![]() ![]() Teams are redefined not based on the colour of the skin, but on the choices we make to make the world fairer and more equal. I believe progress is working together to change things one step at a time. To mark this huge step in inclusivity, I was pleased to be asked to become a Celebrity Ambassador with The Little Princess Trust – a position I have gladly accepted. Hair is not my main business and I am glad to handover all Afro hair donations and enquiries to the capable hands of The Little Princess Trust. Upon hearing this, I have decided to signpost all Afro hair enquiries from Curly Wigs for Kids to The Little Princess Trust. Phil assured me that one of the things he was keen to achieve since taking leadership at The Little Princess Trust was to make the charity more inclusive.Īnd, true to his word, he soon told me the amazing news that The Little Princess Trust was to start working with Afro hair in trials with a well-respected wig manufacturer. We discussed the difficulties The Little Princess had experienced in the past when they had approached many wig manufacturers and been told they were unable to make wigs with donated Afro hair and we agreed that perhaps Afro hair required a different processing technique to Caucasian hair. In full credit to Phil, he persisted in getting in touch, despite the challenges posed by my filming schedules and time difference whilst I was in Canada, and we had long conversations on the technicalities. Phil was keen to discover how I made the Afro hair wigs I was making. This journalist became instrumental in introducing me to Phil Brace, the relatively new CEO of The Little Princess Trust. They relayed this to The Little Princess Trust, too, and this sparked a three-way conversation. They got in touch to see if the child could donate the hair via Curly Wigs for Kids. I set up this non-profit and website, determined to provide an avenue for children of all races – and especially those with Afro hair – to donate and receive human hair wigs.Ī few months ago a BBC newsround journalist contacted me because they were speaking to a child with Afro hair who was desperate to donate their hair and hadn’t been successful with The Little Princess Trust. So when I discovered that charities would not accept my son’s hair because of his ethnicity, I decided to do something.Ĭharities, such as The Little Princess Trust, said they were unable to find a wig manufacturer that could turn Afro hair into a real hair wig.īut those responses would do little to ease the feelings of children like my son so I decided to turn his cut hair into a wig myself with a sewing machine and with the help of a wigmaker. I started learning not to shrug and leaving things be. For even though I am black and raised in Nigeria till I was 21, I was largely uninformed.Īnd as time went on, I became increasingly aware of my unintended complicity in allowing things to remain as they were. What followed was an unexpected crash course in the dirty history of sugar, slavery and ultimately racism as the world still knows it. We accept curly hair and kinky hair and turn them into wigs for children who have lost hair due to cancer, alopecia, trichotillomania, burns or other medical reasons.įour years ago I took part as one of the experts in BBC2s Historical series The Sweetmakers. And so Curly Wigs For Kids was born mid 2020. Pleased at not having to waste his beautiful hair, I started thinking of how we could help others who need hair. ![]() And after considerable trial and error, I found a way to turn my son’s hair into a wig for another child. It didn’t seem right to me that children who had lost their natural curly or kinky hair didn’t have the same options others did. Surely hair loss and illness is no respecter of race or hair type. Every organisation wanted only straight/Caucasian or Asian hair to turn into wigs.įast foward 3 years on, my son was due a haircut and the story was the same. To my surprise, no where would accept it. ![]() 4 years ago I cut my son’s beautiful long curly afro hair with the intention to donate it to a charity that makes wigs for people who have lost their hair for medical reasons. ![]()
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