My Sister’s Hair
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Interview & Photography By Amina Touray
e had the opportunity to sit down with My Sister’s Hair salon owner Deshimona Nathanael and chat about growing up in Sweden with Afro hair, curls, and how to avoid common hair mistakes. Amina Touray: When did your interest in hair begin?
Deshimona Nathanael: It started quite early. I have memories from when I was eight-nine years old. I started thinking about how to braid, and I remember that I thought it just looked so hard, and then I started practicing. After a while, it just clicked and I knew how to braid. That was the first hair interest I had, and then it just developed from there. I started thinking about hair when I was growing up. I think that's because I grew up here, and I had a different kind of hair. I think because I looked different from the regular ideal in Sweden is why I was thinking about it like I wanted to have long hair. So that’s how it started. AT: Growing up in Sweden, you didn't see that many people that look like you, or like us. Describe what that felt like? DN: Yeah, I remember when I and my sister were kids when we used to play, we used to put skirts or t-shirts on our heads and pretend that it was hair that was moving because we didn’t have that, we had our Afro hairs. And our mom is Swedish, so she has straight hair. I didn't think about it that much, it didn’t bother me when I was young. But now that I’m older, I can look back and see that I was affected by it, because you didn't have any representation at that time. You had your odd celebrity that was brown and Swedish, but it was very rare. We had Alice Bah, Kayo, Titiyo, and Neneh Cherry. Those were the ones that we had. And I remember that I thought their hair was really pretty but I wasn't confident with my own hair. I always wanted to have long straight hair. Maybe that’s why I’m having it straight right now (she laughs). But I Love my curls as well now!
8
MAY 2021
