It can’t be overstated that on a day-to-day basis, Smith is super casual about her hair and makeup. When she’s working, though, there’s pretty much nothing that’s off-limits. “We’ve been working
together for some time now, and it’s always exciting because Willow is such a creative tour de force,” François says. Where her hair is concerned, Smith has undergone a metamorphosis that started in her younger years, when she really wasn’t a fan of her natural texture. Like many Black girls, learning to care for her coils has been a journey. “That kind of strained relationship with my hair pushed me to do a lot with it—cut it, dye it, perm it, put zippers in it… whatever I could do, just do something different,” she tells me. But now, Smith is embracing her hair and learning to appreciate everything about it. “Just watching it grow and really figuring out what it needs, what it likes, and what it doesn’t like is like growing a real relationship,” she says.