Interview with Jade Buffong, Founder of Mane Hookup: Finding a Stylist and Navigating Your Natural Hair Journey

This may sound odd to you, but I only washed my hair once I was almost 20. I lived quite a privileged life as the baby of the family so my hair would be washed and styled by my sisters or a hairstylist. I had to learn how to do everything by myself as a student living in a predominantly white area. I was literally the only black girl in the “village.” My hair and I took some interesting turns on our journey of exploration. I would have loved a site like Mane Hookup to help me navigate my hair and help me understand how and what to do with my hair. I would probably never have cut my hair into a horrendous pixie cut or used my GHDs quite so often. I would have also been a part of a community where I could access the support I needed to help me understand my hair. 

Jade Buffong founded Mane Hookup after she started her natural hair journey and realised how difficult it was to find a stylist who could style her hair and teach her how to care for it. She wanted to create a platform where black women could find stylists who could provide them with the necessary guidance and advice to care for their hair. I had the pleasure of talking to her about her hair journey and the creation of Mane Hookup.

MR: You started your natural hair journey in 2018, what prompted you to go natural? 

JB: Um, well, I had been relaxing my hair for years and a lot of it stemmed from me wanting to see what my hair looked like when it was straight. It was out of curiosity and because I was, well I still am an athlete, but as an athlete, I was training four days a week and sweating out my hair which is not fun. 

MR: Yeah, I totally get that, I was a dancer.

JB: Yeah, see, so it's one of those things that you don't want to have to deal with but then I got to a point where I was like this just isn't really sustainable. I'm going to have to go back to my natural hair at some point. So I might as well do that sooner rather than later so that I can learn how to manage my hair. And what I really wanted to do was find a hairstylist who could teach me how to look after my natural hair properly, so that I didn’t make a mess of it in between appointments. I wanted someone who was really skilled, really talented enough to look after my hair when I got into their chair. Yeah, so for me it was just more the natural progression of things. It's not sustainable to chemically straighten your hair for your entire life and now we have more information that says that's just not healthy for you because of different chemicals that they use and the potential impacts of some of those chemicals, you know. 

MR: Yeah, it's so scary. The things that they put in hair products that are meant for black and curly hair in general. It's really alarming and it's crazy that it gets authorised like, oh, yeah, sure, put that in there.

JB: It's kind of a combination of things. One, those things shouldn't be in products in the first place. Two, why do so many people want to permanently straighten their hair? If you can go and get your hair blown out which is a temporary thing - it's not a fixed, permanent thing, you know. It still allows you to go back to your natural hair. Why do we have this need to permanently straighten our hair - why do we want to do that? 

MR: Again, I think it stems down to Eurocentric beauty standards and unfortunately that's where we are still in 2024, eurocentric beauty standards are still the standard for beauty.

JB: Yeah, and it's really interesting because I didn't realise this until I was putting pitch decks together and I was constantly told that my idea was really niche because it's a segment of the hairdressing industry. The hairdressing industry is huge, but this is a segment of it. And then when I did the research, I was like, oh but 58% of the world's population have curly and Afro hair, so we are actually the majority. We have been told that curly and Afro hair is the minority versus the majority. It's like, where did that narrative come from when, statistically, it's over half the world's population? You know, and I don't think many people know that, I certainly didn't until I had to go and find the answer and present it to investors. 

MR: I think it’s really interesting that we still have that issue when information is so readily available to us. The other thing I find interesting is how different people are treated in terms of like, say, a white person with curly hair just as “wild” and just as “big” and just as you know in your face as, say, a black person with the same, even sometimes the same curl pattern as that white person, but the white person won't be pulled up to HR and told that their hair is unprofessional, or told by the school you have to go home, but the black student/employee will be. And you know, I've seen it play out at school and at work. And I never understood that like why is it different for some? And you usually always get the “Oh, but that's their natural hair” and it's just like well, what's the difference between us? It drives me crazy just thinking about the hypocrisy. 

JB: Yeah, the world is a funny place but I do believe a lot of this actually starts with us, you know, I think a lot of it starts with people loving and learning to love their natural hair. That doesn't mean to say that you can't wear it straight. I'm not coming for anybody who likes wearing their hair straight because you can still wear your hair straight and still fundamentally love who you are and love your natural hair. But I think a lot of people actually go down the path of straightening it because they don't like their hair and that's a very different reasoning and a very different mentality to “oh, let me just change it up a little bit and have a different style.” You know, that's perfectly normal and healthy, whereas straightening your hair because you otherwise don't like it isn't healthy and shouldn't be encouraged. And so for me, it's always like well, why are you straightening your hair? 

If we can build up that self-love in our community, that love for our hair as it naturally grows out of our scalp, then I think that that will go a long way to creating that change in other parts, whether it be at schools or in businesses. Not to say that people aren't doing the work now, but I do think it's a combination of external forces, like, you said, eurocentric beauty standards being forced and pushed in everybody's face all the time. But then there is also the work that needs to be done within our community and we cannot ignore it. There is a lot of self-love and self-care that needs to be rejuvenated within our community, especially when it comes to the way that we look.  

MR: Yeah, absolutely. What were some of the hurdles you faced?

JB: I think the hurdles that I faced had less to do with self-love because I love my natural hair. Um, I have very, very, very dense hair. I got my hair from my dad. I remember when my dad had an afro, it was literally that stereotypical afro that you would see in a retro 70s film. It was a stay-in-place kind of afro, and that's what my hair was like - it's changed a little bit since I was a kid. As you get older, your hair changes slightly, but I definitely have my dad's hair and so I love my hair. I didn't actually have any problems with it. My problem was not knowing how to manage it. And because I didn’t know how to manage it, I Would straighten it so I could feel like it was more manageable, because I wasn’t going to spend an hour doing my hair before I go to school or before I go to uni or before I go to work.

MR: Yeah 

JB: But then I was like actually you need to learn how to do this. What you're doing is avoiding the actual problem, and the problem is you don't know how to manage your hair. Your hair isn’t the problem. You are the problem because of your lack of knowledge - so fix it, go to the heart of the problem and learn how to manage your hair. So the hurdles that I faced were actually all to do with that. It was very much like okay, what type of hair do I have? What is the best thing to do if I'm starting to get away from relaxers? How do I go about doing that? Do I go for a big chop? Do I grow it out and let the straight parts naturally fall out and then trim it bit by bit, which is what I ended up doing. And then I had to think about what styles I could have my hair in as it was growing out. These are all of the questions I was asking myself but I didn’t have the answers. I couldn't find a stylist online, so I was forced to search for somebody by word of mouth, and that took months. And then when I finally found somebody, she was good at styling, but she was not an educator. So I just had my hair in braids all the time until I felt like my hair was long enough for me to do something with it. But I still didn’t know how to look after my hair, I didn’t know how many hair products I should be using, I didn't know how to categorise my hair - I knew nothing. 

I found this woman online who was one of the OG hair influencers like she's been around since before hair influencers were a thing. And she shared her hair regimen and the types of products that she used, and I was like, okay, well, let me start there because her hair looks relatively healthy and it looks very similar to my texture. And then I just went through the process of experimentation and finding brands that had products that worked for my hair. 

Looking back at it now and having the knowledge that I have now, I actually should have started with my body, because your hair is a byproduct of the way that you treat your body. So if you are not sleeping well or if you are hideously stressed or if you are not eating well, the first thing your body says bye-bye to is your hair and your nails. Your body reinvests that energy into basically keeping you alive and keeping you functioning. 

So I was looking at it from a very external point of view, just thinking about what products and routines I needed. But had I known then, what I know now, I would have started with how do you feel internally? What do you need to do with your body to enable healthy hair growth? And it took me a very long time to understand that. Fortunately, as I'm an athlete, I train four days a week and I look after my body relatively well anyway, um, and I love to sleep, which is one of the reasons why my husband and I have not had a little person yet because I'm like I'm not ready, not ready to let go of that. Haha, You have to think about it holistically. You have to think about What is important to your body and your hair is not important to your body - your body doesn't care how long your hair is, so how do you make sure that your body is feeling good enough to produce the hair growth or the state of hair that you want.

MR: Yeah, it's true, it's something you never really think about at all. Even your hormones play a part in the health of your hair. Like after I had my daughter, I went through a weird journey with my hair where it was super healthy and then all of a sudden it was just like now we're going to say duces -  like my edges said bye and the health of my hair depleted. It's slowly growing back but yeah, it's wild and I’m still breastfeeding so my hormones haven’t gone back to normal yet and they won’t for quite some time. There are all these different things that you don't think about when it comes to the health of your hair. 

JB: How many people know that before they get pregnant? We should have that information at hand but a lot of the time people don't have that information. I have spoken to so many people who have no idea why their hair isn’t growing and I always tell them the same thing, your hair is exactly the same as your nails, it's always growing. If you're not seeing length and you are not retaining your length that means it's breaking as fast as it's growing. So you're doing something wrong, you know, or you're very stressed out. And so I think the journey for me was first creating a routine, I knew the types of products I needed, I just had to figure out which ones would work for me. It was an expensive journey to go on but I got there in the end and I now have my staple products for wash day. The next thing I had to figure out was my body - I think for a long time it was three things water, people underestimate its importance, sleep and food. If you're not getting those right, do not expect Rapunzel hair it's just not gonna happen and I think people underestimate the importance of your internal system when they're thinking about their hair health and their hair growth. 

MR: No, absolutely. What are your go-to hair products?

JB: um, so please, no one comes for my neck with this one because I know there's been some controversy with this brand. But Mielle Organics deep babassu conditioner is probably one of the best deep conditioners I have ever used. 

MR: Oh, really?

JB: Yeah, I can't speak for the rest of their product range, but that particular product, for me, is the deep conditioner to beat other deep conditioners. I also love Shedid and Parrish. I actually know their founder, Jess, she's amazing and created an incredible range of hair products that are formulated with, like, all textures in mind, which I think is a rarity. But her products work really well for me as well. I use their cleansing shampoo and they also have a curl cream that I love. And I have found a normal conditioner which is Carol's Daughter which is a really amazing day-to-day conditioner. The only other thing is, like the old-school Olive Oil cream, if my hair is dry, my hair just absorbs moisture like a sponge and that really helps give my hair life when it’s really dry.

MR: Nice. I haven't heard of Shedid. 

JB: It's a British brand that's not as well known as it should be considering how good their products are. 

MR: I will definitely check them out. What advice would you give to someone just starting their natural hair journey? 

JB: I would say be prepared for it to be a long journey. This is not just a I figure out how to manage my hair and that's it. I think your hair changes, so it's an everlasting journey. Like, as I said, as I've gotten older, the density of my hair has changed. And it's also things like knowing that one product may not work for you long term because your hair changes, your body changes and you can actually also develop more allergies as you get older. I've developed new skin allergies that I didn't have before. So I have to be mindful of what I use. So I think it's important to not walk into this thinking that it's going to be a one-and-done and that you’re going to have your routine sorted first round or that you’re going to learn how to style your hair without doing the work and educating yourself about your hair. It's like a lifelong journey and it really is for you to understand your hair as it changes. 

I would also like to add how important it is that you be patient with yourself, and if you have a hair goal, that's totally fine, but be prepared to do what you need to do to achieve that goal. I also suggest getting a hair consultation with a stylist or a trichologist because they’ll give you a list of things to do or a list of products to buy.

MR: Mane Hookup is such a great idea, I know how hard it is to find someone who you can trust with your hair as well as how hard it is to find clients. I have literally been stopped on the street and handed business cards by stylists who are looking for clients. What inspired you to create the platform? 

JB: It came from three places actually. The three things kind of happened in a very short period of time. First off, I actually stopped chemically straightening my hair. I needed to find a stylist and like I said, I tried to find somebody online and for the life of me that didn't work. Google was useless to me for the first time ever and I was forced to go back and search by word of mouth. I didn’t understand why this was such a problem - I could literally find anything else online. Why was this such an issue? And secondly, at a similar time, my mum's family moved from London to Bath and they would travel back to London just to do their hair, which was getting expensive but they couldn’t find anyone local. They eventually found somebody in Bristol, which is a stone's throw away from Bath and in the end they were only semi-satisfied with them. And lastly, during this time there were loads of black actresses in Hollywood talking about the fact that they had to bring their own hairstylists and makeup artists to set. Some of these actresses were major leads in TV and Film with a huge amount of power, influence and money, but they were running off set in tears and if they were struggling, then god help the rest of us. 

MR: Yeah, totally. 

JB: Why is this happening? You know? Why is it an issue for black women and women of colour to get access to hairstylists that they can really trust, whether it be on a film set or in their home or going to a salon? It's like why is this so hard? 

And the more people I spoke to, the more I realised this is a universal issue. So whether I'm speaking to my family in the UK or whether I'm speaking to family in the States, even in parts of Africa, I'm like this is a global issue. And I just thought, actually I want to fix that. So that's where it started and it kind of transformed into me understanding it from the customer side and then understanding it from the stylist side as well. A lot of them work independently, so you can't just walk down the high street and see them, because some of them are mobile and they travel to their clients or they work from their homes. They are not visible to the general public and some of them do not have the time to build up an online presence because they spend 10 hours a day in people's hair or they have a day job and then do hair in the evening. So I was like, okay, the problem now makes sense. So now it's like how do we build an online presence for these stylists so they can easily be found? It's been an interesting journey, learning to understand it from both sides. 

MR: How do you vet the stylists on your platform? 

JB: So we ask them a series of questions when they're onboarding. So things like how many years have you been a stylist? What qualifications do you have? Then, we also ask them what they specialise in. Is it braiding? Is it natural hair? Is it wigs and weave? Like, what’s your main focus? 

And then we present that information to customers on their profile. When you're browsing through, you can see what the stylist specialises in, their qualifications and how many years of experience they have in the industry. What we're trying to do is rebuild that sense of trust, because that's the thing that's been broken, and it's been broken because people haven't been able to find great stylists in their area. These great stylists have always existed; they just needed visibility so people could find them. 

MR: Yeah, I made a profile and I checked it out and it's so easy to use. I've got to say it's like, so straightforward. I even told my sisters about it. Haha 

JB: That's great, we wanted to make the process so simple and painless for people to find a stylist. We're trying to create a sense of relief in their experience, and then they get even more relief when they're in the chair of somebody that they can trust and they know is going to do their hair justice.

MR: I know you will be expanding to other regions in the States, will you be doing the same in the UK? If so, when will it be rolled out?

JB: We want to be in the next five to 10 years. 

MR: I saw you recently attended TechCrunch, you said you had a chance to pitch Mane Hookup to some investors - can we expect some exciting collaborations or projects in the new year?

JB: Anything is possible. It was a very intense week at the Accelerator. It was amazing, and America is like another land, it's like another world. But yeah, we had a really great, really great time. We spent two days at TechCrunch and a host of after-events, which one night got me back at like 1 am and I was like I am not 18 anymore, please. But we met some incredible people, met some great investors as well and we’re currently in conversations with a few people. 

The main thing for me is finding whether it be partners or investors that actually care about what we're trying to do in the world, and finding people that have the right synergy. That's the most challenging thing. Not all money is good money and so I think it's also very important to kind of weed the right people or the wrong people out so that you end up with the right ones. At the moment, we're having a few conversations, but due diligence has to be done on both sides. 

MR: I wish you the best

JB: Thank you

MR: I agree, due diligence on both sides is really important. I feel like people forget that, like you can always say no. There's nothing wrong with saying no to somebody if it's not right for you. 

JB: 100%. And also there are different types of money right, there's angel money, there's VC money. They come with very different terms and conditions and a very different feel and, having worked in both fields, even crowdfunded startups in the UK, I can vouch for the fact that it does change the energy of an organisation once you get that cash injection. So it's also important to consider what type of company you want to create. 

MR: And how much control do you want to give away? 

JB: Yeah, exactly, it's a very different ball game. So that's why investors need to do their due diligence. Both parties need to believe in each other and in the business. 

MR: People are so afraid of black hair, it blows my mind. I feel like people would rather hide our hair away than nurture it and give it the attention it needs. Do you think the media plays a part in shaping the industry's attitude towards black hair? 

JB: I do think that has definitely been more prevalent in the past than it is now. I think it's a combination of media and people who have influence and power. So, for example, if you're constantly seeing your favourite actresses, actors, musicians and politicians wear their natural hair, then you're going to look to the people who have power and influence and it will help normalise natural hair and hairstyles. 

MR: Yeah, totally.

JB: And I think we're seeing more of that now than we've ever seen before. So if I think of some of my favourite TV programs when I was growing up, I remember things like Sister Sister and I remember in the first season they had curly hair and then after that, their hair was bone straight. I doubt that that was their doing. It was probably because they couldn't find a good hairstylist and it was probably because the teams weren't thinking about that at the time. You know, but the older I've gotten, the more I've seen people in those positions go back to their natural hair and wear their natural hair out. You know like whether it's Viola Davis or even Michelle Obama wearing braids, you know, during the election run and when she's doing her speeches, it makes a huge difference when the people that look like you, that are in those positions, are wearing their natural hair or hairstyles that are closer to that, like protective hairstyles as well. So, yes, the media play a part, but people in power and influence play a part in everyone's perception of black hair. 

MR: Yeah, I agree. I think the more normalised it is to see a woman of colour wearing their natural hair or protective styles in professional settings, I think then that sort of trickles down to corporate environments and meetings - people will see your natural hair and not think, oh, that's unprofessional. 

Do you think society's perception of black hair has changed at all in recent years?

JB: I say yes and no. Yes, I think it's started to change a lot for black people and people of colour. I think more people are asking themselves why. Why am I straightening my hair? So I think yes, in that sense but we are still having issues with hair discrimination in schools and the workplace. So, yes, I think the perception of black hair is changing. I think there are more black people and people of colour falling in love with their natural hair, which is great to see because we need to see that. But we still obviously have systemic issues that are being experienced, whether they be in schools, workplaces, or sports organisations. 

There was like a young boy in America who was a wrestler and they made him cut off his locs in the middle of a competition. That was not his first wrestling competition. He's also trained with his hair in locs, so his coach has clearly said that it's fine. So what rules were they trying to establish? It doesn't make sense If he's been competing like that for ages. There was also the young girl that was a weightlifter that had beads in her hair and they wouldn't let her perform with the beads in her hair. So you see these photos and videos of her teammates trying to quickly take the beads out so that she can go and do her lift, these things are happening to kids, you know. 

And so, whether it's like I said, governing bodies of sports, schools or workplaces, these acts of discrimination are still happening, and so if the world had really changed that drastically, they wouldn't happen at this rate and they certainly wouldn't be happening to kids. Yeah, so in that sense, no, there is still clearly a lot of work to be done, but it's good to see that black people and people of colour as a whole are falling in love with their hair more. 

MR: Yeah, no, absolutely. I really love that. In the video with the young girl you mentioned, you see her team trying to help her take her beads out which is really sweet -all of them coming together the best way that they can, but they're still children. They can't advocate for another child in the same way as an adult would. What I would love to see is more adults in those situations advocating for those kids and being like no, they're going to play as they are. I'm not going to let you harm this child by cutting their hair because it does a lot of harm. It does a lot to the kid's psyche, you know, hearing that there's something wrong with you. You can't do something because of something so natural, that grows out of your head is wrong. Do you know what I mean? Like you're being told that you are less than. And I bet if another kid, a white kid, had that same hairstyle as that kid they would probably get to play and they would probably comment on how fetching their hair was, which is so wild. 

JB:  Ultimately, if you're participating in a sport or if you're at school or at work, it's about whether you are doing your job. Are you participating in the sport? Are you doing what you need to do at school? And I'm like, if those children and those adults are ticking the performance boxes, why are we so fixated on their hair? 

MR: OMG yes! There are several courses in the UK that now teach people how to care for afro and curly hair but we still can’t hop into any high street chain salon for a quick wash and go. Do you think these big chains will eventually see the value in catering to all hair types? 

JB: I think that starts with education, and I believe they’ve made it mandatory in the UK. They have to dedicate a part of their course to Afro and curly hair. How that's being enforced I don't know, but there is a law but ultimately it starts with people being exposed to it and feeling comfortable with it, even when it's not their texture of hair. It's about the educators in that space as well making it clear to them that this is no scarier, no different to doing straight hair. Once you know what you're doing, you'll be fine. And then, once you have enough stylists who are educated, you have less of those issues. The problem now is that there aren't enough stylists being educated and then the ones that are educated are not interested in teaching people about afro hair. And it's usually out of fear, like I don't know how to do this and, instead of having that internal dialogue of saying it's because I lack knowledge and I lack information, they blame the hair. And they tell you that your hair is difficult because it’s going to take longer than most people's when actually, the real issue is their lack of knowledge that's causing the problem, not the hair. 

So a lot of the time, it's like stylists don't want to have that internal dialogue with themselves when they're so used to doing European hair that I have a knowledge gap which is making me scared to do this person's hair. Let me go fill that knowledge gap so I don't feel that fear, you know, and I think that there aren't enough people saying that. However, money talks and given the amount of money that people spend on black hair, it's inevitable that industries are starting to shift slightly in that direction. Like I don't know about you, but when I was a teenager, I could only get my products from a black hair shop or online. I could not walk into a Superdrug or Boots and get my hair products, but I could do that now. So the reason is problematic, but that also creates a shift, and what you're seeing more of now is more salons are trying to have at least one person that is properly trained, but that's not good enough, because it can't be one person, it needs to be every person. Yeah, so changes are slowly happening but again, I think the reasoning is the thing that can be questionable.

MR: No, absolutely. And I've gone to like salons before where they're like oh, we do afro-caribbean and curly hair and I go in and the first thing they want me to do is have a Keratin straightening blow-dry treatment and I'm like I don't want that, can you not do anything else? But that's the only thing they really focus on - how to take my hair from this to straight. Which is problematic. It's like you know they should be more versatile in terms of styling so that they can offer more to people of colour, but they don't. 

JB: Yeah it's like you said, it's about people changing their attitude instead of just thinking about making their life as a stylist easier. This is about doing what is best for the client. And if you're doing what's best for the client, actually you have to have the knowledge and if you don't have the knowledge, then you have to have the self-awareness to say I need to go and get that knowledge so that I can serve customers that have that hair type. 

MR: People have said the most outrageous things about my hair, like ‘Your hair is too big and wild,’ or ‘Your hair feels like a sheep.’ My personal favourite was when I had a weave and someone from HR literally said, ‘Your hair looks so much better straight.’ What's the most outrageous comment you’ve heard? 

JB: This was actually said by somebody who was a colleague and I don't think it's incredibly outrageous, it was just thoughtless. We were having a conversation and it was about hair and they had wavy-ish hair and I was just talking about the length of time it took me to wash my hair and what a wash day was. I told her it's called a wash day because it takes a whole day and that it was a whole process. And then they said, oh, that sounds a lot like. Do you ever wish that your hair was different? Do you ever wish that your hair was normal? I understood what they were asking, but it was just very thoughtless. The delivery was thoughtless and because I know them as a person and I knew they meant no harm, I didn't take it to heart. 

MR: Yeah 

JB: And I was just like, well, no, I love my hair, I just accept that this is what it comes with. If I've chosen to have natural hair, then it comes with this process that I have to do every two weeks and it takes a whole day. And we ended up having a conversation about it. I think if it was me now, I would have pulled them up on it. I think it takes you getting to a point where you feel comfortable with challenging people like that, especially when it comes to things like your hair, even though it might seem very unimportant to other people. 

People say things without necessarily thinking about the meaning of their words and the power of their words. Like what is “normal,” anyway? When you say my hair is not normal you're implying that straight hair is “normal,” but less than 40% of the world's population have straight hair but it's that perception versus reality thing. 

MR: I do think that, again, it stems from Eurocentric beauty standards being pushed on people to the point they believe that straight hair is “normal” and anything else is unacceptable when it's actually not. I also hate the word normal, like it's thrown around so much but honestly what's normal to me may not be normal to you, you know, even as like two black women, you know what I mean.

JB: Yeah, exactly.