What was the initiative?
Links to Locs is a Black-led, community-centered initiative that addresses the racial disparities, Eurocentrism, and systemic injustices that exist around Black hair and haircare. Knocking down financial, geographical, and knowledge barriers, the initiative launched a free, Black haircare directory, hosted equity-focused Pop-up hair salons, and developed a social media hub of culturally affirming hair education and inspiration.
From supporting vulnerable populations with subsidized haircare, leading community-driven economic growth in the hair sector, and facilitating mental wellness integration into Black hair businesses; this initiative prioritized healing, joy, and community wellness at every step. Events brought together local hair professionals, and diverse Black clientele, creating restorative spaces that combined service with solidarity.
What is your connection to your chosen community?
As a young Black woman living in Ottawa, Chidera deeply identified with the community she aimed to serve. Her own struggles navigating anti-Black hair discrimination—being turned away at mainstream salons, feeling excluded within the beauty industry, and lacking access to culturally competent care—became the foundation of this work.
Throughout the fellowship, those personal experiences evolved into community collaborations, built on a shared need for change and shared visions for the future. Every struggle Chidera faced within haircare was echoed across her local Black community, therefore, each solution developed benefited the whole community. She felt honored to work closely with Black hair professionals, some of whom had cared for her hair in the past, as well as the general Black community she is proud to belong to. Many of these new and renewed relationships grew into long-term partnerships, offering opportunities to co-create solutions deeply rooted in the values of accessibility, economic empowerment, and cultural pride.
How was it innovative?
Links to Locs centered culturally affirming care as both a wellness issue and a social justice priority. At every stage Black haircare was seen as a basic need instead of a luxury, and as something to be celebrated instead of something to be altered. By integrating digital access with in-person programs, Links To Locs offered a multi-pronged approach to tackling long-standing systemic issues in Black haircare.
- A crowd-sourced haircare directory tailored to Black communities, designed to be scalable across the nation. Users can find all kinds od Black haircare services, read and leave reviews, listings, and even hair-related blog posts.
- Pop-up style salons with subsidized services for equity-deserving sub-populations offered haircare as healing in affirming, culturally safe environments.
- A Psychohairapy scholarship that supports hair professionals in gaining certification in applied micro-counselling skills, transforming hair businesses into safe spaces for community mental health support.
- A social media hub that wove together education, celebration, and storytelling, highlighting both the beauty, culture, and history of Black hair.
What is Chidera doing now?
Chidera has recently been admitted to the University of Toronto’s Master of Education in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy, where she will continue her journey supporting Black mental wellness.
She is exploring ways to expand Links to Locs digital haircare directory across the nation and deepen its long-term impact through accessible, culturally grounded events, in her new region of Toronto. Her dream is to one day open a community-rooted, Black wellness centre offering beauty, healing, and community in one space.
Her work continues to be driven by a simple truth: when we celebrate our Blackness in spite of every injustice; we honour our histories, connect our communities, and begin to heal.