舞台上的杀戮
在三月的一个星期六晚上, a standing-room-only crowd roared with approval as a model strutted down a red-lit runway in the Heights Room, 背景音乐在跳动. 当她到达终点时, she turned her back to the audience and lifted her hair, letting the intricate braids fall in waves around her. This, after all, is what the people had come to see.
首届美发展，由 F.I.S.T.S. (Females Incorporating Sisterhood 通过 Step, 电子游戏软件女子步行队), 是阿什莉·多苏24年创作的, a nursing student who launched her hair braiding business, 被阿修杀了作为一名大一学生. 她的视力, inspired by the annual fashion shows put on by the African Student Organization, 黑人学生论坛, 加勒比文化俱乐部, was an event celebrating hair as both an art form and centerpiece of Black culture.
“I always describe hair as being a crown that can be readjusted, 尤其是在我们的社会中, but it’s also an accessory that can be an embodiment of your personality,她解释道. “I wanted to put on a show that made people feel empowered and beautiful.”
Dossous grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her parents settled after emigrating from Haiti. Her mother was a talented hair braider and a big believer in first impressions, which meant Dossous and her younger sister never left the house with unstyled hair. 最终, hand cramps prevented her mother from braiding for long periods of time, so she began passing on her skills to Dossous, 谁学得很快.
“I instantly got it, so I guess it runs in the family,” Dossous said with a laugh. “We had lots of teaching sessions with my sister being the model.”
Dossous began using two mirrors to braid her own hair, 当她来到电子游戏软件时, 她主动为她的室友提供服务. 通过 公元前F1rst, a program for first-generation college students, Dossous met other students of color who became close friends and were more than happy to avoid Boston’s high salon fees, which can reach $500 for more involved styles. 在他们的鼓励下, Dossous set up a make-shift salon in her dorm and launched an Instagram account showcasing her work. Soon, DMs requesting appointments began to roll in from students at BC and beyond.
照片由Jaiden Nicholson提供.
一开始, Dossous’s repertoire was limited to braids and twists but she quickly branched out, practicing cornrows until she was able to execute clean lines and, 最终, intricate patterns where the flat braids cross over or zigzag around one another. Her menu of services now includes knotless braids, 富拉尼辫子(前面的玉米辫), 盒式辫子在后面), 女神辫可以增加卷发, 和马利, 波西米亚, 激情扭曲. 她做各种各样的运动, 任何长度的头发, and challenging multi-part designs—and she’s constantly learning new tricks.
“There’s a couple of friends I have that, 每当他们预定我的时候, I know it’s going to be for a style I’ve never done before,”她说。. “If they bring an inspiration picture I’ll try to mimic it so it’s kind of like copying and pasting, but when they want me to freestyle I have to think outside the box and be creative.”
Most appointments begin with Dossous conditioning and blow drying a client’s hair, then detangling it to prepare for parting and styling. 更长的女性风格, she divides extension hair and weaves it into each individual braid, a process that can take up to eight hours. Men's styles (usually twists, braids, retwists of locs, or cornrows) can take two to three. 偶尔, 多斯要休息一下了, but mostly she enjoys the chance to have deep conversations with people from many different backgrounds. Over the years, she’s started to view doing hair as a form of therapy, she said. “这有点像我的自我照顾时间.”
“I always describe hair as being a crown that can be readjusted, but it’s also an accessory that can be an embodiment of your personality.”
Her favorite moment comes when a style is complete and she can stand back and watch her client’s reaction. 在她的商业Instagram上, Dossous posts photos and videos of men and women modeling their new looks, 充满信心和喜悦的.
“I feel very passionate about being able to capture how confident people get when they take care of themselves,”她说。. “我喜欢捕捉他们的笑容.”
为了她的发展, Dossous worked with photographers and videographers to create multimedia interludes for each of the show’s four parts: Nostalgia, 女性气质, 男子气概, 和爱. 而这些都显示在屏幕上, Dossous and eight other hair braiders and stylists readied the models for the runway. 走之间, each model’s hair was transformed to fit the next theme: one woman’s braids started out wrapped around her neck like a multi-layered necklace (女性气质) and then were let down to her ankles and adorned with roses (Love). She walked with a male model who began the night with two-strand locs (男子气概) that Dossous’s team later transformed by adding barrel twists and flower decorations.
这个月, Dossous will become the first person in her family to graduate from college, an accomplishment she’s extremely proud of. 下一个, she plans to pursue a career in pediatric oncology, and to use her passion for self-care to help improve her patients’ mental well-being. 她还会继续编辫子, but hopefully in a professional studio instead of her living space. 无论她去哪里, at least one loyal customer is guaranteed to follow: Dossous’s little sister Shaidha only trusts 被阿修杀了 with her style, 这种情况短期内不会改变.