Sometimes you’re just so inspired by someone and you get along with them so well that when your working relationship is such a hit it blossoms into an amazing friendship. It’s not often that this happens so when it does, I think it’s important to celebrate it, which is why the original “Bossiekop” herself, Amanda Cooke aka @capetowncurly of themandyexpedition is making another appearance here today. I first featured her when I interviewed her about her natural hair journey a couple of years ago, which you can read about over here. In turn she featured me on her blog over here. Since then we’ve started working together closely due to our passion for natural hair and everything it entails.
Fast forward to the day before the Cape Town Natural Hair Fest when we were putting the final touches on the event, we decided to end the working day with a couple of fun shoots: firstly filming a YouTube video together called The Curly Girl Tag, and secondly a photo shoot showcasing her t-shirt brand “Bossiekop”. I decided to ask her to explain the philosophy behind “Bossiekop” to me.
From there she decided to put the name on a t-shirt, wear it proudly and influence others to do the same. Of course I could not pass up the opportunity to wear mine for this fun shoot either. Scroll down to see how we made the streets of Mandy’s ‘hood our runway and make sure you watch our Curly Girl Tag video at the end of this post. I’m not going to lie: this is a long picture-heavy one, so you’d better get comfortable.
Bossiekoppe in these here Cape Town Streets
Photographs by Maurice Carpede
Now find out more about us by watching our Curly Girl Tag video together!
It’s great to see yourself and Amanda reclaiming ‘bossiekop’. Growing up, I encountered similar terms such as “kroes”, meant to shame me for wearing my hair natural. Later on, I came across Adam Small’s poem entitled ‘Kroeskop’ which subverts the negative connotations of the term and instead glorifies curly hair.
By the way, are the shirts available to buy?