Met Gala weekend started on an excellent note. For the second year in a row, Echelon Noir, a production company dedicated to elevating black and brown voices, presented the Black Hair Reimagined: A New Era of Beauty hair show. The show took place Friday evening at Altman Building in New York City and featured artists, Malcolm Marquez (@malcolm.marquez), Fesa Nu (@hair__poet), Vernon Francois(@vernonfrancois), Isaac Poleon(@issacvpoleon), Joshua Meekins(@meetthebarber) and Jawara Wauchope(@jawaraw). The show continues to highlight Black hair, as well as the impact and creative ability of Black hairstylists.
“There’s really a community here,” Jawara Wauchope, co-founder of Echelon Noir, shared. “There’s a lot of people who feel overlooked or forgotten about in this current time of fashion and politics, so I think that for us to come together and create community, it affirms what we’re doing at Echelon Noir is the right thing.”
A Peek Backstage
Like most big productions, preparation started weeks before seats were filled around the runway. Luckily, we had the opportunity to step into the very busy backstage, hours before the show began. Black artists across hair, nails, fashion and makeup transformed their models into perfect reflections of the core themes each hairstylist brought to their sets.
Pinks, greens, blacks, browns and 613s were weaving their way in and out of the hands of each stylist as they balanced their mastery over the creative process with refined technical skills. While there was no official theme, each stylist seemed to connect with concepts of time and evolution, whether that was through revisiting African ancestry, reimagining 90s Black style, the passing of seasons or conceptual metamorphosis.
The room was full of intense yet precise collaboration between artists and their teams, while mastery manifested in final touches and an unimaginable attention to detail. Each look was done in collaboration with makeup artists, Jamal Scott (@iamjamalscott) and Raisa Flowers(@raisaflowers), manicurist Dawn Sterling (@nailglam) and stylists Jan-Michael Quammie (@jan.quammie), Ronald Burton III (@ronbreezy), Solange Franklin (@solangefranklin), Edward Bowleg (@edward.bowleg), Matthew Henson (@henson), and Yohana Lebasi (@yohanalebasi) who elevated the 30 hair looks with fashion direction that worked in tandem with the elaborate hairpieces.
Rommel Demano/BFA.com
The Show Begins
Attendees ranged from all across the beautyverse, from influencers to long-standing professionals. Each of the 6 artists' work was featured in individual sections of the show, where they reimagined the runway through sound, fashion and incredible displays of hair as art.
The Will to Change
Malcolm Marquez, a veteran of the show known for creating sharp, creative looks on clients like Doechii, went first in last Friday’s show. Marquez offered three words when asked to describe his runway: “Transformation, metamorphosis and renewal.”
Honored to return to this year’s event, we saw Marquez’s vision come to life in a story told backwards, opening with a butterfly look that blended gold and green to communicate the balance between natural and divine parts of growth and evolution. The butterfly was followed most notably by an explosion of color and finished at the climax of transition, an open cocoon made with hair and wire. 
Hairstylist: Malcolm Marquez | Stylist: Jan-Michael Quammie Madison Voelkel/BFA.com
Crowned in Ancestral Theory
Culture. Art. Tradition. Perfect words to describe the way Fesa Nu presented Black hair through shape, variation and layers. Nu is a new face to the Black Hair Reimagined stage, but well known for her ability to reshape hair and display loc versatility on clients Chloe and Halle Bailey. With whimsical, gravity-defying looks rooted in cultural references, Nu played a lot with texture throughout her set. Empowering and elegant, the runway concluded with a look inspired by a Gele, a traditional Nigerian headwrap worn by women for special events like weddings.
Hairstylist: Fesa Nu | Stylist: Ronald Burton III Madison Voelkel/BFA.com
The Fifth Silhouette
Another member of the original cast of the Black Hair Reimagined show, Vernon François brought us back to our roots in a completely different way. François’s set, powered by amika, took “natural” hair to a new level with hair sculptures capturing the transition from winter to spring. With a history of channeling the fantastic through hair, François redefined artistry at this year’s event with a blend of color, structure, creativity and…a few leaves from Prospect Park. ”Honesty, nature and transition” were the words François used to describe his hair looks.
Hair Stylist: Vernon François // Make-Up Artist: Stylist: Solange FranklinMadison Voelkel/BFA.com
Harmour
Issac Poleon’s set was rooted in the Black American experience, specifically “Banjee girls,” as so succinctly put by the stylist. Poleon is another new face at this year’s show, bringing the skills that built his high-profile portfolio, which displays an impeccable range of technical skills. The runway perfectly embodied his description of “Punk, sexy and fab”. Leading us in with an exaggerated black mohawk, the show embraced contrast in both color and style, playing with asymmetry and storytelling as looks seemed to progressively evolve into one another with each new model.
Hairstylist: Issac Poleon | Stylist: Edward Bowleg Madison Voelkel/BFA.com
However You Want It
The first Barber to grace the show, Joshua Meekins, brought 90s fine vibes with stitch-braids and the undeniable power of great barbering. With styles, music and models inspired by the early 90s, the otherwise demure attendees were immediately converted into a live-studio audience — oohing, ahhing, and even giggling with each new look. Styles ranged from sharp low cuts, cornrows, free-flowing hair and a very creative updo as a welcome reminder that men’s hair can also be creative and fun.
Hair Stylist: Joshua Meekins // Make Up: Matthew HensonMadison Voelkel/BFA.com
The Divine Feminine
The final set, by Jawara Wauchope, powered by L’Oreal Professionnel, was a love letter to the visual arts. Backstage, Wauchope shared that he was using hair as a medium, which meant an exploration beyond hairstyling products into resin and paint. Wauchope, a co-founder of Echelon Noir Productions with Jarrod Lacks (@jrodlacks), is a celebrity hairstylist known for jaw-dropping styles in fashion and editorial. The set went as promised, paying homage to various religions and deities from the diaspora. Each look evoked Black feminine divinity through gorgeous and meticulously constructed hair art.
Hair Stylist: Jawara Wauchope | Artist:Yohana LebasMadison Voelkel/BFA.com
