Own UR Crown – Nikiwe Dlova.

“My crown has a voice! Fight for hair expression and keep loving your crown.” – Nikiwe Dlova.

This is the last exhibition build-up article, on this article we are celebrating a black woman that knows everything there is to know about black hair, hair art and hair styling, Nikiwe Dlova. Dlova is a hair enthusiast and hair artist who founded OwnURCrown, a hair blog that stands for being “bold, creative, different and daring” which was birthed in 2015 with intentions of celebrating creative hairstyles and a hair street culture platform that is said to, “showcase freedom of hair expression in individuals, art and media production.”

Dlova is described as, “a hair artist and stylist that creates beautiful, intricate, gravity defying pieces of art that happen to go on your head!” The hair styling that she does is not your average everyday hair looks. It is more artistic, inventive, whimsical and beautiful. Dlova doesn’t hold back her creative ideas and artistic abilities when she creates these hair pieces.

“Every woman’s crown is an expression of who they are or where they are in life. Whether passively or actively, African hair is a versatile and dynamic canvas that convey infinite expressions. Bald, relaxed, natural, dreadlocks, protective styles and everything else in-between, African hair can morph into anything you want it too, making it not only a form of expression and style but a moving art piece.” – This is a Africa Me.

Her hair journey sprouted back in high school when she used to plait fun and creative con-rows while adding hints of colors to it, but her hair explorations became a lot more serious and the creative hairstyles became a lot more interesting when she turned 25. Dlova delineates being a creative hair artist as, “being innovative when it comes to hair, even going beyond doing hairstyles on people to creating hair art that will live in spaces such as gallaries and in people’s homes.”

Dlova has made artistic hair pieces for a number of well-known faces, ranging from Boity Thulo for the May/June 2020 Glamour magazine cover, Amonge Sinxoto for Afropunk to Sampha the Great for her 2020 Planet Afropunk performance and not forgetting Busisiwe Gqulu for Beyoncé’s Black is King visual album. She also gifted her work to the Duchess of Sussex, Megan Markles when she visited “the motherland” during her royal tour.

Dlova doesn’t only use her inclination and knowledge of hair for artistic and creative pleasures, she goes as far as using this to address political issues concerning hair policies in our anti-black hair schools here in South Africa. On her hair blog OwnURCrown, Dlova expresses that she hopes and pray that one day freedom of hair expression will be allowed at school, “this will help with identity, expression and confidence” she adds on. With that said, Culture Club loves the creative work you put out & we will continue cheering you on from the sidelines.