And how she's cultivating a more inclusive beauty industry.
Hairstylist Yene Damtew on Creating Michelle Obama’s Head-Turning Inauguration Hair
“I’ve always been a stylist at heart,” says Yene Damtew, the hairstylist who coiffed Michelle Obama’s flawless look at the 2021 inauguration. “Growing up, you’d always find me with a doll in hand, styling her hair.”
Damtew quickly became her neighborhood’s go-to hair expert. Then, at the age of 16, she enrolled at Cerritos Cosmetology School in L.A. County, where she deepened her knowledge of the craft. In 2017, she opened a two-chair salon, called Aesthetics, in Arlington, Virginia, before opening a bigger one, just down the block, in 2020. Expanding her business during the global pandemic came with anxieties, of course. “I worked with a small team of local contractors to make my dream a reality, even though it was really challenging some days,” she says, adding that she had to shut down shop for a few months at the height of the pandemic. When they eventually did open, she adjusted accordingly: stocking up on hand sanitizer and PPE for clients and staff, adding temperature checks, and requiring everyone wear masks inside at all times. “Luckily our clientele has been supportive of everything, even with appointments more spaced out so we maintain safe social distancing inside.”
When she’s not at the salon or working with celebrity clients, Damtew runs a virtual educational program, The Academy, which helps budding hairstylists sharpen their business skills (she has a business degree from Marymount University in addition to her styling credentials). As for how she came to create those voluminous curls for Michelle Obama for President Biden’s inauguration ceremony? We asked for all the details, below.
Yene Damtew.
Photo: Courtesy of Antwon MaxwellThis story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Akili King
