Inside Of Naeemah LaFond’s Texture On Set – Essence

Texture On Set is an immersive, educational event designed to provide hairstylists with the tools to master the artistry of styling natural hair. At the helm of it all is Naeemah LaFond—a Brooklyn-born and raised hairstylist, educator, and textured hair advocate dedicated to shifting the industry’s approach to Black hair.

Yet, LaFond didn’t always see hairstyling as her calling. “It didn’t feel like something to aspire to. This is just what we do. Everyone does hair. Everyone does makeup. You know someone on your floor that does braids,” she shared. “It was just part of who I was—not necessarily a goal for what I wanted to be when I grew up. It was just part of the culture.”

That perspective shifted when she was around eleven years old. She describes the moment vividly: “My mom took me to a hair salon with her. There was this stylist—super booked, everyone loved him. My mom was getting her hair done, and he started taking out the rollers,” she says. “Then he ran the brush through her hair, and I gasped. I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing!’ I just couldn’t believe how beautiful that process was.”

To LaFond, it was art. But as a child of Haitian immigrants, she still didn’t see hairstyling as a clear career path. Instead, she enrolled at the University of Buffalo, first as a pre-med student, then switching to sociology. Still, her love for hair never faded. She became the go-to hairstylist among her peers, constantly asked why she wasn’t pursuing it professionally.

Then came her ‘ah-ha’ moment.

After college, an aspiring model and friend invited LaFond to a test shoot as her hairstylist. That day, everything clicked. “I felt alive—the blood running through my veins. In that moment, nothing else mattered. I had to be that kind of hairstylist.”

Until then, she had only known the local salon experience. She hadn’t thought about the people behind the magazine covers, the billboards, the runway shows. But once she saw it, she knew she belonged.

As she navigated the industry, she became acutely aware of how textured hair was handled—or rather, mishandled—backstage. Black models confided in her, sharing stories of their hair being damaged, mistreated, or outright ignored by stylists unfamiliar with their textures. The lack of knowledge was glaring.

That realization sparked the idea for Texture On Set.

Though this is only the second year of the event, it has been percolating in LaFond’s mind for quite some time. The first installment deeply resonated with the hairstyling and beauty community, making it clear that she had to do it again—bigger and better.

When asked how she felt seeing her vision come to life, she smiled. “I feel like God is in the room. I feel overwhelmed. I feel excited to see this dream come to life.”

Despite her words, you’d never guess she was overwhelmed. Backstage, there was a sense of calm—stylists, makeup artists, and her dedicated team working in sync toward a common goal: making LaFond’s vision towards a more evolved beauty industry come alive.

The event itself was an immersive experience, featuring live hair demos from top stylists, a panel discussion with Maude Okrah Hunter, Vernon François, Chuck Amos, and Adeng, and a live photoshoot showcasing models styled in glamorous, ‘90s-inspired hair and makeup.

As Vernon François exclusively tells ESSENCE, “it’s a reminder that we are here. That we are valuable. This is a great platform to ignite a much more meaningful change on a bigger scale.” He continues, “You can never underestimate how the abundance of Blackness makes you feel. Being in an environment like Texture On Set, surrounded by people who look like you and are here for the same reason, it’s an overwhelming bundle of joy.”

LaFond meticulously crafted every detail of this event, down to a segment led by Michela Warebi, which explored the historical and cultural significance of beauty. She took an almost anthropological approach, grounding beauty in a deeper meaning. “We are really trying to expand the idea of what people understand beauty to be. It’s more than aesthetics—it’s a practice, a ritual, a form of communication,” Warebi tells ESSENCE. “And when you tie that back to editorial and storytelling, it becomes even more powerful.” She continues, “We can use our own backgrounds, our own experiences, and our personal understanding of beauty to tell our stories.”

For LaFond, Texture On Set is about more than just education—it’s about elevating Black hair in fashion. “The conversation about diversity and texture in fashion can only shift if everyone is involved. It’s not a Black conversation, and it’s not a white conversation. It’s everyone’s conversation. We all need to know how to do textured hair in fashion,” she says. And judging by the energy in the room, that movement is already well underway.