Michelle Obama is many things to many people: a role model, a political lightning rod, a fashion icon. But to Arlington-based hairstylists Njeri Radway and Yene Damtew, she’s a client.
In her new book, The Look, Obama talks about the evolution of her style, including the stylists’ role in it. She describes wearing her hair straight on the campaign trail and in the White House so that it did not “create another distraction” as critics picked apart the first Black first lady’s appearance.
But in the nine years since her husband’s term as president ended, Obama has embraced her natural hair and braids, sporting them whether she’s campaigning for 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris or recording episodes of her podcast IMO with her brother, Craig Robinson.
“The world is getting to see something that we always knew about who this individual was,” says Damtew, who founded Aesthetics Salon in Arlington in 2017. And that is someone who is “choosing things that are conducive to her lifestyle, as opposed to it being a political protest or statement.”
Keeping it Simple
It’s easy to think Obama would use her stature to do just that. In recent years, race-based natural-hair discrimination has led at least 24 states to adopt or create their own version of the The CROWN Act, a law that prohibits such prejudice. Its name stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.”
But ultimately, Obama’s choices are about convenience, Damtew says.
“The reality is that the majority of the decisions that she has made in her post[-White House] life are decisions that are conducive to her lifestyle and that bring her joy and that allow her to be the person that she wants to be outside of the public eye, although she’s still in the public eye,” Damtew says. “She works out and she goes swimming and she plays tennis, and the lifestyle that she’s living—of freedom—she wants braids to give her the opportunity to do that.”
Still, she and Radway recognize that Obama can be a style trend-setter, and they are fully supportive. “I think that there is this shift that’s happening … of us just being and who we are in our existence is enough, rather than having to put on all the fluff,” Damtew says. “You see that, from the Golden Globes, with the effortless makeup, the no-makeup look and these very soft, beautiful hairstyles where they weren’t too intricate. I think that that’s the direction that we’re going with trends when it comes to beauty standards.”
The Team’s Beginnings
Damtew, a California native, met the Obamas when she became a braiding assistant to Johnny Wright, the family’s primary hairstylist, in 2009. “My primary focus was Mrs. [Marian] Robinson and the girls” at first, says Damtew, referring to Obama’s daughters, Malia and Sasha, and her mother.
Seeing how hectic the First Family’s schedule was, Damtew quickly realized she needed a backup braider because “someone has to always be available for the family.” She called Radway.
The two had met in 2006 through a mutual friend. “She called me saying, ‘We’re looking for another assistant, and if things work out, you will be helping us with the Obamas,” Radway says. “Of course, that piqued my interest. I came in, did an interview, and I’ve just basically been a part of the team ever since then.”
Today, Radway says she sees Obama every six to 10 weeks to reinstall or touch up her braids. Sometimes she sees her sooner, though, “because she might have some type of event or speaking engagement where she would like her braids styled,” she says. “Even with her podcast, we typically tape two to three episodes in a day and multiple in a week, so I will be seeing her throughout that week for maybe three days in a row.”
A Shared Philosophy
In addition to being coworkers, Damtew and Radway have become close friends.
“We’ve been each other’s tag team duo in the shadows for several years,” Damtew says. “I think being young coming into this industry, being children of immigrants, our experiences, our journeys, have been so similar that it’s been a blessing just to have each other. We’re more like sisters now to just lean on especially because we have the same philosophy when it comes to beauty.”
(Damtew is from an Ethiopian family; Radway has roots in Jamaica.)
That shared philosophy is that good hair is healthy hair, and it’s one reason why Damtew hired Radway as a featured stylist when she opened her salon. “Our responsibility is to help our clients understand that they can achieve whatever they want with their hair with proper care and guidance of a licensed professional,” Damtew adds.
Their approach has helped them build a roster of celebrity clients. Barak Obama and actors Hugh Jackman and Tracee Ellis Ross have all had a turn in Damtew’s chair. Radway has styled Harris, media mogul Debra Lee, poet Elizabeth Alexander, and actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson.
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Similar Beginnings
Both women grew up in households where hair was important.
“Being in the hair salon with my mom every other week really drew my eye to hairstyling,” Radway says. “I would experiment on my Barbie dolls.”
In Damtew’s house, Sundays were hair wash days. “There was this expectation that throughout the week I would keep whatever style my mother had done up to par, and so that’s where the interest in hair first started,” she says.
By middle school, she was taking on braiding clients. First up was her brother. “I did a horrible job braiding his hair, but he was my guinea pig,” Damtew says.
She kept at it and by high school, she had developed a solid clientele. At 16, she enrolled in cosmetology school. She bounced between that and college, all the while working as a salon assistant. (Damtew later earned a bachelor’s of business administration from Marymount University in 2015.)
Today, at Aesthetics Salon, the two give the same hair advice to all of their clients: “Our gift is that we’ve both been able to really help our clients bring whatever vision they have for themselves to life with their hair,” Damtew says.
Ultimately, it’s about comfort and confidence, Radway adds: “Be happy within yourself. Who cares what other people think or say? Just show up confidently and do what it is that you have to do.”