The Face of a Revolution: Sharon Alexie On Learning To Love Her Hair
The model, activist and artist opens up about being the voice of a generation and her plans to eventually escape the public eye
“My relationship with social media is chaotic, I can’t wait to part with it for good at some point in my life.”
Model Sharon Alexie seems to be contemplating a tricky crossroads when it comes to sharing her life on Instagram. She might be tired of its appeal, but her voice on social media has helped turn her into a household name amongst fashion editors and young activists alike. Her Instagram account has 420,000 followers and the 20-year old from Reims, France has utilised the platform to inspire, educate and raise awareness around the issues of racism and colourism, as well as give some insight into the living experiences of a biracial person of colour.
Her feed is a striking curation of inspirational quotes and images, personal modelling achievements and snapshots of her own artwork – drawing cultural references from both her everyday Western life and her French-Cameroonian heritage, but in this interview, after her Harper’s Bazaar Arabia shoot with Louis Vuitton – to showcase the fashion house’s Stellar Times high-jewellery collection – she’s facing her own sort of ‘social dilemma.’
Sharon is somewhat of an enigma, despite having the confidence to work with some of the biggest brands in the world, and the bravery to display pictures of her oil paintings in such a public manner. The visual artist is a complex character favouring simplicity; she’s someone who has mastered introspection.
“I like to embrace my feelings, to accept them. I like to understand. I sometimes have a hard time adapting, but at the same time I like to see things as challenges,” she analyses, before adding: “But above all, I like the solitude.” When we probe about her favourite things it’s simply her ‘notebook’ and when we question the multipotentialite about what she’s most passionate about, the answer is a thoughtful “these days, I don’t really know.”
We turn to things she’s more sure about: style.
“At the moment, I’m always in heels,” she says, maintaining that lockdown hasn’t changed the way she dresses. “I like big coats, tights and tailored skirts with a soft and comfortable ‘pull’.”
However, Sharon’s a fashion chameleon, the countless editorial and look book pages that are filled with her modelling images show her as a master of illustrating a cross section of trends – she is as at home in structured corsets and fierce metallic jewels as she is in retro ’70s-inspired shapes and colourways.
Her hair is softly manipulated to play its own part in enhancing every look, be it her signature Sengalese twists, a natural Afro, loose braids tied up in a high pony or tresses pulled back in a neater chignon.
But her hair isn’t something that Sharon has always been comfortable with. Growing up as part of a middle-class black family in a predominately wealthy, white area of France, she was bullied by the children at her school for ‘looking different’. She points the finger at the lack of representation of people with her type of hair. “This world is ruthless, it is full of dictates,” she explains. “You feel different because this world is not normal, it creates normalities.”
Sharon turned to Instagram to learn more about how to wear and treat her hair and started reading the stories of empowering black women to build a confidence around her hair and indeed her skin colour. “My country has nothing to do with the education I built,” she admits. “It’s all thanks to black women and women of colour.
Soleils necklace in yellow gold and platinium, yellow sapphires, spessartite garnets and diamond, Louis Vuitton Stellar Times Collection
“The way I think now is completely rebellious for France and its leaders.” At 16, Sharon stopped ‘relaxing’ her hair and started wearing it naturally as an Afro. “My attitude towards my hair changed because I started to learn how to take care of my hair, to listen to my hair, and to respect it, no matter what others said,” she asserts.
For our shoot, her hair looks powerful and elegant in equal measures, a style that gives the impression of hours of prep, but Sharon insists this is her go-to everyday look. “It’s nothing special today, just the braids that I usually do,” she laughs. “I feel myself in this hairstyle.”
We move on to talk about what else ‘feeling herself’ means. “The people who love me would describe me as a mix of crazy, sensitive, shy, reserved, complex, curious, too curious, greedy, clumsy and talkative,” she reels off, words that compose a colourful and eclectic narrative.
Asked to describe herself, Sharon is more reserved. “At the moment, I would say someone completely complex who appreciates simplicity.” And this ‘simplicity’ is evident in her go-to items of “a notebook, some make-up, a pen, a disinfectant gel and my headphones.”
But when it comes to her art, and indeed her inspiration, this simplicity finds its intricacies. “I love art and I love to practice it because for me it is a material form of pure things like feelings. Our cultures are rich, they are full of history, and suffering, of course, but also wonder, advancement, purity, beauty, greatness, and also full of life and spirit.”
Sharon is intrigued by the notion of ‘escape’, she admits she’s yet to find her favourite place in the world but is keen to travel the globe, including the Middle East.
“I would very much like to visit Jordan if the context politics allows it, Turkey for its mosques, and Egypt too, they all have a cultural heritage that seems so rich to me.” We finish discussing her “looove for pasta with truffles, Cameroonian plates” and Viola Davis – she’s binge watching How to Get Away With Murder.
Her current reading is equally thrilling, psychological drama Huis Clos (No Exit) by French playwright and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, which again highlights this sense of being ‘trapped versus escaping’ – a sentiment that’s echoed in her social media feed, in particular in a post of a book cover that reads: How to Disappear. Vanishment Made Easy. Poetically, this is a book that doesn’t actually exist. And that’s where we leave Sharon, pondering if escape from social media is really possible, especially now she’s becoming the face of a revolution for her generation.
Photography: Pelle Lannefors
Styling: Dionne Occhipinti
Follow Sharon on Instagram @flammedepigalle
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s November 2020 issue