Doyin Adele-Shiyanbola is made for Beijing. A born and bred Londoner of Nigerian descent, she feels at home in international settings. This vibrant young mom grew up with four siblings as part of a large (and proud) family. With her husband and their 18-month-old daughter, she moved to Beijing in February for her career at the British Embassy. Though she loves Beijing, Adele-Shiyanbola lamented the lack of salons specializing in African hair. In London, she typically got her hair conditioned every two weeks and had it relaxed every six weeks prior to a change of style. Luckily, there’s Majesty Hair Salon, Beijing’s longest-running black hair salon. Adele-Shiyanbola could barely contain her excitement when we introduced her to Head Stylist Kennedy Katebalirwe and Makeup Artist Jojo Zhou. After the makeover, Adele-Shiyanbola said: “The makeover was meant to be a surprise for my husband, and it worked! He said I looked great. To celebrate my new look, we went out to Sanlitun for drinks in the evening.” Cheers to that.
Get the Look:
Katebalirwe recommended that Adele-Shiyanbola avoid over-relaxing her hair.
“Beijing’s very dry, so it makes black hair very brittle and weak,” he explained. They opted for a short, curly weave for plenty of volume. First, Katebalirwe braided Adele-
Shiyanbola’s natural hair around her head to act as an anchor point.
Then, he meticulously sewed each section of the weave into the braids. To finish off, he snipped off stray hairs from the weave to produce a uniform, rounded hairstyle.
Makeup Artist Jojo Zhou created a blank canvas from Adele-Shiyanbola’s face with MAC Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation in NW45 and MAC Mineralize Blush in Gentle for color. Then, she played up Adele-Shiyanbola’s love for bright colors with a magenta eyeshadow from MAC overlaid on a dark brown shade from The Body Shop’s Shimmer Cube Palette. Zhou added shine with pink glitter eyeliner by a Korean brand called VOV, and finished off with two coats of BOB Curling Mascara in Black. For Adele-Shiyanbola’s lips, she used Helena Rubinstein Wanted Gloss in No. 9 (Hollywood Doll).
Majesty Hair Salon
Daily 10am-9.30pm. Shop A116, Bldg A, One World Apartments (next to International SOS), 16 Xinyuanli, Chaoyang District (5946 7177, 8453 1527, info@majestyint.com) www.majestyint.com 朝阳区新源里16号世方豪庭A座A116室（近International SOS）
Photos by Lova
This article originally appeared on p18-19 of the beijingkids June 2013 issue.
Check out the PDF version online at Issuu.com
