by Annie Vischer
When I meet Beverley Knight, she’s sitting across from me in the most gorgeous Missoni-esque, deep V halterneck jumpsuit I’ve ever seen. Her hair is a glossy black mass of natural curls, swept to one side of her smiling face, which, incidentally, is one of the most naturally beautiful faces going right now. Her eyes sparkle as she says hello, and I can’t help but quiz her about her clothing choice before we get underway with hair talk…
What hair issues dis you find particularly hard to deal with?
‘Mostly I’d say, and that’s probably typical of every black girl you’ll ever meet anywhere, was how do I manage my hair? I had, and still, have a lot of hair and it was long. So when I was a kid everyone said, ‘I wish I had long hair like you’ and I always thought, ‘yeah, you’re not the one who has to comb it!’.
I’d have to go to compulsory swimming lessons and I’d just dread it because I’d know when I got home my mum was to use Vosine! Or whatever she had because back then there wasn’t the variety of products we have now. I’d have to sit there and endure the awful combing of the hair.
My hair issues were always about manageability, I grew up resenting this amazing crown I had on my head. As I got older I eventually pestered my mum enough to get my hair relaxed in time for my sister’s wedding just before I was sixteen. I loved it because it was so much more workable, but then grew to detest it again, because obviously any kind of chemical process you have in your hair will damage it. At the first sign of trouble and lack of condition I panicked! So what was magically manageable just became a nightmare.
So I cut it all off. And I mean short. Just so that I could have manageable hair and it would look good. Eventually I started to grow it, but then I wanted to put colour through it. So I then coloured it and the inevitable happened! I’d ruined it. My hair had relaxer in it and colour over the top, a double dose of mal-condition.
Eventually I arrived at a stage where I was like ‘Okay, all of these chemicals have to go’. I began the slow, slow process of growing it all out. From here to the below shoulder length it is now it took 6 years. I was determined all that stuff was going to go.
So how much did you change up your routine?
So much. To be honest, I am so glad I’ve got the Mizani Thermasmooth range, because it means that I can actually manage the natural texture of my hair with no issue at all.’
And what are your hair rituals now?
‘My hair used to make me go ‘Ow mum it kills!’ and now I’m more likely to smile with a happy sigh. That says it all really. I’ll be in the bath, the lazy way of washing hair, dunk my hair under, get it nice and wet, shampoo once through with the Thermasmooth Shampoo, wash it out. Then I’ll shampoo again, and that’s when you can feel it really softening and moisturising. Then I rinse that out and stick the conditioner on. Then what I do, because I always wash my hair when I am in the bath, I’ll put it under a shower cap and with the conditioner on, I’ll actually relax into my bath. Then all too soon it’s time to get out of the bath, I’m all prune looking, take the shower cap off and rinse and wrap it up in a towel. And that’s me!’
That’s one luxurious routine! Very Marilyn Monroe. Who were, or are your hair or beauty icons?
‘In terms of hair styles, back when I was a teenager, everybody wanted the Desperately Seeking Susan hair. Which for me was dead easy to achieve. I always used to look enviously at black girls with longer hair but their texture just wasn’t like mine. So that was always the fight in my head, lusting after hair that I couldn’t have.
But the genius thing with the Madonna look was that you could achieve it with a French braid, three French braids, still do it now to this very day. Go to bed with the braids in, wake up in the morning, loosen the braids out with my fingers and kind of tease it out. Instant 80s-esque curls! I’d get my little strip of lace that I begged mum to go to the market for, and do a little bow. Madonna hair a la Desperately Seeking Susan, and that was me!
That was like an amalgamation of a white girls hairstyle but adapted for a black girl. As I got older I looked to Toni Brackston. Then going into the 90s when I started my career with that smooth kind of Naomi Cambell hair. Of course she had lots of extensions and stuff and when I wanted it really long I would experiment with that as well and put hair pieces in. What I did, which was a bit silly, was I made my hair too straight and that didn’t help with the damage. Naomi really was a leading light for me though.’
And are there any styles you’re still dying to try?
‘I just love my hair at the moment. It’s my version of curly, beach wavy hair, except that it’s got more volume and kinkiness to it. Yeah, it’s a kinky look as opposed to flowing curl with a wand. I had never done the curly thing before and I thought ‘I don’t know if that would suit me having curly curls.’ I thought maybe it would look too cutesie cute, but I love it. It was the first style that my stylist did for the Mizani campaign, just these big curls and I looked in the mirror and I was like ‘Bloody hell is that even me?!’ Love it. My husband loves it. It stays, it actually stays! Before I tried to do a similar thing and then go on stage and then by the end of the show, it had fallen. This is fantastic though! I’ve done so many things with my hair and this was the only style I hadn’t really gone for before.
Are there products that you might not have tried had you not been in the music and fashion industry do you think?
Well, there are loads. I didn’t know what a flat iron was until I entered the music industry. I don’t use a lot of those kind of heated products on my hair because of obviously too much heat. When I use them, I use them to create a quick effect. Things like Mizani I’m sure I would have discovered along the way but it helps to be presented with them straight away.
And being in London helps to be honest, being at the centre of where everything gets launched that helps massively. I think maybe without having discovered the Mizani Thermasmooth range I still would have been locked into that frame of mind that says relaxing is the only way to make my hair manageable. I’ve got lots of family up in the midlands who still think that. That realisation is just great. I think the greatest thing for me is finding a range and a system that allows afro hair to be afro hair.’