Model-Activist Gabrielle Richardson on Her Biggest Hair Lessons, and Maintaining Her Marley Twists
Texture Diaries is a space for Black women across industries to reflect on their journeys to self-love, and how accepting their hair, in all its glory, played a pivotal role in this process. Each week, these women share their favorite hair rituals, products, and the biggest lessons they’ve learned when it comes to affirming their beauty and owning their unique hair texture.
Model-activist Gabrielle Richardson has always pursued her creative interests alongside her modeling career. She’s worked with the Art Hoe Collective, a safe space for artists of color, and more recently founded the Brown Girl Butterfly Project, a collective which provides wellness kits and tools to Black and brown femme communities. When it comes to modeling, you can spot Richardson in campaigns for the likes of Marc Jacobs and Prada, or simply gracing Instagram feeds with angelic makeup looks and her signature Marley twists.
“If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t always love my hair,” Richardson admits. “I suffered from the systemic conditioning that something is innately wrong with our natural state of being.” On top of mending her damaged ends, it took her years to unpack that mentality.
Now, Richardson takes a less-is-more approach to her hair care. When her Marley twists are in, “silk pillowcases are a girl’s best friend,” she says. “I used to sleep with a bonnet, but I would always lose it in my sleep.” When it comes to her hair styling, she reaches for shea butter, Gisou’s Honey Infused Hair Oil, and the Ouai Scalp Body Scrub to refresh her scalp. “I love protective styles because they’re low-maintenance and always look great,” she says of her go-to look. “When I wake up in the morning, I shake my head and I’m ready for the day, or if I’m feeling fancy, I lay my baby hairs with Creme of Nature Argan Oil Perfect Edges.”
Since quarantine began, Richardson has “been put in a significantly more intimate space” when it comes to her relationship with her hair. “As a model, my hair usually is pushed to always look the same, but during quarantine I have been switching it up and trying new things and finding styles that align with who I am,” she says. She’s found joy in exploring different styles, such as braids and twists done by her friends. “I think through this exploration of my hair it really has just been an extension of my exploration with identity.” She adds that there’s a certain “liberation that ensues when you don’t have an allegiance to one style.”
This sense of freedom is enabled by a comfort with her individuality. Richardson used to imitate YouTube hair tutorials, but didn’t get the results she wanted. “I learned to focus on my own hair journey instead of vicariously living through others,” she says. “These videos aided me with a bunch of helpful information and knowledge, but sometimes when I didn’t succeed on a tutorial, I felt as if something was wrong with me, when that is simply not true. My hair is different, but that isn’t wrong. I need to know myself and take time exploring what my specific hair needs are.”
No matter what’s going on, Richardson is prioritizing her wellness. “As someone who is greatly emotionally invested in Black lives, waking up in the morning and brushing my hair, shaking the sadness off of me to maintain myself requires me to be more active than I have the capacity to be,” she says. “Existing in these draining moments, we must remind ourselves that ‘maintenance’ is intentional and moves so far beyond that ‘maintaining’ title into the world of active care. That while we are all going through this shared communal grief, we need to all do our best to care and be gentle towards ourselves in this moment.”