Jawara Wauchope’s ode to black hair

Globetrotting Jamaican hairstylist Jawara Wauchope is not one to skimp on dramatic tresses or opportunity.

Two days before the black fashion-focused spectacle that was The Met Gala in New York City, the savvy creative delivered his own valentine to ethnic culture: Echelon Noir Productions’ Black Hair Reimagined: The New Era of Beauty Hair Show.

“It was important for me to bring back the idea of black hair shows but reinvented in a way where it intertwines, and ways that I don’t think that I’ve been able to see,” reflected Wauchope, the senior beauty editor-at-large at i-D magazine, to The Sunday Gleaner on a phone call during his post-event vacay. It is a week after the visionary hairstyling showcase he brainstormed with brand marketing guru Jarrod Lacks resonated with critical raves.

The timing of the extravagant hair show was apropos for him, with the magnified media lens on the historical and continued influence of black fashion and culture for The Met Gala and the Costume Institute’s ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’ exhibition, which opened to the public on May 10.

“We were intentional in making use of everyone being in New York for the Met,” the Duhaney Park, St Andrew-bred hairstylist noted of the rationale he and Lacks shared for landing on the show date. “We thought about it and figured it would be incredible to celebrate black hair, especially since the theme of Superfine Tailoring and ‘dandyism’ have a particular energy around grooming.”

Staged in Manhattan at the WSA Building — which the New York Times recently extolled as the first ‘It’ building in the financial district that “has become the talk of downtown and a hot spot for parties with outrageous guest lists” — Wauchope’s labour of love featured masterful work from top-tier hair stylist-and-stylist pairings: he and Carlos Nazario, Malcolm Marquez and Jessica Willis, Cyndia Harvey with Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, Yusef Williams and Patti Wilson, and Vernon Francois with Jan-Michael Quammie.

“From idea to reality, I would say it [the show] took Jarrod and I about five months to make happen. It was a lot that we learned on the way as well. Jarrod and I would have loads of conversations talking about what was missing and what we would like to bring back to the fashion industry as well as the beauty industry, and fusing the two together.”

He disclosed that the project had weighed on his mind for a number of years, but he was nudged into action by the current social climate.

“Due to the state of what’s happening in America and a lot of blacks feeling hopeless, I wanted to do an event around celebrating black culture as well as displaying hairstylists and stylists, sort of like [being the] head designer of a fashion house. The most important thing about doing this show for me was to send a message to be proud of who you are, as well as pulling teams together in ways that we haven’t in a while, and I feel we’ve done that.”

The Echelon Noir hair show unfolded as a five-part experience, with each segment spotlighting the work of the paired collaborators.

For Wauchope and Nazario’s ‘Black Opulence’-titled act with a remix of the Beyoncé and Sean Paul hit, Baby Boy as its soundtrack, the attention was on towering, sculptural hair inspired by the Jamaican salon culture and the women who embodied it, that Wauchope recalled growing up with a firsthand view of. Meanwhile, with Marquez (recent Grammy-winning rap star Doechii’s hairstylist) and Willis’ ‘Flowers Only Bloom At Night’ act, the former’s catalyst was Arizona, the desert American state he hails from. To this end, the presented hairdos were contrasted with bursts of colours and textures. The Harvey-and-Karefa-Johnson combo delivered ‘Neptune Noir’, which was aquatic themed for its otherworldly hairpieces mimicking underwater life.

As for Francois (the go-to man for Serena Williams and Lupita Nyong’o’s crowns) and Quammie’s ‘Freedom is Priceless’ segment, theirs was a mix of political and poetic statement-making wigs on stage, while Williams and Wilson’s ‘Nostalgic Heat’ paid homage to the hairstylist’s Miami, Florida, roots with bold, voluminous, era-defining hairstyles.

Of the collective partnership with his peers on the much-talked-about hair show he co-engineered, Wauchope remarked: “Honestly, for me, working with people who fell in love with the same industry I fell in love with at a certain time created a very interesting synergy. We were all in this space when we fell in love with something that drew all of us together. It was absolutely incredible.”

Rocking his show’s catwalk on the 41st floor of the WSA’s glass-wrapped skyscraper were the fashion industry’s leading black supermodels, among them The Rock’s Tami Williams, South Sudanese American Anok Yai; Lineisy Montero and Ysuanny Brito from the Dominican Republic; Angolan Blesnya Minher; Nigerian Mayowa Nicholas; Swede Sabina Karlsson; and Americans Alton Mason and Juelz Smith.

“One of the models that made me fall in love with fashion is Naomi Campbell, who is of Jamaican descent, so for me, the idea of Caribbean models always excited me and is one of the main reasons why I went into fashion in the beginning,” Wauchope told The Sunday Gleaner. As fate would have it, Wauchope, who now holds pride of place in his profession as one of its most called-upon, today works frequently on photoshoot sets with Campbell, having sculpted her tresses for her recent W Magazine, British Vogue and i-D magazine cover editorials.

High-fashion glossies are but a trickle of the Jamaican-now-London-based artist’s creative overflow that includes advertising campaigns for luxury fashion houses Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Tom Ford, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Lanvin, Calvin Klein, Hermès, and Versace.

Wauchope’s latest work can be seen for the Tiffany & Co. High Jewelry ad campaign that launched last month with top model Abby Champion’s slicked-back ‘do. All his. There is, too, the just-out Chopard campaign for its L’Heure du Diamant timepiece with supermodel Bella Hadid, which has his artistic fingerprints.

Is this global fashion power mover’s heritage a factor in how he goes about his job?

“There [are] a lot of things that I think contribute towards my success, and I believe the discipline I learned from Jamaican culture [is one of them],” he acknowledged. “Something about the rich culture of Jamaica that had me thinking and dreaming endlessly, but still determined to push through.”

Wauchope vividly remembered that the spark that ignited his career came during his boyhood living in Kingston. “My aunt worked in a hair salon, and I would see people come inside and leave happy. So my initial thought about hairstylists was that they were magicians.”

Musing on the path his life has taken, Wauchope, whose favourite haunts in Jamaica when back home are Oracabessa, Port Antonio, and Duhaney Park, said: “I’ve been working in fashion for 20 years and on my solo career for the past 13 years, and I couldn’t be more proud and happy. The achievements I am most proud of are putting together projects like the Echelon hair show and doing exhibitions where I can showcase my work and what I believe is beautiful and uplift people through imagery.”

lifestyle@gleanerjm.com