22 Jun This Woman Makes Incredible Sculptures out of Her Hair

While many people may spend 15 minutes tending to their hair in the morning, very few spend as much time as 21-year-old Laetitia KY does. An aspiring fashion designer and self-described “art addict” from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Laetitia has recently been wowing the internet with her new viral Instagram series that showcases some absolutely unbelievable hair sculptures. Using materials like fabric, pins, thread, wire, and hair extensions, Laetitia creates hairdos that appear to defy gravity.

Laetitia says her creations can take anywhere from 20 minutes to close to two hours to create, which is honestly shocking to us because they look like they would take days. Her most popular series shows a set of floating hair-hands that are doing everything from holding her glasses to playing the guitar. She described the series in a Facebook post like this:

“My hair in the shape of hands is the expression of my thought, which is so strong that it decides to materialize before I even go through with the action.” 

When asked where she got her inspiration for the hands series, Laetitia told Culture Trip: “I was thinking about a female African superhero that draws her power from her hair, and uses it to do what she wants, when she wants it.”

With much of her influence coming from African women, Laetitia says she was first inspired to use her hair as an art form by another Instagram series she encountered a few years back, which showcased hairstyles worn in the past by women in certain African tribes.

These influences contribute to the larger message that Laetitia hopes to express through her art: what she calls “the beauty of difference.” Citing that Black women’s hair has often been looked at as “not pretty enough”, Laetitia told A Plus, “to use [these] hairstyles as a means of expression is, therefore, [powerful] because it speaks to all its Black women who have had, for a long time, made believe that their hair was not dope enough.”

Laetitia’s creation of a map of Africa being held up by her braids highlights her dedication to expressing that part of her personality: “In everything I do, especially in my work, I take inspiration from Africa.” A strong believer in “affirming your uniqueness”, Laetitia is being commended by many for her fearless creative expression. “This is actually one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” said one commenter. “You have just blown my mind”, said another.

Although she is clearly a hair genius, Laetitia isn’t stopping there. She sees her hairstyles as just one of many ways she can express herself, saying, “I do more than hair styling but I admit, it is what I’m getting the most attention for at the moment.” Hoping to use her viral hairstyles as a jumping-off point for various other projects she wants to work on, Laetitia plans to launch a clothing brand sometime in the future. If her upcoming creations are anywhere near as impressive and as this series, then we will undoubtedly love it.

The post This Woman Makes Incredible Sculptures out of Her Hair appeared first on Viral Thread.