Freddie Harrel on Hair Care as a Holistic Practice, and Launching Her Game-Changing Beauty Brand
Texture Diaries is a space for Black people across industries to reflect on their journeys to self-love, and how accepting their hair, in all its glory, played a pivotal role in this process. Each week, they share their favorite hair rituals, products, and the biggest lessons they’ve learned when it comes to affirming their beauty and owning their unique hair texture.
Frédérique Harrel, aka Freddie, began to grow an online following as a blogger writing about fashion and mental health. But her followers were always asking about her signature lace front afro wigs, which led her to launch a side business called Big Hair No Care, selling the extensions she’d always worn. More recently, the French-Cameroonian entrepreneur has expanded the idea into a company called RadSwan, which aims to innovate in the synthetic textured hair market and create a community around hair and identity.
For someone who exudes a bright sense of confidence, it may be a surprise to hear that Harrel hasn’t always known how to approach her hair. “Growing up, I don’t think I fully owned my hair,” she says on the phone from London, where she lives with her husband and son. She’d get it done every week, usually in braids. “In hindsight, I really love that this was the first teaching I had about expressing my own identity,” she says of her varying hair looks. “Just having that multifaceted ability, you know? And even if we didn’t have money for fashion or anything, we would make it work for our hair. I remember going to school and kids would comment on the fact that I changed my hair so much and I would respond with something like: ‘yeah I used a magic shampoo to get this style,’” she adds with a laugh.
At age 13, she remembers “wanting to look like the girls on the perm boxes,” and she got her first relaxer. Later she experimented with clip-ins, too. Harrel went natural at age 21, but then she got a job in banking. “I felt like I had to wear a weave and cover it,” she says. Eventually she left the world of finance to be a stylist at ASOS, and began experimenting with her hair again. “What I’ve really always loved is the whole culture around our hair and what it brings in,” she says.
