And so Favour, a multifaceted artist who usually explores themes tied to 19th century Nigerian and Black British culture, decided to harness all of the above and make it into its own project: A Statement of Pride. This is a visual documentation of the various self-styled hairdo’s she’s worn over the years. The result is a photo series, with hundreds of polaroids of braided hair creations, inspired by the likes of The Velvet Rope-era Janet Jackson, photographer J.D. Ojerikeke’s stills of Black women’s hair and early ’90s Snoop Dogg. “I started documenting my hair [journey] because Black women’s hair is a statement of pride. It’s something that makes us happy. It’s who we are,” she says firmly. “I do it because art, to me, is something sacred. It’s something I do because it makes me feel good, and it keeps me sane.”
This year marks the eighth year of A Statement of Pride, which she posted about on TikTok last month. Favour shared a video which flicks through an amalgam of the hairstyles she’s executed over that time – Bantu knots, straight backs, faux locs – illustrating the innovation and resilience that’s been poured into the near-enough 300 hairstyles she’s created from scratch.
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