No one is pushing harder to bring us backward, in the best possible way, thanhairstylist Nikki Nelms.
Here, Nelms gives us a look at how she got her start.
What was your first job?
Courtesy of subject
Selling slap bracelets atClaires?
Then, soon enough, she found herself with a red carpetregular clientele.
“It’s really cool to see how far a look will go,” says Nelms.
Nelms; for a 2020 Allure shoot, Nelms channeled her love of door-knocker earrings into hair sculpture that has inspired much imitation.
You know thehair clipsstylists use to setblowoutsandfinger waves?
The ones that always rattle around the bottom of their kits?
They went viral after Nelms used them as accessories in Solange’s curls forA Seat at the Table.
In Nelms’s hands, fine jewelry works like a charm with natural textures and protective styles.
In Nelms’s hands, fine jewelry works like a charm with natural textures and protective styles.
“I don’t take it lightly.”
Double buns are cute.
Double buns are cute. Double buns with googly eyes (on Janelle Monáe in 2016) is Nelmsian genius.
Double buns with googly eyes (on Janelle Monae in 2016) is Nelmsian genius.
But now her work is being broadcast to an even wider audience on a big screen near you.
She created KravitzsCatwomanhair for March’sThe Batman.
Should you get bangs? Yes! Just pick them up at a crafts store, suggested Nelms in this 2021 shoot.
Should you get bangs?
Just pick them up at a crafts store, suggested Nelms in this 2021 shoot.
“I feel like hair chose me, I didn’t choose it.
It’s natural, like breathing,” says Nelms.
Her drive for utter originality is unrelenting.
I would love for more people to highlight theirindividualityand do their own thing, says Nelms.
“Like the Spice Girls!
Everybody had their own look.
I would love for it to go that way.
But if it doesn’t, I’m still going that way.
