Celebrity hair style secrets of famous black beauties

I recently had the immense pleasure of chatting about hair with Amoy Pitters. Amoy is a celebrity hairdresser in New York and she’s coiffed the tresses of many famous Black Beauties such as “Project Catwalk” Canada’s host Iman, Naomi Campbell, Joy Bryant, Angela Bassett, ex-editor-in-chief of Flare Magazine Susan Boyd, Nia Long (from the series “Big Shots”) and Victoria’s Secret supermodel Selita Ebanks. Amoy has also styled the hair of über fashion designer Donatella Versace and Sting’s wife – Trudie Styler.

You can imagine how excited I was to learn about hair care for Afro hair from a woman who was an expert in the field.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wanted to know from a celebrity stylist which were the secrets Hollywood stars used to always ensure they look glamorous and that’s exactly what I did when I spoke with Amoy. I asked her if she’d be willing to reveal a few celebrity secrets and she was up for the challenge.

Amoy was willing to spill the goods on Selita Ebanks, Iman, Naomi Campbell and Joy Bryant.

Selita Ebanks: This Victoria’s Secret from Cayman Islands gets often mistaken for a Black Latina (aka Blatina … as I call us) because of her features and skin colour. Regardless of her ethnic origins, Selita is an absolutely gorgeous woman with a killer body. I’ve seen the Victoria’s Secret photos and have looked at that mass of hair with much envy. When Amoy revealed that Selita shamelessly uses extensions … I felt much better knowing that Selita had a little help in the hair department. Selita Ebanks plays with extensions to add fullness and to easily change her looks. Since she often loves to play with hair colours, she can colour the extensions instead of damaging her own hair. Selita is often cast for swimwear shoots, which require her to spend a lot of time in the water to capture the right photo. She’ll use wavy extensions to create that illusion of the perfect curl for the camera.

Joy Bryant: Movie actress and former fashion model for Tommy Hilfiger, Joy Bryant is known for her tough girl roles. Perhaps her most famous role might be alongside Jessica Alba in the 2003 movie “Honey”. Joy has always been seen wearing sleek, long and shiny hair. In recent years, Amoy revealed that she’s decided not to relax her hair bone straight and she’s now opted for a texturized look. She still plays with extensions to add length and fullness to her naturally beautiful hair for movie premieres and events that require a vampier look

Naomi Campbell: Although well known for her bad-girl and diva attitude, Naomi is officially the biggest black model ever to have sashayed down the cat walk. Naomi has been sporting extensions for as long as I can remember. She had been wearing her extensions super-long for many years, but recently we’ve seen her with a few short bob looks that would make Katie Holmes (aka Mrs. Tom Cruise) and her BFF (best friend forever) Victoria (Posh) Beckham red with envy. This Jamaican-British beauty used to sport golden highlights, but now she’s back to a more classic hair colour for her extensions. She’s also back to wearing longer extensions and has moved on from the bob hair dos she wore so well.

Iman: Personally I find Mrs. David Bowie flawless. I’ve been a huge fan of Iman since I first saw her as the face of Yves Saint Laurent make-up in the 80s as a teenager. I truly admire Iman’s grace, beauty, business sense and her choice of a husband! This Somalian beauty uses wigs instead of extensions to go from long to short and from redheaded to golden blond. It’s been quite obvious from her recent debut as fashion-dominatrix (I mean host) on the popular series “Project Catwalk Canada” that Iman’s hair styles are as much part of her beauty as her perfectly applied make-up.

Playing with extensions to enhance your look:

Amoy Pitters really likes to play with extensions for her clients (Black Beauties and Caucasians alike). She feels so many models and actresses have to get frequent touch-ups while on set or during photo shoots and years of mechanical treatment (brushing, blow drying, curling and flat ironing) will leave the hair fragile and brittle. Extensions are an ideal way of creating any look while protecting your own hair.

About Amoy Pitters

If you’re visiting New York City you can book an appointment with Amoy’s Beauty Salon located at 239 East 10^th Street. The number is 212-529-5153. If you have family or friends in London (U.K.) you might also want to let them know that Amoy works in London each month for about one week. If you call her New York salon, you’ll be able to get more information.

Photo by Christopher Peterson