Nsenga K. Burton (Editor-in-Chief of TheBurtonWire.com), editor-at-large for TheRoot.com, had the opportunity to chat with Nassali Kiggundu, Fashion Fair Cosmetics’ new face for their first mineral line, “True Finish.” Kiggundu, who is of Ugandan descent and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA was discovered while working at Starbucks by Johnson Publishing Co. CEO and former White House social secretary Desirée Rogers. “Her natural beauty was mesmerizing, effortless and individual,” said Rogers of Kiggundu, who sports a clean-shaven head. “She is the epitome of the True Finish woman — who celebrates their natural and independent beauty in their own way.”
With this opportunity, Kiggundu joins Cover Girl’s new pitchwoman, Grammy-nominated singer Janelle Monáe, and Solange Knowles, the current face of Carol’s Daughter and Rimmel London, as new spokesmodels representing black beauty and fashion across the globe. In the interview, Kiggundu discusses everything from wanting to become a model in spite of having few role models in magazines that looked like her, how she decided to go for the “big chop,” why black hair is such a sensitive topic in the black community and what’s next for the statuesque beauty. Check out an excerpt from the interview:
TR (Nsenga): When did you decide to sport a bald head?
NK: I cut my hair two Christmas Eves ago because I wanted to change my look. It was part of me wanting a greater change in my life because I had been changing other things, like not having a television. I just wanted to know that I could do things on my own and have my own influences and that it would be OK.
It took me a while to cut my hair because I never thought that I would want or feel comfortable with short hair because of the convention that with hair you’re more beautiful. I have cousins in Uganda who look beautiful with short hair, who were also influences on my style. The less I started caring about conventions, the more I wanted to do something dramatic. It has been liberating. This is me.
Read the interview in its entirety at TheRoot.com.
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