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Did you know that cornrow braids were used as a secret way of resisting slavery? Many people may not realize this interesting fact.

Imagine a salon experience where you not only get a style that suits you, but along the way you get a massage, watch African performances and learn real African history…all in a pop-up salon.

Salooni, a Ugandan based salon aims to educate black women on their hair and remind them of the richness of strength and beauty that lies in their roots. Bahana, who serves as one of the owners of this unique salon project emphasizes this point; “For black women, the extra layer is our interaction with colonialism in Africa and generally trying to achieve a standard of beauty, which is white and completely unobtainable.

The goal of Salooni is to renew the mentality towards African hair by treating it like the true art from it is by studying braid patterns, fractals (a design scale that’s been used in architecture, hairstyles and sculptures by Africans for centuries) and tons of other useful, eye opening information. One can only expect to be treated like royalty while being educated when receiving hair care at the salon. The pop-up salon will be making stops in London this year and couldn’t happen at a better time, given the natural hair movement that’s been going strong for over a decade now, and has a powerful online presence.

What’s also beautiful about this unique project is that the story of African women can be told through the avenue of black hair, which is why Bahana aims to make the project successful. “We are very poorly educated about how to care for black hair,” she says. “It’s only now… that we’ve started sifting through what we’ve been taught and what [practices] we want to keep and what we don’t want to keep.”

Check out more of Salooni and the work they’re doing. Hopefully they’ll have a pop-up salon in the U.S. sooner than later!

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Uganda Pop-Up Hair Salon Aims To Tell The Truth And Shame The Devil  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com