• Celebrity
    • OTE – Screen Kings
    • Daniel Kaluuya Digital Cover
    • Digital Cover Method Man
    • Digital Cover Zazie
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
    • If Not For My Girls
  • Fashion
    • ESSENCE Fashion House 2022
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Best In Black Beauty 2023
    • ESSENCE Hair Awards 2022
    • AVEENO Skin Health Startup Accelerator
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
  • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weave
    • 4C
  • Love
    • Love & Sex News
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Black History Month
    • ESSENCE Gift Guide 2022
    • ESSENCE + smartwater Live Well Challenge
    • Build Your Legacy 2022
    • Dream & Plan with Confidence Prudential
    • AMEX Platinum Travel
    • Homecoming Season 2022
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
  • News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Sponsors Recognition Page 2022
    • Latest News
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Video
  • Festival
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2022 Fest Videos
  • Events
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Girls United Summit
    • 2022 ESSENCE Fashion House
    • 2022 Homecoming Season
    • She Got Now
    • Dear Black Men
    • I Am Speaking
    • Power Tools
  • Studios
  • Girls United

WHERE BLACK CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS MEET

Sign up for ESSENCE Newsletters the keep the Black women at the forefront of conversation.

Your email is required.
Your email is in invalid format.
Confirm email is required.
Email did not match.
Select the newsletters you'd like to receive:
Please select at least one option.
By clicking Subscribe Now, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Skip to content
SUBSCRIBE
  • MAGAZINE
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Celebrity
    • OTE – Screen Kings
    • Daniel Kaluuya Digital Cover
    • Digital Cover Method Man
    • Digital Cover Zazie
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
      • Paint The Polls Black
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
    • If Not For My Girls
  • Fashion
    • ESSENCE Fashion House 2022
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Best In Black Beauty 2023
    • ESSENCE Hair Awards 2022
    • AVEENO Skin Health Startup Accelerator
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
  • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weave
    • 4C
  • Love
    • Love & Sex News
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Black History Month
    • ESSENCE Gift Guide 2022
    • ESSENCE + smartwater Live Well Challenge
    • Build Your Legacy 2022
    • Dream & Plan with Confidence Prudential
    • AMEX Platinum Travel
    • Homecoming Season 2022
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
  • News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Sponsors Recognition Page 2022
    • Latest News
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Video
  • Festival
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2022 Fest Videos
  • Events
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Girls United Summit
    • 2022 ESSENCE Fashion House
    • 2022 Homecoming Season
    • She Got Now
    • Dear Black Men
    • I Am Speaking
    • Power Tools
  • Studios
  • Girls United
Beyoncé’s Lead Hairstylist Explains History Behind Styles In ‘Black Is King’
By Shalwah Evans · Updated December 6, 2020
Home · Hair

Beyoncé's Lead Hairstylist Explains The Inspiration Behind The Hair In 'Black Is King'

By Shalwah Evans·Updated December 6, 2020
"It wasn't for them just a hairstyle. There was a story behind it," he says.

It has only been a few days since Beyoncé’s highly anticipated film and visual album Black Is King debuted and lead hairstylist on the project, Neal Farinah, is simply happy to be back in his salon. Like all other hair salons in New York City, the pandemic caused him to shut his doors for months, and he finally just reopened at the top of July.

“You never stop in? That’s so shady!” he playfully scolds after I tell him that I pass by the Brooklyn shop all the time.

Farinah is calm and humble with an infectiously joyful demeanor as we speak over the phone. The Trinidadian stylist is excited to be back to serving his diverse clientele again. He doesn’t broach the subject of Black Is King until I do. But once probed, he opens up, and it’s clear that the project has not only expanded his skills as a stylist, but that it has changed his life.

View this post on Instagram

INSPIRATION.looks#4 Cornrow Design have been apart of the African culture since 3000B.C Since slaves didn’t have much writing material they used cornrow design as a map to guide and speak to one another in message-cornrows are symbolic to one age, religious belief,marital status,wealth and are a form self expression @beyonce #blackisking #disneyplus

A post shared by Neal Farinah (@nealfarinah) on Aug 3, 2020 at 2:22pm PDT

“Beyoncé told me she had this amazing project that she was working on. It was something like her baby,” Farinah recalls. “She’s like, ‘I want to do all these amazing videos.’ She showed me all these different references, all this beautiful art of African hairstyles and trends. I’m a young man from the Caribbean and I’ve also been doing Black hair all my life. I have education on hair, but when I went back and I started researching all this amazing hair art from 18th century and stuff, I was blown away.”

The film, which is an extension of the 2019 The Lion King soundtrack executive produced by the singer, feels like a love letter to Africa. So she and Farinah paid extra special attention to the details of the hair, pulling references from African royalty and from customs of different tribes across the continent.

Farinah called on an additional slew of talented Black stylists including Kim Kimble, Nakia Rachon Collins, Xia Charles, Keinda Davis, Nicole Newland, Safiya Warner, Tashana Miles, Kendra Garvey, Kamilah Gerestant and more; collectively they went to work. Intricate braid styles, traditional embellishments such as cowrie shells and beads, and ornate headwraps and geles were the result.

Article continues after video.

“As soon as they started bringing pieces, we started to put them together and I would send to Beyoncé. She’d be like, ‘Go back and do this, go back and do that.’ Or, ‘Try to do it in this color. Bring flavor, bring flavor,’ and sometimes, ‘Less is more,'” Farinah tells ESSENCE. “And she’d say ‘Remember I have to perform.’ And I didn’t think about all of that, that she has to perform. We’d just create.”

That passion to just create led to some larger than life styles that even Farinah wasn’t sure how they’d pull off, including a horned headdress of the Dinka and Mursi tribes that the singer wore sitting atop a horse in the “Already” video, as well as a cascade of box braids more than 30 feet tall that she donned at the end of “Water.”

Beyoncé’s Lead Hairstylist Explains History Behind Styles In ‘Black Is King’
Beyoncé’s Lead Hairstylist Explains History Behind Styles In ‘Black Is King’

For Farinah, it was about educating himself on what the different styles represented. While Beyoncé supplied the vision and the inspiration, the execution was up to him and his team. So he studied the styles and how they were created so that he could put his own spin on them without taking away from the meaning. He understood that it wasn’t about simply looking at something pretty.

“It wasn’t for them just a hairstyle. There was a story behind it,” Farinah says. “I have learned so much, that some hairstyles were passed on from generation to generation, to respect your elders, and to respect a married woman. Like when a woman got married, her hairstyle signified that this is a married woman. These hairstyles are so deep. Pieces meant so much. Beyoncé did appreciate me not over-creating the looks because that’s not what it was all about. It was to inspire people about the beauty of African hairstyles and art.”

Beyoncé’s Lead Hairstylist Explains History Behind Styles In ‘Black Is King’
Beyoncé’s Lead Hairstylist Explains History Behind Styles In ‘Black Is King’

“Black women’s hair and Black trends have been put down for so many years. And I’m so proud that we can do this and educate people about Blackness and Black hair, Black trends, how amazing it is and the story behind it, the history behind these cultures,” he finishes. “It was not just hair. It was not just a braided hairstyle. Everything meant something and that’s what makes it powerful. And I’m so happy that Beyoncé came up with this amazing [project] and that I can share this with her because her vision is unbelievable.”

COMPANY INFORMATION
  • Our Company
  • Customer Service
  • Essence Ventures
  • Change Your Address
  • Contact Us
  • Job Opportunities
  • Internships
  • Media Kit
  • tag
SUBSCRIBE
  • Newsletters
  • Give a Gift of ESSENCE
  • Magazine Tablet Edition
FOLLOW US
MORE ON ESSENCE
  • Home
  • Love
  • Celebrity
  • Beauty
  • Hair
  • Fashion
  • ESSENCE festival

ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc.

Essence may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

©2023 ESSENCE Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Essence.com Advertising Terms

Get The ESSENCE Newsletter and
Special Offers delivered to your inbox

By clicking Sign Up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Get The ESSENCE Magazine
by subscribing below
subscribe now