WATCH: Braided Beauties: Inspiring Protective Styles From Essence Festival 2025

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Essence Festival&#039;s Beautycon stage goers share the inspiration behind their fabulous hair looks.

Transcript

00:00Tell us about your braid story, Achille.

00:02Oh my god, my braid story?

00:03Back to me.

00:04I have twists and cow rickle and a few golden rings.

00:09Cow rickle used to be used as currency in Africa.

00:11Y'all didn't know that because you don't read.

00:13I'm allowing you to visualize and perceive me.

00:17You're welcome.

00:18Happy Essence.

00:23Essence Festival is always filled with braided beauties,

00:27and I'm going to be chatting with some of them today

00:29about the inspiration behind their look.

00:32Come along with me.

00:33So this look is everything.

00:35Tell me about the inspiration behind it.

00:37Well, I just did my hair before I got here.

00:41These are my daughter's feet.

00:43But what I'm wearing today is just a braided up view.

00:46My sister, Ron Cal, actually did my hair,

00:49and I just added a few beads to kind of make it ching-a-ching.

00:53Where are you from?

00:54I'm originally from Chicago, Illinois.

00:57No, she's not.

00:58Yeah, I'm from Chi-Town.

01:00Yes.

01:01Park's finest over here.

01:02Hi.

01:06Well, honestly, it was a no-brainer.

01:09In the Black African community, we love our flats,

01:12and we love a good Bantu,

01:14and I knew that Essence Fest was the perfect place

01:17to execute this new look.

01:19This is definitely something different.

01:20I wear a lot of ponytails in my hair.

01:23So I just wanted to do something different for the Essence Fest,

01:26something cultural.

01:27And the stylist suggested Butterfly Corn Roll.

01:30I have boho braids.

01:32They're long lengths, medium size.

01:34Well, first this summer, it's hard.

01:37But that aside, I really just wanted to capture black beauty.

01:43So I've actually been growing my hair out for four years now,

01:45so this is like the first time that I've actually like styled my hair like this.

01:49But I figured since I'm going to Essence for the first time,

01:51I might as well step outside my comfort zone and do something different.

01:54I really wanted a mermaid look.

01:56I've been feeling like I need to be at the beach.

01:58So since I can't do that, I'll bring the beach to me.

02:00How long have you been growing your hair?

02:02It's been about 15 years.

02:04Wow.

02:05And what inspired you to rock this style 15 years ago?

02:08It's the only thing I've known.

02:10I know other cultures do the single strands,

02:13but we just let it free form and let it do what it do.

02:16That's it for Braided Beauties today.

02:18I saw so many incredible looks that I'm going to add to my mood board.

02:22So inspired.

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