As a Muslim woman who has worn a headscarf in public since her twenties, influencer Amena Khan never imagined she’d find herself starring in a mainstream haircare campaign. But when L’Oréal Paris invited her to join a diverse line-up of men and women for its new Elvive multimedia campaign, taking part felt like it would promote an important message.
“How many brands are doing things like this? Not many. They’re literally putting a girl in a headscarf - whose hair you can’t see - in a hair campaign. Because what they’re really valuing through the campaign is the voices that we have,” she told us this week. “You have to wonder – why is it presumed that women that don’t show their hair don’t look after it? The opposite of that would be that everyone that does show their hair only looks after it for the sake of showing it to others. And that mindset strips us of our autonomy and our sense of independence. Hair is a big part of self-care.”