Michelle Obama’s Hairstylist Desires to Give You Enterprise Lessons

On Wednesday, January 20, round 10:45 ET within the morning, each group chat on this planet began buzzing uncontrolled. There was just one title being written in all caps by everybody concerned: “MICHELLE OBAMA.” 

The previous First Woman has at all times given the folks what they wished — and typically, what they did not even know they wished, however completely wanted. Whereas the inaugural occasions had been about a lot greater than trend and hair, we have to speak concerning the hair, notably Mme. Obama’s. She ate us all up that day, arriving in a burgundy monochromatic Sergio Hudson swimsuit, along with her hair styled in essentially the most excellent, silky, bouncy curls. 

It was some Disney film fairytale-level stuff. And, no, it was not a troop of scorching tool-wielding cartoon songbirds that helped her get the look. Fairly the opposite. These curls got here courtesy of her longtime hairstylist Yene Damtew, whose skilled abilities rattling close to broke the social media altogether. Do not imagine me? Let’s let Twitter do the speaking: 

Given the hub-bub, we had been completely compelled to hit up Damtew to get the small print on the look. We obtained that, plus the tea on her new enterprise teaching program, her working relationship with Obama, and the way the dialog round Black hair and hairstyles is shifting ahead to this present day.

How The Type Got here Collectively

Damtew, together with make-up artist Carl Ray and stylist Meredith Koop, collaborated to create the curls that rocked the world. As soon as Damtew obtained a have a look at the attractive Sergio Hudson items Obama would put on on the large day, she knew precisely what to do. “We have been working collectively for greater than a decade so, at this level, we all know one another,” Damtew says concerning the former First Woman. “She trusts me to select a mode that may work and I belief her to permit me some creativity.”

So how can we mere mortals copy the have a look at house? Be ready to get shut and private along with your curling iron. “I began with creating curls with a one-inch barrel iron. Subsequent, we did a curl set to lock within the curls,” Damtew explains. She then took a spherical brush to create physique and “soften” the curls, ending off the look with a feather comb for some quantity and hair spray so it could maintain for the day. As Damtew demonstrated in a video tutorial, you can even obtain the look utilizing a flatiron.