The vision of Natural Hair Culture started with Isabelle Gouranna, who used to have hair problems caused by the use of hair relaxer; she started to lose her hair and her scalp got irritated. In 2015, she decided to ‘transition’ to her natural hair and this has entirely changed her life. Obviously, in the beginning, it was very challenging. The biggest challenge was to accept and take responsibility for having her naturally frizzy hair. In the Mauritian culture, this type of hair was often negatively viewed, thus not seeing it as naturally beautiful. It was only when her hair started to grow again in their natural state that she had her ‘A-HA’ moment.
Since then, this has become a passion for her, helping and advising people in taking care of their natural hair. This brought such deep joy that she decided to run natural hair care workshops all around the island. During a few conversations with the participants, she realized that there are quite a bunch of Mauritian ladies, still stigmatized, by the society’s view of carrying your naturally curly, wavy or frizzy hairstyle. Activist by nature, Isabelle decided to bring natural hair care education to the Mauritian society.
In 2017, she opened her first hair salon, for women eager to rediscover and embrace their natural hair. This was a place where they could let their natural hair expressed.