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.
Taraji P. Henson has made a career of playing powerful women, from Yvette in Baby Boy to Katherine Johnson in Hidden Figures and the fierce Cookie from Empire. Most recently, she strutted her stuff alongside Megan Thee Stallion in the rapper’s “Body” music video. Henson’s shape-shifting abilities are equally evident in her head-turning beauty looks: from her signature bob to a red-hot mane that she pulls off so effortlessly.
Her passion for hair extends into her own line, TPH By Taraji, which champions the importance of good scalp care, as well as coil nourishment. “I’m always basing my brand around my needs as well as my consumer’s needs,” Henson tells Vogue. “I want everyone to feel included. You might not be able to use every product from the brand, but you can definitely find at least three things that will work for you! We started with scalp care. Then I realized I was looking for a good twist-out cream. I used to have to mix several things to get what I needed.” As a result of this, in January, TPH By Taraji launched the Intense Moisture + Care line to provide extra hydration.
Henson has found joy in hair care since she was little. “I’ve always loved my hair,” she says. “I’ve been doing my hair and playing in it for as long as I can remember.” In second grade, Henson begged her mother to let her style her own hair. “She let me do it in two ponytails. The part was crooked as hell,” Henson adds with a laugh. “I ended up taking some of my hair out by accident, because I used a rubber band.” Naturally, Henson’s mother rescinded her permission for a while. “But then I would just get my Barbie dolls. You know, the Barbie heads that come with the shoulders?” she says of her alternative customers. “I would play in their hair. I was always that kind of girl.”
At six years old, Henson received her first relaxer. “My mother had a different curl pattern than me and didn’t fully understand mine, so she felt this was an easier option,” she shares. 24 years later, on the set for the movie Baby Boy, she began to consider going natural. “The lady who was doing my hair planted the idea in my mind that I should go natural,” she says of the spark for her eventual journey. The grow-out phase was the one time Henson contended with not liking her hair. “And it was just because I didn’t fully understand it yet,” she says. “I remember getting a brush stuck in it one night and I cried and just went to bed with the brush still in my hair.” Soon after, on set, a hairstylist walked her through how to care for her own hair. “I started to fall in love with my hair in a way I had never fallen in love with it before.”
These days, the self-titled “hair chameleon” draws inspiration from divas like Chaka Khan and Diana Ross, “because I love big hair. The bigger, the better.” Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Maimouna Youssef is on her moodboard as well. “She’s so versatile,” she says. “When I dyed my hair red, she gave me the confidence to embrace it.” And when Henson cut her hair off? “I looked to Slick Woods. She’s so confident with her short cut. I started mimicking her poses in the mirror.” When it comes to keeping her styles healthy, having her own hair-care brand comes in handy. “I’ve been loving Mask On recently because my hair gets so dry in the winter,“ she says. “But my scalp care line is my favorite,” Henson says. She turns to the Ultra Chill scalp serum, “when I have my braids especially.”
She’s excited about playing around with installs next. “I haven’t had one in a long time. I think the last time I wore a weave was on Empire. That was seven years ago,” she says. “I’m in this mood where I want to try it again.” With her passion for changing up her hair and look, Henson lives by a certain beauty mantra: “Your hair is not you,” she says. “Don’t let your hair wear you. Remember that you’re beautiful with your head shaved, or not. That set me free. It really did.”
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