When Memory Becomes Art

Kayra Theodore, 2022

Imagine this painful childhood memory. You’re being severely bullied in middle school for wearing traditional hair bows—a symbol of neatness and pride in your Haitian culture. Now present day, you’re putting on a hair show reflecting those painful moments— only this time, it’s full of beauty. This is the story of Kayra Theodore. 

“I genuinely love expressing myself through my hair” said Kayra in a 2022 Instagram post. When I first came across Kayra two things were evident— she had a passion for styling hair and a talent that was unmatched. The photos she shared weren’t your typical restaurant meals and mirror selfies. Each image showcased a new hair adornment stitched together by Kayra herself. Around this time, after going to model castings and booking editorial campaigns, she was working side jobs and finishing her college degree.

From Side Jobs to the Cultural Zeitgeist

The year 2024 brought many blessings her way. The creative found a multitude of eyes on her through both social media and real life. Her following on TikTok alone grew to 187,000 and engagement on other platforms continued to soar. Her online influence stretched so far that it reached the eyes of Robyn Fenty. You read that right— Rihanna. “That’s the girl with the braids,” said the songstress at a summer event for Fenty Hair. Kayra shared an Instagram post acknowledging the moment, saying “I didn’t realize how far my art has traveled, but I do know and continue to hope that I will add some form of positivity to someone’s life by sharing it.”

“I didn’t realize how far my art has traveled, but I do know and continue to hope that I will add some form of positivity to someone’s life by sharing it.”

That moment was one stepping stone of many. Earlier that year, Kayra was asked to be featured in “24 for 24”, Instagram’s feature post highlighting unique catalysts sparking the cultural zeitgeist. If there was an internal need for any external validation, 2024 was the year it was all received for Kayra Theodore. Little did she know this wouldn’t be the last time Instagram would be reaching out to her for a collaborative venture.

Reclaiming the Bow

Earlier this summer, after her first hair show, Untied, the creative shared, “It was really a struggle to just get it off the ground. So when Instagram reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, do you have an idea that you’ve been sitting on?’ I literally had chills.” When speaking on the story behind the show’s theme, she says, “For me growing up, my mom used to put bows in my hair, and I remember when I transferred from fifth to sixth grade, I realized I was the only black girl. All the kids made fun of my hair. They’d say, ‘You look like a child,’ ‘You look like a dinosaur,’ all those things, and that made me reject my Haitian culture because that’s something prevalent in Haiti.” Now fully grown, Kayra speaks on the reclamation that came with the production. “I thought it was really important to reclaim what students made me feel ashamed of but to also show my own interpretation of what bows symbolize to me.”

“I thought it was really important to reclaim what students made me feel ashamed of but to also show my own interpretation of what bows symbolize to me.”

A Story of Becoming

Witnesses said the show felt like a story of becoming. It begins with a young girl, presumably playing Kayra, at a single desk getting her hair styled with a bow. As the show continues, each model showcases variations of handmade bow designs. With each of them, the bows continuously increase in size, symbolizing the freedom and liberation that Kayra now attaches to the hair decal. The final look took the cake— a model struts seamlessly down the runway with a larger-than-life veil gracing center stage. Kayra speaks on the veil being “fully free, no structure in it— just fully me being myself in the world.”

As for what others can take away from the show, she says,

“Whether someone made fun of your physical features, how you think, who you want to be, what your dreams are… Let go of all those expectations and just fully lean into who you are as yourself without anyone’s idea of who you should be.“