“I used to be very self-conscious of my frequent hair changes but I find a lot of pleasure in the characters I can embody.”
Model-Filmmaker Semaj Peltier on Creating Characters Through Her Hair, and Drawing Inspiration From Her Ancestors
Texture Diaries is a space for Black people across industries to reflect on their journeys to self-love, and how accepting their hair, in all its glory, played a pivotal role in this process. Each week, they share their favorite hair rituals, products, and the biggest lessons they’ve learned when it comes to affirming their beauty and owning their unique hair texture.
Model-filmmaker Semaj Peltier centers the stories of queer and transgender people of color by making experimental films with her collective, Stone Dove. Notably, Stone Dove produced the film, Love You Forever, that screened at the 2020 San Francisco Trans Film Festival. Born in Sacramento, Peltier has been modeling since she was 16, but she says she never took it seriously. Now based in San Francisco, she considers herself “a cinephile above all else.” Alongside Stone Dove, she curates films through her Instagram Films For Horses.
Before the pandemic hit, you could find Peltier working as a projectionist in a tiny booth at a theatre in San Francisco. “It’s a very romantic job,” she says. “Watching people get immersed in a film, eating their snacks to cope with the anxiety of an overwhelming scene, holding their loved one in quiet darkness...I’m proud to be an invisible guide for people’s movie experience.” But beyond the booth, Peltier serves up more visible inspiration through her hair, whether she’s wearing her curly bangs, braids, green wigs, or an afro.
“My hair and I are constantly conversing with one another,” Peltier says. Growing up, that dialogue was filled with negative energy, affected by the eurocentric beauty ideals that surrounded her. “I was embarrassed to wear braids in middle school,” she says. “I so badly wanted to have long flowing hair like my non-Black classmates.”
This story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Akili King
