Beauty
Bustle’s 2025 Beauty Icon Awards: The Natural Hair Champions
From celebrity hairstylists to Afro advocates.
Introducing Bustle’s 2025 Beauty Icon Awards — a monthly list where we spotlight the creators, gurus, and experts who are shaping beauty culture as we know it. Unlike other “beauty icon” lists from the past, they’re selected not for their physical appearance but for how they exuded a palpable sense of self-love from the inside out. The movers, the shakers, the disruptors with an unshakable sense of self who welcome us into their lives and inspire us in our own routines — to us, these are the real Beauty Icons of our generation.
For our second installment of the 2025 Beauty Icon Awards, we’re honoring 10 women who are making waves in the natural hair community.
Historically, Black people have been made to feel ashamed of our curls, coils, and protective styles. Thankfully, there are now laws like the CROWN Act that protect us from hair discrimination in the workplace. As Black communities continue to fight for civil rights and liberties, there’s also been a shift toward learning to love Black styles and our ancestral textures. Thanks to celebrities like Solange and Issa Rae, who proudly wear their natural hair on the red carpet, and the growing number of creators on social media who share their wash-day routines, go-to products, and more, there’s been an outpouring of appreciation for the beauty of natural hair.
This month’s 10 Beauty Icons have made it their mission to uplift, educate, and encourage Black women to wear their hair types with pride. Each of them shares unique content about their raw and emotional personal hair journeys, teaches their followers about the best products and hair care techniques for all curl types, and dismantles misinformation and limiting ideas surrounding natural hair — and nothing is more iconic than that.
Ahead, meet the natural hair heroes of Bustle’s 2025 Beauty Icon Awards.
The Afro Advocate: Ivone Numbi
Instagram: @ivonenum
Followers: 293,000
Model Ivone Numbi is passionate about hair. As someone blessed with a gorgeous Afro, she uses her platform to celebrate the beauty of the natural hairstyle. Her feed (on both Instagram and TikTok) resembles a mood board filled with tutorials and clips showcasing its versatility: She shows off everything from her pineapple technique to fauxhawks and pearl-adorned edges on her 4c hair, showing the versatility of styling her Afro. Beyond the style inspo, Numbi’s followers know she doesn’t gatekeep — she loves to reveal the products she swears by, along with recipes for curl-enriching treatments (think flaxseed-based hair gel). If you’re looking to expand your natural hairstyle repertoire or join a community of fellow Afro advocates, Numbi is the one to follow.
The Curl Guru: Claire Adekanye
Instagram: @clatodd
Followers: 104,000
Despite having more than 100,000 followers, Claire Adekanye makes everyone who watches her content feel like her bestie. She’s proven to be a true wizard when it comes to hairstyling — with the countless easy-to-follow tutorials she posts, Adekanye’s platform basically doubles as a master class in styling 4c curls. Besides providing a bona fide encyclopedia of hairstyles to her followers, her posts also happen to be low-key and extremely relatable. Take, for instance, her car hair chronicles, in which she styles while riding in the passenger seat. You’ll also find vids that reveal just how messy your bathroom can get when braiding your hair (relatable). Follow her for curl intel, but don’t sleep on the @earthahaircare hair growth challenge she’s created — or @blackplantmoms, her community of gardening enthusiasts.
The Culture Creator: Lacy Redway
Instagram: @lacyredway
Followers: 158,000
What do SZA, the dancers for Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, and the models at Prabal Gurung’s F/W 2025 show all have in common? They’ve all been touched by hairstylist Lacy Redway. Redway is the queen of styling, shaping, and molding curls — and she also happens to be the queen of creating natural hair moments that are at the heart of the cultural zeitgeist. As a spokesperson for Tresemmé, she makes it her mission to educate her audience on how to style curls in all the latest trends (most of which come from her own creative mind), and also happens to possess an enviable head of them herself. She’s the beauty industry’s go-to hair guru for a reason, and her Instagram is chock full of high-fashion editorial inspiration, styling inspiration, and glimpses into her jet-setting life.
The Best “Curlfriend”: Shaneal Wilson
Instagram: @curlcodeblack
Followers: 127,000
If you have specific curly hair goals, Shaneal Wilson is a fount of natural hair wisdom, and she is constantly sharing robust tips on everything from moisture retention to taming frizz and promoting curl growth. Her followers — whom she dubs her “curlfriends” — love her regular check-ins: She’ll show details about her quest to combat shrinkage, her hair growth journey (it’s been four years since she shaved it), and how she stays consistent with her care routine.
The Diffusing Queen: Hermela Soloman
Instagram: @hermela
Followers: 287,000
Need tips for how to get voluminous, fluffy, and hydrated hair? Spend 10 minutes on Hermela Solomon’s TikTok or Instagram, and you’ll learn how to do a hair oiling routine, preserve your curls overnight, and find the best scrunching gel. Plus, for those who aren’t handy with their diffuser, she happens to be the queen, teaching her followers the best techniques for optimum definition and a frizz-free finish. The best part? She doesn’t shy away from a silk press or blowout, either — making an ideal follow for the curly girl who doesn’t want to feel limited.
The 4c Champion: Yar
Instagram: @thesudani
Followers: 132,000
She may have 2 million TikTok followers who now flock to her page for advice on 4c wash days, detangling tips, and cosplay looks, but Yar’s hair journey wasn’t easy. Growing up, she used chemical hair relaxers to hide her coils, then took it upon herself to revamp her texture and learn to love it. Now, her content helps her followers reach a place where embracing natural hair is a beauty priority, and she’s cultivated a safe space for curl education and learning, building open discussions on topics not often discussed, like porosity or shrinkage.
The Curl Godmother: Lisette
Instagram: @lisette
Followers: 433,000
If you spent the 2010s sifting through YouTube videos for advice on your natural hair journey, chances are you already know Lisette. An OG YouTube beauty guru, Lisette is often described as the platform’s curl godmother. Since 2013, she’s been providing the best tips for easy-to-achieve curly hairstyles, letting everyone in on her product secrets, teaching her subscribers how to finger-coil, breaking down her wash days, and taking us on the ups and downs of her growth journey between coloring and cutting.
The Editorial Educator: Naeemah LaFond
Instagram: @naeemahlafond
Followers: 69,000
It’s rare to see a spectacular natural hair moment on a magazine cover that’s not the work of celebrity hairstylist Naeemah LaFond. As one of the industry’s go-to editorial hairstylists and Olaplex’s global ambassador, LaFond is not only a creative force and curl visionary, but she’s also passionate about educating others about working with and styling natural hair. Her platform, Texture on Set, allows budding hairstylists to learn her techniques from her years on set and showcases the beauty of textured hair in the fashion and beauty spaces. She doesn’t shy away from a statement hair look, whether it’s Tyla’s fluffy curls for Numero Netherlands or Ayo Edebiri’s glam waves at the Academy Museum Gala — proof that there’s nothing more beautiful or empowering than letting natural hair to take up space.
The Styling Star: Hannah Musette
Instagram: @mussette
Followers: 277,000
DJ, model, beauty guru — Hannah Mussette does it all. With more than 400,000 subscribers on YouTube and 277,000 on Instagram, Mussette has built a dedicated audience that follows her every move, whether she’s documenting her in-shower hair routine or taking them along to a beauty event. But beyond just posting inspiring photos of her hair looks, Mussette also takes the time to show all the ways she styles her 3c/4a curls — whether she’s doing her own box braids, going for a big chop, or decorating her styled edges with delicate pearls.
The Loc Magician: Keisha Charmaine Felix
Instagram: @keishacharmaine
Followers: 107,000
An NYC hair herbalist with waist-length locs, Keisha Charmaine Felix not only shares the best ways to care for your hair from the inside out — drinking lots of water for hydrated strands, making mango smoothie bowls to boost hair growth, and exfoliating your scalp to reduce sebum — but also proves that having locs unlocks (pun intended) so much hair creativity. And if you’re not sure what this means, she’ll teach you: Felix has become a whiz at everything from making loc bangs to tying a head wrap and transforming your locs into a bob. She is the place to go if you’re in a loc rut.
