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Black women consider themselves lucky to live in Solange鈥檚 world: A world where the acclaimed singer claims a seat at the table, a world where she delineates her boundaries, where she sings out, 鈥�.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Black hair and its care practices鈥攖wisting, braiding, locking, and more鈥攁re integral to the life of Black women the world over. While they seem at times to just be a daily chore, such practices are also a vital source of African material culture that survived the Middle Passage, and the violent stripping of African Americans from their language, religions, and culture. 

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In spite of this artistic lineage, the fine arts, especially architecture, have yet to recognize the design potential of Black hair practices; the artists and architects who comprise 鈥�,鈥� in the same Houston, Texas, neighborhood where Solange grew up, aim to change that. 

The exhibit opened in February 2023 at the University of Houston鈥檚 Gerald Hines College of Architecture and Design. Conceptualized by Sheryl Tucker de V谩zquez (full disclosure: she is my mother), Interim Head of Interior Design at the University of Houston, 鈥淗air Salon鈥� brings together artists and architects from six countries to address a common question: how can Black hair techniques be translated into innovative building materials, designs, and methods? In collaboration with fellow architects and educators , , and , the  sought to highlight hair as a distinctive element of African material culture,  to become an enduring signifier of Black identity in contemporary culture.

Each artist in 鈥淗air Salon鈥� had a unique take on this prompt: Davis, a computational designer and engineer, developed a computer code based on the practice of dreadlocking in order to translate braiding practices into a woven material; Urbanist Del Signore created maps showing migratory patterns and the flow of goods linked to the transatlantic slave trade; Williams wove together a chandelier inspired by the use of braids as way to disguise coded maps along the Underground Railroad. Tucker de V谩zquez turned to sculpture as a means of exploring the vitality of curl patterns in Black hair. 

Drawing Inspiration from Salons as Social Spaces

Inspired by the practice of , a notational system used for record-keeping in the Incan empire, Williams worked through different knotting techniques as a way of mapping routes to freedom when designing his contribution to 鈥淗air Salon.鈥� He also drew from his experiences as a child going to the salon with his mother.

Describing salons as social spaces, Williams sees them as places where he learned to deal with people and the world at large. He laughed as he remarked on the kinds of comments his colleagues in the predominantly white field of architecture would make as he began work on 鈥淪ignal Songs.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

鈥淚 don鈥檛 get to have these conversations with my colleagues,鈥� he says. 鈥淓ven when I鈥檇 explain it to them, they鈥檇 give me a weird stare, like 鈥榯hat鈥檚 good for you.鈥欌��

Rejecting White Beauty Standards

For her project at 鈥淗air Salon,鈥� Tucker de V谩zquez chose sculpture, creating 鈥淐oiled Field,鈥� a pale wooden table comprised of 22 fragments from which coiled copper tubes radiate upward. She was inspired to devise this project after encountering the images of , a Nigerian documentary photographer, whose images of Nigerian women showcase dynamic, sculptural braiding styles. 

Seeing the way that Ojeikere鈥檚 models styled their hair, updos extended toward the sky almost like baskets or columns, planted the spark of inspiration: architectural designs and methods could transform if creators began to draw from this bountiful site of Black creativity.

For Tucker de V谩zquez, the project is a deeply personal one. She remembers growing up in southern Alabama and experiencing demeaning comments that white people would make about her hair when she wore it in a natural style. One summer at Girl Scout camp, her white camp counselor criticized her choice of hairstyle, cornrows, offhandedly asking her, 鈥淒on鈥檛 you wish your hair was like mine?鈥� 

鈥淭his project is a direct response to that comment,鈥� Tucker de V谩zquez says. 鈥淚n my position as interim director of the Interior Architecture program here at U of H, I felt that I had a responsibility to showcase Black expression in all its forms. Why not now? Why not me?鈥�

White Eurocentric beauty standards affect Black women on a personal level, but there are professional and economic consequences. asked participants to rate Black and white female job candidates on professionalism, competence and other factors. Participants gave Black women with natural hair lower scores on both professionalism and competence, and they were not recommended as frequently for interviews as Black women with straightened hair or white women with curly or straight hair.

Ojeikere鈥檚 Influence

After devising the initial architectural components, Tucker de V谩zquez reached out to artists Medina Dugger and Rabea Ballin to add a more traditional visual arts element to the exhibition.  

Dugger鈥檚 photographs pay homage to Ojeikere鈥檚 work, with vibrant color in the backgrounds and in the synthetic hair she adds to her braided designs. 鈥淐hromatin,鈥� a film collaboration between Dugger and French artist Fran莽ois Beaurain, animates the photos, highlighting the fractals and geometries involved in braided designs . Fractals are a type of geometric configuration that appears the same at every scale, and is .

Ballin鈥檚 work also draws inspiration from Ojeikere鈥檚 photographs, exploring Black hair as a sculptural form across mediums. Her drawing 鈥淯ntitled (pink),鈥� depicts an intricate braided top knot, radiating from someone鈥檚 scalp; the vibrant pink belies the gentle strokes of the pencil, conveying a familiar sense of Black femininity, at once bold yet soft. 

鈥淚t feels amazing to see my drawings in this context,鈥� Ballin says. 鈥淚t has opened my world yet again. After making a tactile connection to sculpture through my hair braiding, I am looking forward to what comes next. The coils in the sculptures, the chords, ropes, and yarn pieces, they all feel like physical representations of the lines I create in my drawings. It was amazing to see these formal elements come to form and take up actual space.鈥�

Inspiring a New Generation of Architects

The exhibit鈥檚 opening on Feb. 2 kicked off with a poetry performance and a choreographed dance to 鈥淲ade in the Water.鈥� Afterwards, Solange鈥檚 music echoed through the atrium as an intergenerational crowd browsed the gallery. 

鈥淚鈥檝e never seen this many Black people gathered in the school of architecture before,鈥� Tucker de V谩zquez said, the night of the opening. 

The impact that 鈥淗air Salon鈥� will have on the next generation of architects and designers is already brewing. Students from the University of Houston鈥檚 chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects served as docents for the exhibit. As they ushered visitors through the gallery, they reflected on the impact that the exhibit would have on their understanding of themselves within the profession of architecture; as of 2020, Black women only comprise 0.4% of licensed architects in the U.S.

Second-year student Taylor Pinkney says of the exhibit: 鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing. It shows how your culture can be a part of the architectural field.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;