Inflammation does more than just cause redness, pain, and hyperpigmentation—it may be (quietly) aging your skin. Unlike normal inflammation, “mild inflammation lingers without fully going away and may not cause obvious symptoms,” board-certified dermatologist Dr. Tiffany Libby tells Beautycon. “Think of it like a garden: if you don’t regularly weed (calm the inflammation), they can overtake the beautiful flowers (healthy cells), making it harder for the garden to thrive.”

Below, Dr. Libby explains how mild inflammation ages your skin—and how to stop it. 

What is inflammaging? 

“Inflammaging is a term that combines ‘inflammation’ and ‘aging’,” Dr. Libby says. The term, introduced by Prof. Claudio Franceschi in 2000, recognized immune changes in response to lifelong stress. According to Libby, “it describes how chronic, low-grade inflammation in our bodies contributes to aging and age-related diseases,” like psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.

How does mild inflammation differ from normal inflammation?

Inherently, inflammation isn’t bad. “Normal inflammation is like your body’s alarm system responding to an injury or infection,” Libby says, as a temporary response to help your skin heal. “While normal inflammation is your body’s way of protecting itself, mild inflammation can slowly wear your body down over time, contributing to aging and various health issues.”

How do you know if you have mild inflammation?

Unlike normal inflammation—which is often associated with redness, heat, swelling, or pain—the symptoms of mild inflammation are more hidden. 

“One of the earliest signs of inflammaging is dryness of the skin, which can mean that the skin moisture barrier is in need of more hydrating and supportive ingredients,” she says. Caused by environmental stressors like UV radiation and pollution, as well as internal stressors like stress or lack of sleep, “we can assume that the majority of us are exposed to chronic levels of low inflammation impacting our skin.”

What is the relationship between aging and inflammation?

While the body’s immune system becomes increasingly inflamed as people age, inflammation induces oxidative stress and other effects which are thought to promote aging, according to the NIH. “Chronic inflammation can generate free radicals, which are unstable molecules that damage cells and collagen and elastin,” she says.

Collagen and elastin are the primary actors responsible for your skin’s aging process.

“[If] these critical components get damaged, signs of photoaging like fine lines, wrinkles and loss of elasticity can become more pronounced,” she says. And, while the skin is meant to serve as a protective barrier from our environment, a damaged barrier can cause inflammation, which in turn, makes our skin more susceptible to aging.

Does skin tone impact how inflammation appears?

“People with darker skin tones often associate inflammation with hyperpigmentation, not aging,” she says. After inflammation occurs in the skin (like from a breakout), post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (dark spots) or hypopigmentation (light spots) may appear. 

However, redness, sun exposure, and acne are not the sole cause of pigmentation. “Chronic low levels of inflammation can contribute to dark spots on the skin and uneven skin texture and tone [as well].” 

What type of skincare routine can help decrease the threat of inflammation?

External support like skincare that specifically targets the root causes of inflammation to help treat inflammaging. “Try a gentle cleanser to avoid stripping the skin of its natural oils which can lead to irritation and inflammation,” Libby says. “Look for moisturizers with ingredients like hyaluronic acid to keep skin hydrated, which can help maintain the skin barrier and reduce irritation.” 

Antioxidants, like naringenin, have anti-inflammatory properties and decrease cellular damage and damage to collagen and elastin. She recommends DEINDE, one of the first skincare brands to target inflammaging, with products like the Skin-Strengthening Serum and Purifying Whipped Cleanser to combat and prevent mild inflammation.

If you use any product, however, sunscreen should be your top pick. “Wearing broad-spectrum sunscreen every day, regardless of the season, is vital because UV rays can exacerbate inflammation and accelerate aging.”

From cranberry makeup to latte undertones, food has been used to describe color palettes and skin tones in beauty all year long. And, while the price of beauty products, and food, increases, brands and influencers—like Rhode Skin’s lip balm-adjacent cinnamon roll tutorial and Nara Smith making moisturizer from beef and beeswax—are using our unscratched grocery items to market to our hunger. But we’re craving more than just food.

To appetize the (almost) edible beauty trends, the Pantone Color Institute announced Mocha Mousse, a rich, brown hue with warm undertones, as Color of the Year for 2025. “[The color] nurtures with its suggestion of the delectable qualities of cacao, chocolate, and coffee, appealing to our desire for comfort,” writes vice president of Pantone, Laurie Pressman.

Each year, Pantone’s winning hue represents the current relationship between culture and color, spanning every industry including beauty. “Underpinned by our desire for everyday pleasures, Mocha Mousse expresses a level of thoughtful indulgence,” says color expert Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director at Pantone. 

More than just our desire for food and beauty, the color, numbered 17-1230, satiates our thirst for shade-inclusivity in an industry which often deserts darker skin tones. Mocha Mousse can be seen as a response to 2024’s Peach Fuzz shade, which received backlash for the obvious resemblance to white skin. 

“A light shade of orange, with an evocative name that immediately recalls human touch (in perhaps a too specifically white skin range), has been chosen to represent the desire of meeting in real life,” wrote Vogue India in 2023. Meanwhile, a number of comments on Pantone’s social media announcement called the peach hue “tone deaf” and an “out of touch color.” 

Now, the deep, natural shade of Mocha Mousse represents the inclusion of brown as a form of sustainable beauty. Selected to extend our perception of browns, the color’s rich, creamy hue is meant to be an “unpretentious classic” and “tasteful touch of glamor” spotted throughout fashion month’s spring/summer 2025 season. 

So, with 2025 a few weeks ahead, closing the year with your best chocolate and coffee-toned beauty looks should be on your “in’s” list for the holidays.

Being the face of a brand is just not enough. An encyclopedia of celebrity beauty brands have hit the market this year, turning ambassadors into founders, and our skin and body care routines into celebrity-approved trends. For hair, however, the stakes for coarser textures are much higher, with consumer discourse about the “one-size-fits-all” approach to hair care products.

However, with the most popular and latest brands backed by the world’s highest-ranked celebrities, Beyoncé’s Cécred and Rihanna’s Fenty Hair, the myth “products for ‘all hair types’ don’t work for textured hair” is easily debunked just off of first-use. Furthermore, there has been a lot of conversations circulating on the internet about which brand is better. But we want to push back on that as we believe both are great and there is something for everyone. The most difficult part, though? Is knowing which to use first. 

Below, NaturallyCurly breaks down the differences between Cécred and Fenty Hair—and the concerns each brand is best for.

The history behind Cécred and Fenty Hair

Back in February, ESSENCE’s March/April cover star Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter launched Cécred, a hair care line born out of childhood memories of her mother, Tina Knowles’s, salon. “[The salon] was more than just a hair appointment—it was therapy,” Beyoncé told ESSENCE for the cover story. 

Just months later, Bajan popstar Rihanna announced Fenty Hair as the latest line to join her billion dollar beauty empire. Known for her inclusive approach to makeup, her hair care line is no different. “I’ve had almost every texture, color, length, from weaves to braids to natural,” she says on Instagram. “It’s time to play and get stronger by the style,” she says, in reference to her hair-repairing styling products.

What are the differences between the collections?

The leading difference between the collections are, well, the products. While both Cécred and Fenty Hair have basics we can’t wash without—shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioner, and a treatment mask (which are all in a toss-up for which works best)—their collections are not one in the same.

Styling vs. repair

Following in the footsteps of Rihanna, known to switch up her hairstyle at the drop of a dime, Fenty Hair is a hair styling brand. Products like the Homecurl Curl-Defining Cream, The Gelly Type Strong Hold Gel, and The Protective Type 5-in-1 Heat Protectant Styler are not offered at Cécred, which positions Fenty Hair as a brand to use before leaving the house. 

Meanwhile, bleached blonde Beyoncé founded Cécred for the most damaged hair. Instead of curl cream, edge control, and hair gel, they prioritized a Clarifying Shampoo & Scalp Scrub, Fermented Rice & Rose Protein Ritual, Nourishing Hair Oil, and their latest product, Restoring Hair And Edge Drops. 

Aroma profile

They also differ in scent. Fenty Hair is known for a warm, ambery floral scent, using notes like sparkling yuzu, golden amber, vanilla and soothing florals as their profile. On the other hand, Cécred delivers a rich, deep oud aroma with signature notes of Australian sandalwood, warm musk, night-blooming jasmine, Haitian vetiver, and violet leaves. 

Packaging

Fenty Hair’s inclusive packaging features textured tops to guide the sight-impaired (and ones with shampoo-clouded eyes.) The packaging, like Fenty Skin, features a range of color-coded pastel tones and easy-use flip caps to mediate the difficulties you may not have even noticed.

For Cécred, their ancient sculptural bottles have a half-moon top with a stone-like texture for the most minimalist bathrooms. Tools like the Ritual Shaking Vessel acknowledge just how important the packaging is to the product encased, which in turn, promotes circularity with your empties.

What are the differences between the hair care formulas?

Bioactive Keratin Ferment, a patent-pending keratin recovery complex, is the key ingredient behind all Cécred products. The complex contains bioactive keratin, a keratin-mimicking protein derived from wool; honey, a nutrient-rich nectar used to activate fermentation and lock-in hydration; and, a prebiotic ferment for scalp care called lactobacillus ferment.

Meanwhile, Fenty Hair’s proprietary complex Replenicore-5 contains five key ingredients instead of three: amino acids, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, Barbados gooseberry, upcycled jackfruit extract, and green tea extract. While both formulas are reparative, Cécred’s is fermented (dubbed part of the China and Japan-led “kombucha effect” linking wellness to hair care) while Fenty Hair is not. 

Which hair concerns are the key ingredients best for?

While both brands use hair repair ingredients, Cécred’s collection is postured for hair damage, weak, depleted, and chemically processed strands. And, while use of keratin treatments are known to have a few cons, the brand’s Bioactive Keratin Ferment is an active ingredient delivering the long-term repair regular keratin treatments lack. 

From their three-step protein ritual to Reconstructing Treatment Mask, Cécred is ideal for a wash-and-go, style prep, or repair day at home. Fenty Hair, on the other hand, is a go-to for the style-forward final steps of your hair care routine. Tools like the 3-in-1 Edge Styling Tool and hair gels are a must–have for braids, finger waves, and other detailed styles. 

Luckily, besides the shampoo and conditioner (which are both top-rated and depend entirely on preference), you don’t have to choose between the two.

On the final day of the 30th ESSENCE Festival of Culture, our Passion To Profit series closed out the Beautycon stage. Chairman of Essence Ventures Richelieu Dennis moderated a conversation with PDC Brand CEO Tarun Malkani about the next generation of Black beauty businesses. Fitting, as PDC— who owns brands such as Cantu, Eylure London, and now Dr. Teals— has a strong stake in our community. “Every person has a deep association with Dr. Teals, in the African-American community particularly,” Malkani told Dennis.

Like Cantu, Dr. Teals’ products have had an impact on our body for the past 20 years. “When you’re sore, when your ankles are swollen, when your back hurts, have a headache, that’s where I go to self-medicate,” Dennis said. With the intention to facilitate healing in the Black community, we should support businesses we feel support and represent us, and understand our spending power. “This community has put this product on the map,” Malkani said. “I think you have to respect the physiological needs, the needs for hair and skin. The requirements for the Black community in terms of hair is quite unique.” 

Cantu’s newest brand ambassador Skai Jackson appeared at their Beautycon booth, helping tell the story about the evolution of the brand. “As her target evolves, her audience evolves, that’s how she thinks of Cantu,” Malkani said. From reformulation to product performance, storytelling to community building, Malkani explains how it is important to remain connected to your consumers. However, as brands scale, it often becomes more difficult to maintain trust with your target audience. 

“The bigger you get the more regulations play a role, and the less you understand how to manage through those regulatory changes,” Dennis said. “The biggest downside of it is when your customers think you’re trying to fool them.”

Dennis then explained an issue he ran into with paraben-free hair care brand Shea Moisture, and how the ingredient japonica caused consumers to lose trust in the brand. With parabens linked to cancer, they removed the ingredient and replaced it with the plant extract. But “turns out, over time, japonica started to behave much like a paraben,” he said. “We end up with people saying ‘oh, you guys are changing the formula, you’re watering it down.’” This is similar to what Mielle founder Monique Rodriguez received backlash for: selling her brand to P&G, and losing trust from Black consumers as a result. That said, “always communicate with your consumers,” Dennis shared with the audience as an entrepreneurial learning. “The good things and the bad things, not just the marketing things.”

There’s no doubt that mothers are the backbone of our community— passing down lessons in strength, confidence, and more. However, motherhood can be a big transition— one that requires an adjustment to self-care and beauty routines. To discuss this matter, today, new mothers Aimee Simeon and Chanen Johnson joined the Beauty After Motherhood Beautycon panel, moderated by senior lifestyle editor Victoria Uwumarogie, on the final day of the 30th ESSENCE Festival of Culture.

“I had all the time in the world, and then I found out I was pregnant,” Aimee Simeon told Uwumarogie. As the senior beauty editor at Well+Good, Simeon used to luxuriate in treatments, from cupping to acupuncture and deep tissue massages. After a difficult first trimester, however, her acne-prone skin (which had been an issue throughout the years) cleared up, but not without bringing other changes to the forefront. “I had to look into products that helped swelling,” she said. “I didn’t deal with hair loss until after I gave birth and my hair just [now] stopped falling out.”

Despite most mothers adjusting to their changing bodies, “snapback” culture pressures mothers to bounce back to their old body after motherhood. “Famous folks will come on Instagram like ‘look at me back in the gym’ and you’re thinking to yourself ‘I’m leaking, I’m struggling, how are you doing this’,” Uwumarogie, a mother of two, said. “I got pregnant six months postpartum and I’m sorry I’m not going to the gym,” Johnson said. “I don’t feel bad at all. We’re all different, we all have different body types.” 

From learning how to do our makeup, to building healthy relationships with our hair, the most important beauty lesson we learn can be passed down to our daughters. “I’m a girl mom, I’m having another girl, I want them to get into the beauty space and enjoy it the same way that I do,” Johnson says. For Simeon, she’s breaking generational curses around having our hair done. “I remember that sitting between my mom’s legs so clearly,” she said. “I just want her to know that I will do anything to make her feel her absolute best. Even if it’s a little crooked pigtail.”

In late April, makeup brand Youthphoria faced backlash over the darkest shade in their Date Night foundation. This shade—which content creator Golloria George called out and has since been pulled from their website—was a jet black skin tint with no other pigment than black iron oxide. That, and pressing issues surrounding “clean” and “sustainable” beauty leave consumers with more questions than answers. How are beauty products made? Where are the ingredients sourced? Why are certain formulas trending?

Today, we found out in The Lab. To kick off the final day of the 30th ESSENCE Festival, panelists and cosmetic chemists Sister Scientist and Javon Ford joined ESSENCE’s senior beauty editor Akili King on the Beautycon stage to discuss. In the 1990s, “[brands] would take a medium-toned foundation that’s made up of white, yellow and red pigment, and they would just add black,” Ford told King, which caused ashy-looking, dull makeup with no undertones. Calling out Youthphoria, “they’re not really looking at human skin. Black is not a mixing color,” he said. 

Despite brands like Fenty Beauty and WYN Beauty putting darker shades first, it is more common for brands to have a wide range of lighter-toned foundation, with limited shades for melanated skin. This is because most brands do not see Black consumers a profitable market to cater to. However, according to Sister Scientist, Black women spend almost three times the average beauty consumer. “These brands really didn’t think that we were spending money,” she said, investing only in shades for the general population. Now, “multicultural [people are] the general population.” 

Meanwhile, as “clean beauty” is on the rise, other conversations about sustainability, chemicals, and how ingredients are sourced have come to the forefront. “There is no universal or federal-regulated standard for ‘clean beauty’,” Sister Scientist said. For most brands and retailers, they define clean beauty as holistic products devoid of “chemicals” or containing sustainably-sourced ingredients. “The fear-mongering and misinformation on social media is running rampant,” she said. “Everything has some sort of chemical in it.”

Ford acknowledged the irony of the term “clean” as a harmful preservative-light or preservative-free marketing tactic. “Clean products are the main ones being recalled nowadays,” he says, saying they may be contaminated with mold, fungus and bacteria. Nevertheless, “we have a lot of champion ingredients, like retinol and hyaluronic acid [in beauty products],” King said. Using a certificate of analysis, chemists receive these buzzword ingredients to then work with in the lab, before going to brands and retailers. Much like the beauty industry as a whole, and as Sister Scientist said, “there are a whole lot of layers; it’s like lasagna.”

Just ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, four-time Olympic Gold Medalist Serena Williams joined Cari Champion on the Essence Festival Beautycon stage to chat about her new brand WYN Beauty. While we’re familiar with celebrity beauty brands—Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty, Beyoncé’s Cécred, and TPH by Taraji to name a few—Black athletes rarely join in. “Obviously I wanted something that could represent me and the way I look,” Williams told Champion. 

Like Olympians Flo Jo and Sha’carri Richardson, Williams has long been a beauty icon in her sport. “Beauty is however you make it,” Williams said. From her beaded hairdo in a 1998 photoshoot by Annie Leibovitz (which Zendaya recreated for her Challengers press tour) to her signature winged eyeliner, and now being a licensed nail tech, the WYN Beauty founder has long rested her case as one to watch in the beauty industry. 

So, when she announced the launch of her new brand, we knew she was filling a gap—but not just between makeup and sports. Shade inclusion has been a long-standing fight for darker skin tones and despite the push Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty has had, other brands like Youthphoria are an unfortunate reminder of the work still left to do. “I could never find anything in my color,” she said. Turning her personal struggle into a profitable business, Williams’ turned her passion to a profitable business via hard work, planning, and investing in quality products. “You want to create something that lasts … that’s something I don’t think a lot of brands take into consideration. For you that was top priority,” Champion said.

Additionally, being so busy as mother, founder, and athlete, Williams noted that she created her brand to fit her lifestyle needs.  “I like the word ‘active beauty’,” Williams said. “I don’t necessarily want to put on a full face of makeup. I want to put something on that I can wear every day.”

Although she launched just over three months ago, WYN Beauty is now one of the most known movement-centered beauty brands. From her Nothing To See Concealer to the new Big Vision Tubing Mascara, and 36 shades of SPF skin tint, hydration and inclusion mixed with movement-proof makeup help keep her look set in place all day. Between bridging the gap between sports and beauty and finding innovative shade solutions, putting Black women and athletes first is at the top of Williams’ list. “I want the people [that are] a part of the company to be a part of the big win.”

From texturism to colorism, featurism to transphobia, the Black community is often told beauty does not look like us. With most of us growing up internalizing racist, homophobic and fatphobic definitions of beauty, we take on the responsibility to help each other unlearn harmful ideals. At the 30th ESSENCE Festival of Culture’s BeautyCon™ stage, the ESSENCE senior beauty editor Akili King sat down with WNBA athlete Kysre Gondrezick about how to tap into your natural beauty—and define beauty on your own terms. 

“Beauty comes from within and not from the exterior,” Gondrezick told King. “As long as we keep chasing illusions of beauty we’re always going to be altering ourselves. I took off the lashes, I took out the lip fillers, I took out the breast implants, and I just went all back natural,” she shared for the first time on the Beautycon stage.  

Meanwhile, with athletes like Tina Thompson and Skylar Diggins-Smith leading her beauty inspiration growing up, Gondrezick is now turning to ‘90s beauty for inspiration, leaning on the “JLo bun” as her signature look. “Now just being my most authentic self, I’m attracting everything it is that I want,” she said. “Deservingly so, because of the gifts that God has given me, I covered up for so long.” Taking these lessons to the hoop, the former Chicago Sky athlete keeps hair and makeup off of her face, leaning on products her mother recommended, like Noxzema, Neutrogena Treatment Pads, and collagen. “Mothers know best,” King added.

From skincare to health and wellness, discipline is Gondrezick’s biggest beauty advice. “There are vibrational foods that make you feel better,” she said. Drinking ACV-enriched water, plenty of greens, and reducing sweets helps her maintain the health of her body. “I notice that it does have an effect on my mood, it has an effect on my skin, I’ll start breaking out,” she said. “The best form of self-love is truly discipline. If you can learn to have accountability with yourself and be disciplined you’ll see it flourish in other areas of your life from the inside out.”

NaturallyCurly‘s Ask a Curl Expert franchise joins leading stylists in the beauty industry to discuss the latest trends, products, and hair care tips for all textures. On today’s Beautycon stage at the 30th ESSENCE Festival of Culture, NAHA-winning hairstylist Michelle O’Connor and celebrity hairstylist Tippi Shorter chatted with NaturallyCurly editor Desiree Johnson about “Hair Tok,” the side of TikTok pushing out all the must-try hair trends. From the viral braided baldie to 4C hair maintenance tips, inviting the pros into community-led conversations helps sift through all of the hair advice for your most healthy scalp, texture and style. 

This season, protective styles take the front seat while our exposed scalps call for extra care. “It’s hot, it’s humid, it’s sweaty, and itching is what I’m fighting to do at this very moment,” Johnson said. When taking care of our roots and scalp, Shorter reminds us of a necessary fact. “I think a lot of people forget that our scalp is skin and we need to treat it as such,” she said. “Our scalp needs a routine.” According to the AAD, our hair sheds between 50 to 100 strands per day—even in braids. “If you let that multiply by six weeks that’s how much hair you’re going to lose when you take those braids down,” she said. “You have to shampoo because if you don’t release it then you could get [unintentional] locs.”

Beneath protective styles, like wigs and braids, learning to care for our natural hair as we unlearn texturism is a crucial beauty lesson as well. “Celebrities are really peeling back the curtain and truly showing us their real hair,” Shorter told Johnson, as her favorite beauty trend at the moment. With Beyoncé debunking myths about hair health and wigs, Doja Cat turning her 4C texture into a single cover, and Rihanna making the big chop her new look, the natural beauty movement has hit the hair care industry hard—as has the bob. “The French bob with the bangs but then also, softening the bob and making it more pixie-like,” Shorter said, coining the look as the “bixie.” 

Regardless of trends, however, O’Connor said the biggest misconception with hair care is thinking we can handle our texture aggressively. “I see professional hairstylists going in with harsher chemicals, I see… how it’s brushed, how it’s maneuvered with a heavy hand,” O’Connor said. We all remember how it feels to sit between our mother or grandmother’s legs, or even at the salon, as they yank through our coils and burn our scalps. “It requires more delicate hands, more gentle chemicals, it requires all of that.” 

While part of the conversation to unlearn unhealthy relationships with our hair is treating our texture with care, the other part is knowing which products and techniques actually work. Instead of going from style to style, Shorter suggests taking a break between looks. “We have to roll back because with that we’re having broken hair, hair that doesn’t reach its full potential from a growth perspective, scalp issues, hair loss, hair thinning,” Shorter said. At the root of textured hair care, choosing products and techniques, “it’s education and understanding what you’re doing.”

Cultural skincare products, trends and even standards have taken over the beauty world. From K-Beauty’s 10-step routines and glass skin serums to red lipstick and the “French pharmacy” buzz in French beauty, the standards often revolve around what’s trending at the moment. Now, with African pop stars like Tyla, Tems and Ayra Starr increasing in visibility and brands pumping out routines for melanin-rich skin, African beauty, also known as “A-Beauty,” is starting to gain more and more traction. “A-Beauty is currently having a cultural renaissance,” moderator of Essence Festival’s “The State Of Beauty: The Power Of A-Beauty” moderator Tariro Makoni said on the Beautycon stage today. 

Panelists Sabrina Elba, Delanique Millwood and Abena Boamah-Acheampong weighed in. “Historically, there’s been a slight appropriation of these ingredients… the culture behind that ingredient has been lost,” Elba told Makoni. As the founder of skincare brand S’Able Labs, she centers her Somali roots. Her products target hyperpigmentation (which disproportionately impacts darker skin tones) by blending science with African botanicals. The use of plants like Somalia-native qasil, West African black seed, and South African rooibos shows part of A-Beauty can be using effective ingredients.  

Meanwhile, A-Beauty brands found on Millwood’s new retail platform Skintellect, including Koba skincare and Boamah-Acheampong’s Hanahana Beauty, show the other sides of the trend. “A-Beauty is a social responsibility,” Millwood says. According to a BBC investigation, brands L’Oreal and Estée Lauder are linked to child labor in their supply chain, meanwhile Madagascar’s over 580 million dollar vanilla industry is powered by children and poverty. “That opens up a bigger question: we’re doing it as a smaller brand, what are the bigger brands doing?” Elba said, calling out Unilever, L’Oreal and Estée Lauder for African exploitation. 

From ethical sourcing to fair wage, “sustainable farming needs to become front line in the conversation when it comes to A-Beauty,” Elba continued. “There’s a level of responsibility when that person’s survival is directly related to those ingredients. Their crops are their capital.” For Boamah-Acheampong, this means offering loyal consumers equity in Hanahana Beauty and paying farmers above market rate for their ingredients. “We have the opportunity not only to utilize ingredients but reflect on sustainability from the producers to farmers and in our community.”

At the first Masterclass Demo on the 30th ESSENCE Festival BeautyCon™ stage, celebrity hair stylist Ashanti Lation shows us a step-by-step of her favorite hair trends and tips. The founder of VIP Luxury Hair Care and stylist for ESSENCE Festival performers Victoria Monet and Ari Lennox has been busy mastering the latest celebrity-approved techniques, tips and tricks. 

Below, Lation shares her top 5 pro tips for a New Orleans heat-surviving silk press––and every look in between. 

Pro tip 1: Shampoo the scalp first

“You want to take warm water, if you have low porosity hair, and let it get fully saturated,” she says, just like a sponge. “A lot of people like to take the shampoo and put it on their hair first. No,” she warns. “Shampoo always goes on your scalp [first] and let it run down.” Opposite that, she recommends using conditioner on the hair shaft first, then work it up. “You don’t want to clog the pores on your scalp [with conditioner].”

Pro tip 2: Clean your hair tools

You may underestimate how often you should clean your hair tools, which is more than just pulling hair out of it. “Clean your tools, your combs, brushes, curling irons,” she says. “Everything that you use for that process needs to be disinfected every single time.” From using family members’ hair tools to going to the hair salon, building up on tools can make your scalp itch, especially for eczema-prone skin.

Pro tip 3: Detangle from under the shaft

Instead of snapping through your curls, a part of hair care is actually caring for your hair. “Y’all detangling your hair, you’re tearing it up,” she says. This means knowing how to hold the brush. While many people may hold the handle and comb from the top of the hair, Lation recommends holding the brush in your palm and combing from underneath the shaft. “If you’re taking your time and detangling from the bottom up, it goes through every time,” she says. “That’s a tip to make sure you’re not ripping your hair.”

Pro tip 4: Let the hair cool down before pressing

You should use a heat protectant––like Fenty Hair’s The Protective Type or Amika’s Heat Defense Serum––both at the blow dryer and flat ironing stages. “While the hair is still warm, I like to lock in the heat [with heat protectant] and let it cool down,” Lation says. “That’s what makes the press last longer.” Using this pro tip can help your silk press last about three weeks, even in New Orleans heat. 

Pro tip 5: Press the hair slowly

Lation debunks the myth of passing over the hair multiple times. Instead, she recommends pressing the hair slowly, with one, long pass. “This is a slow dance, this is not a fast song, this is not a bounce song. Take your time,” she says. To not damage your hair, she also suggests using a ceramic iron for more fine hair, while titanium can be used for thicker, stronger hair. “Fine hair just can’t take all that,” she says. “These steps are also going to help you keep your curl pattern

The bob. An infamous haircut defined by a blunt cut on above shoulder-length hair, the razor-sharp bob is a rather boss lady hairstyle some may be too intimidated to try. Not because they’re scared of cutting their hair short, but because the shake-worthy bob has a personality of its own.

A bob is not just a haircut, but a persona. Depicted in cinema as a haircut for strong, emotionless women — like Annalise Keating in How To Get Away With Murder — the bob is an anti-hero, an attitude, and a force to be reckoned with. It takes a certain personality to really rock a bob (and do it right), which is why we weren’t surprised when the “It Girl” Megan Thee Stallion posted herself in a middle-part bob on Instagram. 

With over 2 million likes on the post, Thee Stallion’s blunt cut bob had the bumped ends little girls was terrified of growing up. In addition to the ends, her bone-straight hair and a middle part personify a straight-forward woman of strength, power, and hardness, who really doesn’t have time to play. 

The bob is an attitude every It Girl possesses. From music to entertainment, and even the women in our family, the blunt cut is a hairstyle for a woman with no fear. Although a bob has intrinsic characteristics, just like every It Girl, a bob is not limited to a single type of personality. 

We saw the hairstyle on Coco Jones at the VMAs pink carpet last night. The opposite of Megan Thee Stallion, Coco’s bob had flipped ends, not bumped, which instilled an attitude of priss and sass to the short cut. 

Although similar in the ultra-straight style, the slight outwards bend complemented a side-part, not a middle part, which can personify someone who could take you down and you wouldn’t even see it coming. 

Every It Girl has the personality to really kill it in a bob — Nicki Minaj has been for years — but that doesn’t mean everyone would want to. Especially considering the power of the bad girl haircut fell into the wrong hands, often given a bad rep as a “Karen” cut for aggressive, violent white women. 

But as our favorite celebrities — Megan Thee Stallion, Coco Jones, Nicki Minaj — reclaim the bob, could the blunt cut be the new It Girl style?

Fall is almost here. As the leaves change colors, so should your hair. The fall season introduces a palette of hair dye to help you cuddle with the warmth and beauty of this time of year. From spicy ginger to honey brown, let the weather guide you into a new hairstyle to start the season.

Ginger

Spice your hair up! The red-toned hair color has been popularized in the past year for the warm, spicy tone. An intense, ultra vibrant color, stay warm with red hot hair this season.

The rich, coppery tones can complement various skin tones and add a touch of vibrancy to your appearance.

Wine Red

Go red, just like the Merlot in your wine glass. The medium-toned Crimson hair color is a classic, intoxicating tone. 

Wine red pairs well with any skin complexion, with a light, velvet appearance if you prefer to stay more natural-looking. 

Burgundy

Just like cranberry, baby. Dye your hair burgundy just like your fingers after a bag of cherries. The deep reddish-brown is a rich blend of mature tones. Burgundy hair is a luxurious and deep red-purple shade for the most elegant appearance this fall. 

Honey Brown

Honey brown, not blonde. A sun kissed brown is, in a way, a memory of the hot sun warming up your hair. The light-toned natural brown has a yellow undertone, unlike popular red. If you like colder weather, go for the cool, honey color to stand out.

Highlights

You don’t have to dye all of your hair. Lighten your hair with highlights to add contrast to your natural color. From luminous blonde to hazelnut brown, touch up your hair with brightness and dimension if you can’t decide on just one tone.