re so secure in who they are as individuals that I don’t think it occurs to them to be like anyone else, and that includes me.
What inspired you to allow your hair return to it’s natural state?
So, the ultimate personal wake up call was when I saw Chris Rock’s documentary Good Hair, and saw how the active ingredient-Lye (that’s in all black hair relaxing products)- can melt a Coke can. Also the fact that the FDA take no responsibility with harmful chemicals when it comes to beauty products. Scary.

Thandie in Alexander McQueen at one of the many Bafta’s we’ve done together

How does having wilder looking, bigger hair make you feel as opposed to the elegantly-on-trend hairstyles we’re used to seeing you with on the red carpet?

I have to feel comfortable with having ‘all eyes on me‘, which I do when I work, less so in life. Ironically I don’t want to draw attention to myself because of celeb spotting, but my big hair, for a time will work as a disguise! Straight hair has been ‘on trend’ for years and years, so having big-ass curly hair means “I’m stepping outside the mould, outside what’s accepted and applauded”. It takes a little courage to do that.
Mainly, I want to wear it natural because it looks amazing!

Do you think cultural  attitudes within the black community are changing with regards their hair?

The kinky-haired Afro has been practically ironed out (pun intended!) within the mainstream black community. Now, black women have silkier, smoother longer hair than any other women. And there’s no stigma attached to black women and false hair (weaves, extension, wigs) whereas if a white woman wore false hair they’d seem more of a phony and inadequate. That’s changing a lot, but men certainly don’t expect white women to have false hair, whereas black boys know that there’s  ‘No touching above the neck!’ And there’s no embarrassment about it.

Being mixed race myself, know that there is a lot of stigma steeped in history surrounding black hair and it still exists today. Tell me a bit about your experiences.

The stigma with some black women seems to be that ‘nappy hair’ is almost as bad as loo roll trailing from your shoe. I have always let my daughter’s hair be wild and scruffy. I love the shapes and fluffy halo. But when they were ‘papped‘ in the States I had remarks about how I don’t take care of their hair. The truth is I choose to keep it that way. When I see hair that’s been pulled, stretched, brushed till bullet smooth I just think ‘ouch‘. I have my limits mind, sometimes I have to beg Nico to let me tidy it up for fear of her looking like she’s been neglected!

It was relatively easy for me growing up in West London amongst all colours and cultures, but how was it for you, growing up in Penzance, Cornwall?

Well for a start I only visited a hairdressers once in my entire childhood. It was a nightmare. They washed it and then (drumroll…) blowdried and BRUSHED it. It was like a huge candy floss – no curl definition. It looked ridiculous. And it cost my Mum 20 quid – that was the thing I hated most, that my Mum had to say thank you, pretend she was pleased and pay all that money. The truth is the salon had no idea – we were a loooong way from London. A long way from any other black person. I don’t think you could even buy a decent conditioner. Vitapoint was the only product, I bloody loved Vitapoint. The smell meant ‘friend’.

Thandie’s mother Nyasha in Zimbabwe in the 70′s

Without the support of a black ‘hair culture’ around you, how did you learn to manage your hair?

I think the closest thing I had to long, straight tangle-free hair was when I had it braided into ‘singles’ during the Summer holidays. By the time I was 13 I could do it myself. That’s one huge plus, I’m REALLY good at doing hair – I HAD to learn, and I did and I can do it all. I can braid, fit extensions, do my own weave, cut it, blow dry it bone straight, make hair pieces, fit wigs, style it beehive, forties, Afro, you name it. I started young and then from 16 when I started acting, I learned from the best of the best.

Thandie at the premieres for left ‘Run Fat Boy Run’ & right, ‘W’. m-up km

How was it for your Mum, coming to a culture where her ‘normal hair’ was suddenly non-’normal’, then having children, and approaching their hair in this alien place. What was her approach to your hair?

Mum wanted me to fit in, and I don’t blame her. My hair hampered that. Poor Mum. I remember when I was 7 at my convent school, it was school photo day so all the kids came looking their best. Mum did my hair in 20 or so ‘corn rows’ with green wooden beads on each end to match my school uniform. The nuns were appalled, they wouldn’t let me have my picture taken. I felt embarrassed, disappointed, ashamed. Can you imagine how my Mum must have felt? There was a mild rukus and the next day I had my picture taken. But then I read this year a piece in The Independent about a student who appealed against not being able to wear his hair in (what the school felt was a hoodlum style) braids, and he won. That’s 30 years since the Nun’s dissed me… This shit keeps going round and round.
Apart from the school photo incident it was 1 or 2 plaits every single day, and a bun when I was doing ballet. Never, ever, ever loose. Never.
So when did you discover hair products designed for black hair?
There wasn’t any ‘Dark & Lovely’ in Cornwall but I can say it was like Christmas when we discovered that a ‘home perm’ has the effect of loosening curls. I was around 14 then.

So what is your experience of modern hairdressers today-are they all clued up about how to manage your hair?
To be honest I do struggle with hairdressers, even now. The main problem is that hairdressers (and some at the top of their game) don’t understand how my type of hair changes dramatically depending on what climate, substance, effects it. Water in any form is like a cheeky magic wand – even mist! But with the correct tools ad managing my kind of hair can do ANYTHING, which is brilliant! So hairdressers like the genius Kerry Warn, or Maarit Niemela, are leagues better than others because they can work black hair from wet to dry in any style.
I’m surprised that more people don’t understand this (even though hair salons still seems to be culturally divided between ‘black’ hairdressing or ‘caucasian’ hairdressing), there are many black models and actresses around that they work with.
I think a problem for top hairdressers is that most black models and high end clients have weaves (Indian hair), so the technicians never work on authentic black hair. Whether black, white, blonde, brunette, I’d head to a local black hairdressers any day of the week- because if a technician can work black hair, you can work ANY hair.

So tell me about products. You’ve been an international actress all of your adult life, you must have tried everything!
My favourite shampoos, conditioner, serums and sprays etc are from John Masters Organics and the ‘Brilliant’ range by Aveda.     

I have lots of ‘beauty icons’ that, to my mind, represent a more diverse attitude to beauty, that hopefully represent a wider scope of womanhood. Do you have any ‘hair icons’?

I just watched Flashdance with my girls. Jennifer Beales hair! (below left)

In the same breath I get a total wide on for my friend Laura Bailey‘s hair (right). It’s unreal. Thick, shiny, heavy swinging blanket of the good stuff.
Who doesn’t love Rihanna’s red? Or Stevie Wonder’s braids?

What would you say to young girls and women of colour who struggle with hair ‘issues’?

Ultimately the goal is to be free to do whatever you want with your hair. But what we ‘want’ is influenced by so many factors. When I was little I insisted my parents stopped calling me Thandie because it was so ‘different‘, my desire was influenced by a community where the way I looked was not celebrated, where my uniqueness was seen as suspect. Whatever we are repelled by, or don’t want – right there is the bud to a root we need to dig up and investigate.

Once we’re conscious of the story behind our discomfort, we can reject that story and be free.  And then we can have it all, and love it all.

Watch a trailer of Thandie’s next movie, GOOD DEEDS (out in US Feb 14th) HERE

Watch Thandie’s talk on ‘Embracing Otherness, Embracing Myself’ at TED HERE

Watch the trailer to Chris Rock’s insightful documentary GOOD HAIR HERE

Read writer Funmi Fetto’s honest account of her hair from British VOGUE HERE

See my Pinterest board full of work that Thandie & I have done together HERE