Tell us about why you set up BIG HAIR SELF CARE?
I created BIG HAIR SELF CARE to provide safe spaces for women of colour to explore wellness. We had this amazing yoga instructor Sanchia Legister lead our last session. She has a huge Afro and does hip hop yoga to 90s R’n’B. I’ve never experienced that before and neither had the women there. It may sound small and insignificant but it was so important to come into a space that felt familiar.
Does the wellness industry have a diversity issue?
Type ‘yoga’ into Google and you see how little black women and women of colour are represented. This carries through offline when you go to a class or event – so there’s this feeling of ‘otherness’ within the wellness industry. We have a diversity issue in the UK period. We’re not having honest conversations about race and intersectionality. It’s like, ok – so we have women only things – classes, gyms, etc, because we recognise and accept that there’s a need for safe spaces for women. But what about the intersectionality? Considering the needs of black women and trans women? There’s not one prototype of ‘woman’..
The next event takes place 9th June 2018 at Eve & Grace Wellness Studio in Battersea
020 8004 5090
