‘I Wish I’d Loved It Sooner’: Fleur East On Her Natural Hair Journey

Fleur East, singer, radio presenter and TV presenter first hit the big time when she entered The X Factor as a solo artist in 2014 (if you never saw her incredible rendition of Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk then you're missing out). Fleur came second in the competition and proceeded to amass a loyal fanbase, which grew beyond all proportion when she entered the jungle in I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here in 2018. 2021 sees Fleur lock down that coveted Saturday evening prime time TV slot on ITV as she steps up to present the TV channel's new gameshow - The Void - alongside Ashley Banjo at 8pm. It's a big deal and as Fleur dials in to chat to be ahead of the show's first air date you can sense her excitement. First, though, we talk about her hair journey. Fleur is so famed for her beautiful mass of curls nowadays that it's difficult to imagine her fighting against them, but Fleur assures me that she didn't always find her natural hair so easy to embrace...

On Her Hair Journey

'Growing up it was quite hard, my mum is Ghanaian and she has predominantly 4C curls. My dad had very fine European hair. Growing up it was a case of the battle of the parents. Every so often my mum would do my hair and our neighbours said they could hear me screaming from two doors away. She'd get the hairdryer out and blow-dry my hair then braid it for the week. The whole neighbourhood would hear me crying on wash day. Then you had my dad's method. My dad believed in combing my hair with his hands and letting it dry naturally. At 13 I decided to take control. I wanted to straighten it so I'd use the iron and bend my head over the ironing board. It was bone straight. I abused my hair so much just because I wanted it to be as straight and as sleek as possible so that I could manage it. I didn't like having big hair because it drew too much attention. I wasn't proud of it and I wanted to hide it away as much as I could. When I was 14-years-old my mum decided to chemically relax my and my sister's hair. We ended up with much straighter, much softer hair, which was easier for her to handle. When I was around 16 I went swimming with my friends and my hair started to curl. One of them said "Wow! Is that how your hair goes naturally? Why don't you ever wear it like that?" and I thought, I don't know why! And then I just left it. From that moment on, from the age of 16, I've let my hair do it's thing.'

On Her Current Hair Routine

'I use No Knot Co brushes, my sister and I swear by them. I use them in the shower with my conditioner to get out all the knots and get the conditioner through my hair. I take those brushes with me wherever I go. I use Boots Essentials Curl Creme, £1.99, too, I've been using it for years, since I was 17 and it's so cheap. It was my luxury item when I went into the Jungle!'

On Her Biggest Beauty Icon

'My biggest beauty icon growing up was Mel B from the Spice Girls. I was obsessed with the Spice Girls. Growing up she was the only star I saw who had similar hair to me and made it part of her identity. Her hair was always out and larger than life. She celebrated it. I was on a real journey with my hair at the time and struggling to accept my natural hair and she was someone that I looked up to and who helped me to embrace it.'

On The Lack Of Provision For Black Hair In The Media Industry

'I've experienced the lack of provision for Black hair in the media industry so frequently that we could be here all day. Even now, if I'm going to a shoot and I know that my usual team won't be there I pack curl serum in my bag, a hairdryer and combs just in case the people there don't know how to do my hair. It's just a given that - in most cases - the hair team booked will have very little experience of working with Afro hair and that they won't understand my hair. One memory that stands out in particular involves a photo shoot that I was booked on years ago. I arrived and the stylist took one look at my hair and said "That looks great the way it is, I'm just going to leave it". She mentioned that she'd use some mousse through it. I thought she'd do it properly, wet my hair and use the mousse to define my curls. All she actually did was put the tiniest bit of mousse in my dry hair and scrunch it. I remember sitting there thinking that she had no idea what she was doing. My hairstylist now, James Earnshaw, took it upon himself to study and learn about Afro hair types. He told me that it was never part of the standard qualification for hairdressing. It doesn't make sense, in this day and age, that every hair stylist shouldn't be required to be proficient in styling every type of hair. There's also the fact that if you're not educated in Afro hair styling you're unlikely to understand how Afro hair can react to certain products or styling techniques and you risk damaging it.'

On Facing Hair Discrimination

'I remember years ago I was in a group. There was another Black girl in the group who had curly hair that was similar to mine. I was told that only one of us could have curly hair and that I had to straighten my hair. I remember catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror at our first shoot and I didn't recognise myself. I was so unhappy. The message to me then was that there was only room for one Black girl with Afro hair in that group, the market wasn't ready for more. It was really sad. Even nowadays there are so many adverts out there telling us to 'tame the frizz', for example. It steel feels as though Afro hair isn't accepted and it's not seen as beautiful. Look back to Mel B, my icon in the Spice Girls. Why was she called Scary Spice? No one really questioned it at the time and I can't pretend to know the true reason but it does make you think. Did they look at her and decide that she was wild and scary? We'll never know.'

On Embracing Her Natural Hair

'I love my hair now. I celebrate it. I feel like it's part of me, part of my personality. I'm very aware that I now have this platform to wear my natural hair proudly and inspire young girls who are going through a similar sort of journey that I went through. I like to own my hair and celebrate how it grows naturally. I try not to do too much with it. I get a lot of positive feedback. I hear from mothers who tell me that their daughter or son hated their hair until their parents pointed me out and told them to celebrate their hair like me. I've met young girls backstage at gigs and their parents have turned them to me and said "See! She loves her hair, so should you!". My hair is part of my identity, my culture, my heritage. Every curl or kink speaks to that marriage of my mother's Ghanaian roots and my father's roots. It's a statement. I'm reclaiming my crown after all those years of struggling to embrace it. If I could look back and tell my younger self anything I'd repeat what my dad used to say - he passed away over a year ago now - when I was younger and I used to try and straighten my hair he'd say, "You're crazy. You don't know what you've got. You don't know how beautiful your natural hair is. One day you'll appreciate it." I wish I'd loved it sooner.'

On Future Projects

'I'm so excited about The Void, it airs for the first time on 10th July on ITV. It's such a big moment for me. I've always wanted to pair presenting with my love of music. I studied journalism at university, it was always something that I've wanted to do. This is the first time that I've fronted a prime time show. I'm doing so alongside Ashley Banjo and it's so cool to have two people of colour hosting a prime time show on ITV, it's huge. We actually both went to the same university - Queen Mary University of London - so it's really odd that we never bumped into each other. I remember speaking with Ashley and talking about The Void being such a big deal. I'm wearing my hair so proudly on the show. Being on Saturday night prime time TV every week wearing my hair larger than ever, and proudly, that's a huge deal for me.'

Fleur East and Ashley Banjo will present ITV's The Void__, an arena-based gameshow that combines both physical and mental challenges. The first episode will air on ITV on Saturday 10th July at 8pm.

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