Singer Shay Lia on Embracing Her Hair in All Its Forms and Expressing Joy With Her New EP
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 and products and the biggest lessons they’ve learned when it comes to affirming their beauty and owning their unique hair texture.
Shay Lia’s soothing voice, layered atop funk-soul melodies, will draw you in immediately. The French-Djiboutian singer-songwriter, who first gained attention after working with Kaytranada on “Leave Me Alone” in 2014, is back with a new Afrobeat-inspired five-track EP, Solaris, all about “joy, dancing, warmth, and confidence.” The project, which she used to explore a new side of herself, includes the single “Love Me, Love Me Not,”, which touches on the feelings that come with getting rejected. “Melancholy and sensuality can blend into the same song,” she says of turning her vulnerability into empowerment.
Her contagious sound isn’t the only thing that’s evolved in recent years. Lia takes pride in her ability to shape-shift her glorious mane, which she recently transitioned from long to short. In addition to wanting healthier locks, she was simply looking for a change—detractors be damned. “When you have a physical trait that people like or think defines you, they really don’t want you to touch it, and I don’t like that,” she says. “I can cut it. And what if I want to be bald tomorrow? We should be able to do whatever we want and not be defined by what people think of us. Even though [my hair] is a big part of my identity, it’s not everything.”
