We were lucky to catch up with Shanell Khan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shanell , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on was my first creative hair project. I always had a love for creativity and a passion for all things hair . I wanted to be able to combine both .However ,It took me a long time to realize that I can in such a way that I would enjoy and more importantly to be able to inspire others to love and embrace their natural hair . To be able to empower persons and show them how our hair can be worn in many different ways.

It was a few years ago , Ciara , did a Loc Hairstyle with wooden blocks that said “Melanin”. I was blown away by that hairstyle and how creative it was . A few days later after seeing the style , a follower sent it to me randomly asking me to recreate it .The person mentioned that they noticed I like creating simple natural hair hairstyles and believed I was capable in recreating Ciara’s hairstyle .

I was stunned , I got super excited and believed that this must be a sign ,and I thought to myself that I should take a shot .

And so I did , It took me 3 days to recreate the Ciara Hairstyle and I added my own twist to it . Instead of doing locs ,I did passion twist and I used wooden blocks that said “Curly Girl “ which was unique to my niche and I love wearing my natural curls .

The style came out great , I posted it and it went viral .It took me by surprise as I never thought I was able to combine my creative side and my love for doing hair .

Wait , there’s more ,Ciara saw it and reposted it on her stories .
I was featured on Allure ,and essence Magazine.Mind blowing! Right ?!?!!

This moment was very special to me as i tapped into a side of me I never knew I had . It was an assurance that what I imagined and dreamed of doing that I can actually accomplish it ,
It sparked more ideas , I recreated more hairstyles and received more magazine features by magazines such as Byrdie etc .

That moment was the beginning of my journey and it’s what sparked the dreams that I hold so dearly as a creative . It assured me that nothing is impossible.

Shanell , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Natural Hair Enthusiast . My goal is to inspire other naturalistas to fall in love with their Natural hair over and over again. My passion for beauty positively impacts others to confidently rock their Kinks , Coils and Curls . I use my social media platforms to express my love and creativity for all things Hair and Beauty.

I started to do my own hair at a very young age. Which led me to the internet, during my quest to find out more about my hair and how I should care for it . I discovered YouTube . The hair gurus or influencers as we now call it, wasn’t such a global phenomenon then .

Therefore it had little to no diversity in regards to the different hair types and textures . I tried to find girls with similar hair types and hair textures in comparison to mine . I then realized that the most represented was the 3a- 3c curls. Although they were few , I was still able to learn from them .

However , later on in life I realized that I wanted to be able to share my experience with the natural Hair community . To represent and fill in the gaps .

As a island girl from the Caribbean,
I learned that products work different in high humid areas and there were few Caribbean influencers and none had my hair type .or natural hair at that time .

This sparked the interest of starting my social media platform , to show others especially within the Caribbean how to love and treat their natural hair . How to style it in different ways so that they can feel and look their best .

I create creative and simple hair and beauty content to help inspire others to fall in love and to truly embrace their natural hair . In a world that shows discrimination from time to time towards persons with natural hair .

I saw that women and men needed to be empowered and reminded of the beauty of their hair and how they can feel confident in wearing their kinks , coils and curls .

I do believe that what sets me apart from other influencers with my niche is apart from showing others how to take care and style their hair . I am able to create and recreate creative hairstyles that you can see worn by models or celebrities for shots or the red carpet. These creative looks share empowerment and brings more fun and excitement to my platform that my followers love .

I am happy to know that at the end of the day I can simply inspire others to love and treat their hair with care .

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect about being a creative is being able to inspire others and hearing from them that i was able to help them and impact their lives through my social media platform . Nothing brings more joy when persons can message me or meet me in person , letting me know how impactful my content has been to them and how much it helped them during their journey . After all this is why I started this platform to inspire and help others in the natural hair community . That they can learn to do and style their own hair and feel confident doing it .

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I built my audience organically over the years . I was able to grow a community on my social media platform by simply just showing up as my authentic self .

I would definitely say the key to building an online presence is being true to you and sharing what you genuinely love with others . By doing that consistently and in ways that is fun for both you and the viewers .

That way viewers can feel how much you enjoy doing what you do as a creator through the screen . Being authentic helps you to be relatable and build a relationship with your viewers . Just show up as you everyday and share what you love and surely the audience would grow .

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @ShanellnKhan
• Youtube: Shanell Khan
• Other: Tiktok- Shanell Khan

Image Credits
Photographer for the professional shots for the creative work projects . 1 .Sonix Photography