Naked Beauty A Hair Journey from The Look on IMO
Nov 13, 2025
Michelle Obama, former First Lady and author, opens up about her transformative hair journey and its role in representation. Yene Damtew, her stylist, shares insights on salon culture and the significance of protective styling. Marsai Martin, actress and producer, recalls her childhood hair experiences and the influence of public figures on personal style. Together, they discuss the impact of strategic hair choices in public life, the freedom to embrace cultural identity, and the ongoing fight for representation and autonomy in beauty.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Childhood Wash Day Struggles
- Michelle Obama describes painful wash days and being pressed with a hot comb at home as a child.
- She later went to a neighborhood basement salon to get faster, straighter results from Miss Phillips.
Learning Reversion The Hard Way
- Marsai Martin recalls her mom avoiding frequent pressing because results often looked bad and she mostly wore rod-set curls.
- She tried to emulate classmates who straightened their hair and learned about reversion the hard way.
Representation Shapes Self‑Image
- Michelle Obama highlights the deep harm of lacking representation of Black hair in media while growing up.
- She links that absence to young Black girls' difficulty seeing themselves as beautiful.