A pores and skin, hair or make-up routine is rarely only a pores and skin, hair or make-up routine. We dived deep into the magnificence rituals of artists and aestheticians throughout L.A., and in flip realized extra about their relationships to themselves and the world round them. A magnificence ritual is as a lot private as it’s a portal: to raised variations of ourselves, to raised variations of the longer term. For Barrington Darius, a inventive director, photographer, director and mannequin, magnificence is present in freedom, and freedom is present in apply, particularly a hair-cutting apply Darius has been perfecting for the previous couple of years. As Darius says, slicing hair is math, it’s idea and it’s artwork. “Once I minimize my hair, I really feel like that aura has been turned up. Aura factors going up … My conversations are sharp. My ideas are married to confidence. I converse immediately.”
Reducing my hair is one thing I do in personal. As an artist, I really feel like I’m all the time sort of anxious about sharing. I do what I feel are some magical issues privately, however whereas some individuals share their magic — I take advantage of it for inspiration, for reference. I may be transitioning into that house the place I share extra. I’ve “take threat” tattooed on the again of my neck.
“Once I minimize my hair, I really feel like that aura has been turned up. Aura factors going up. It’s like, ‘I’m again.’ My conversations are sharp. My ideas are married to confidence. I converse immediately.”
— Barrington Darius
I feel our haircut is our crown, so deciding to tinker with my crown at my very own leisure, it’s liberating. As a inventive director, filmmaker, photographer and all the pieces else, I determine to observe off spirit — there’s by no means a proper or mistaken manner. All that idea that goes into the photographs, the movies, the music, it’s actually the identical actual factor with the apply of slicing hair. Reducing hair is math and in addition assessing — assessing the bones of what it’s about to be earlier than you truly go into sculpting. You see some individuals’s heads and the hair that they’ve and it’s like, “You’re supposed to have that hair. It simply suits.” I really feel like I’m the fade. I’m the identical each time, however I’m sharp. Each little nook that nobody else thinks about, that stands proud most to me. With haircuts, there’s no Photoshop, so you need to be on level. Once I minimize my hair, I really feel like that aura has been turned up. Aura factors going up. It’s like, “I’m again.” My conversations are sharp. My ideas are married to confidence. I converse immediately. I hate to harm individuals’s hearts however I do use cleaning soap and water as my skincare. My grandfather used Irish Spring, I take advantage of Irish Spring. It’s simply one thing about that Black pores and skin.
I plan all the pieces. For therefore a few years of my life, I’ve had this type of linear imaginative and prescient — checkpoint to checkpoint to checkpoint. However as life introduces new realms, and all the pieces will get shifted, your rituals change. Nevertheless it’s been the identical factor without end. I stand up at 5 a.m. I identical to the blue — I like when the blue comes up within the morning. I can sit there and see the gradient of no solar to solar and it simply adjustments all the pieces. I stand up early, I obtain early, reward early. How I stand up, how I embody myself within the day, that’s my ritual.
I feel I watched an excessive amount of Spike Lee too early. “Mo’ Higher Blues,” Spike Lee’s installment with Denzel [Washington], formed my concept of magnificence. I like jazz music. If you watch the movie, you’ll see how egocentric the Denzel character is in his house, even how he allots himself an hour of apply, no distractions, each day. I noticed magnificence in motion. To be an instance is management. For those who transfer such as you’re stunning, individuals actually simply begin believing you’re stunning. I’m beginning to look within the mirror like, “Wow, we’re superb human beings. We will study to do issues with our fingers that we didn’t assume we may do.” Once I’m slicing my hair, I really feel like I’m doing one thing actual. Any apply makes you’re feeling liberated.
Barrington wears Carhartt Wip Pants custom-made by the artist.
Prop styling: Synthea Gonzales
Manufacturing: Mere Studios
