Inside The 2026 Black Hair Reimagined Show

By India Espy-Jones ·Updated May 4, 2026 < /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

On Friday night, fantasy hair fanatics flocked to New York’s Altman building for the second edition of the city’s most-loved hair show, Black Hair Reimagined. Produced by Echelon Noir, a company co-founded by hair legend Jawara Wauchope and creative director-curator Jarrod Lacks, this year’s show wrote a new narrative for Black hair.

Jawara Wauchope

As one of six hairstylists featured, all using True Hair Company hair, Wauchope says his specific collection was all about feminine spirituality and embodying the human form of what God is. In other words, “Black women,” he tells ESSENCE before the show. “I did big research on some deities, different religions of what Black females looked like, so we created an homage to Black deities.” 

His work during fashion month is all about the products, but Black Hair Reimagined turns hair into fashion and art. “We’re using hairstyling products, but we’re also using paint and resin and all that on the hair,” he says, describing hisdecoding="async" src="https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886050-1-scaled.jpg" alt="Inside The 2026 Black Hair Reimagined Show" width="400" height="600" />Jawara Wauchope

While the first-ever show last year exclusively featured hair legends, like Yusef Williams and Cyndia Harvey, this iteration welcomed in three other incredible stylists. One of which was Fesa Nu, a proclaimed hair poet who’sdecoding="async" src="https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886003-scaled.jpg" alt="Inside The 2026 Black Hair Reimagined Show" width="400" height="600" />Fesa Nu

Models were dressed in balloon-sleeved Marc Jacobs gowns, but they still weren’t big enough to overshadow Nu’s hair fashion. One model steadied what looked like an upside down 6-tiered cake on top of her head, which used braids like icing between each tier. Another wore a vase-like braid sculpture with orange eyeshadow, meanwhile a third paired her brass-toned pretzel-twisted hair with green eye makeup keyed by makeup artist Raisa Flowers. 

Fesa Nu

Vernon François, who presented a story about hair celebration even in the face of exploitation at last year’s show, returned with “The Fifth Silhouette” powered by amika. “What you’re going to witness is a transition of life,” he says backstage while stitching up a tower-like hair decoding="async" src="https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886014-scaled.jpg" alt="Inside The 2026 Black Hair Reimagined Show" width="400" height="600" />Vernon François

Newcomer and hair bender Isaac Poleon’s “Harmour” birthed hair in an electrifying fashion. His models’ eyes were zombified using white-colored contacts to conceal their pupils with white voids. A 2-foot tall mohawk was his most dramatic look, which was cut into a bob on the sides and paired with pierced brows and clustered lashes. 

Isaac Poleon

Two other models wore lobs—one blonde, one black—with electrocuted ponytails sticking off the top and side. Meanwhile, another had hair that was wider than it was tall, like an oversized puff ball gone rogue. Her look was paired with black curved acrylics, all-black eyeballs, bone-straight lashes, and a lip combo via Eadem’s Le ChouChou Lip Balm.

For Malcolm Marquez, his “The Will to Change” collection was all about metamorphosis, transitions, and renewal by way of the natural world. “It’s funny because I actually changed my creative three weeks before the show,” he says, which naturally embodied hisdecoding="async" src="https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7885981-scaled.jpg" alt="Inside The 2026 Black Hair Reimagined Show" width="400" height="600" />Malcolm Marquez

Instead, he followed his instincts to repurpose materials that would otherwise be used as waste. “Beauty tends to have a very heavy environmental impact,” he says, with overconsumption contributing to over 120 billion units of packaging each year. “It was important for me to source things I already had. I like to use recycled materials, up-cycle things, and getting as little new things as possible.” 

Malcolm Marquez

As a result, one slime greendecoding="async" src="https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886043-scaled.jpg" alt="Inside The 2026 Black Hair Reimagined Show" width="400" height="600" />Joshua Meekins

This latest iteration of Black Hair Reimagined came full circle for Wauchope, who says it didn’t hit him until he came in and saw the community he created. “There’s a lot of people who feel overlooked, like myself, or forgot about in this current time of fashion and politics,” he says. “For us to come together and create community just affirms the fact that what we’re doing at Echelon Noir is the right thing.”

Ahead, see all the hair looks from Echelon Noir’s Black Hair Reimagined hair show 2026.

Isaac PoleonIsaac PoleonJoshua MeekinsJoshua MeekinsIsaac PoleonJoshua MeekinsIsaac PoleonVernon FrançoisMalcolm MarquezMalcolm MarquezJawara WauchopeFesa NuJawara WauchopeFesa NuVernon FrançoisJawara WauchopeFesa NuJawara WauchopeFesa NuVernon FrançoisJoshua Meekins TOPICS:  Black Hair Reimagined: The New Era of Beauty Hair Show Jawara Wauchope

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