Aims:

• Learning effective hair care techniques, including moisturising, detangling and proper protective styling.
• Encouraging self-acceptance, self-love and embracing one's natural, unique texture, regardless of how it looks.
• Dispelling common myths and misconceptions about Afro-textured hair and its maintenance.

What will be shared:

Tips on how to wash and style Afro textured hair to prevent hair breakage, some of the common damage certain hairstyling techniques cause, and ways to feel empowered by your natural hair and beauty.

Just bring:

A notebook, pens and a learning mind!

Project Embrace is a leading advocacy group and platform dedicated to championing diversity and inclusivity in beauty standards and representation. It was created with the mission to challenge and end hair discrimination, promote positive afro-textured hair representation, and champion diversity and inclusion to heal the world of racialized and narrow beauty standards. We aim to be that space that nurtures and nourishes an ‘I Am Enough’ attitude in black girls and women.

The Project Embrace Billboard Campaign was nominated for the Diversity in Media Awards Best Marketing Campaign in 2017, won the World Afro Day Social Impact Award in 2018, and in 2019 won the Precious Lifestyle Award for Innovation and Glam Africa Magazine Recognition Award.

About Your Facilitator

Lekia Lée is a former broadcast journalist turned passionate advocate for tackling Afro hair discrimination. In 2010, inspired by her then 5 year old daughter, she founded Project Embrace to raise the awareness around narrow beauty standards and the impact that has on Black women’s hair and mental health. This lead her to creating the #Afrovisibility billboard campaign, the first of its kind in the UK and probably globally. Her mission is to encourage her daughter and girls like her to embrace their natural hair, while addressing the lack of and mis-representation of Afro hair, and by extension black beauty in the media.

Lekia speaks on inclusion, representation and psychological impact of narrow beauty standards and other related topics, at various events for brands and individual companies; she has appeared on BBC World News, ITV London News, BBC Stories, PinAfrica, talkRadio, BBC 5 live radio, BBC London Radio, Huffington Post, Washington Post, BBC's The One Show, Stylist and Glamour Magazine amongst many others.