We're pretty sure Solange Piaget Knowles could sneeze and make it art. The performer treats every song, performance, and even beauty look as an opportunity for poetry — and last night's inaugural Surface Travel Awards were no exception.
The singer and her hairstylist Chuck Amos, who also styles Jourdan Dunn, Gabourey Sidibe, and Solo's big sis, were inspired by the sea — and decided to craft her newly blonde Afro into a beautiful piece of "coral reef."
"She asked for a natural, shorter Afro look, other than the blonde braids we’ve been seeing on her," Amos told Refinery29 exclusively. "I thought it would be fresh to make her texture look like coral from the sea! Sort of a Joie Lee texture from the late 80s."
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To do that, he washed and conditioned her hair before cutting the sides closer to her head to create a cool, halo shape. And here is where the crafting comes into play: "After that, I added a high moisture butter creme and a hydrating oil to her damp hair, and spread it out evenly, concentrating on the ends. From there I took a pencil and wrapped small sections of her hair around it and let those sections stay as I diffused her hair on medium heat with a blow dryer. This creates a coral reef effect to her already natural curl pattern."
Yes, folks, you read it right — Amos set Solo's curls with something you can go steal from your office supply closet right now. (BRB.)
Once the curls were set, Amos stretched select sections with a blow dryer, rotating the heat in a circular motion. "This allows air into the curls and helps them separate from each other," he notes. As a final touch, Solange pulled different sections of her hair with her fingers tailored to "how she felt at that moment" and was out the door. "It was a total hair collaboration with her, and I was honored to do it," Amos says. "That’s my girl!"