Re-twisting Artistry with Kayra Theodore

Words by Matthew Spence:

Third Eye Trivia question: What is Black Aesthetic? Do you think of certain outfits, hair, demeanor, and slang? Truth be told, that’s what it is for outsiders looking in. On the inside, it’s beautiful yet painful. Why? Cause it’s deeper. It’s like a glitched-out Cloak of Invisibility. These aesthetics reveal us to the villains who see us as less inadequate and the evils who have a list of racist remarks loaded and ready on their phone notepad, when we’re just trying to live. Craps out when we’re in front of the people itching to castigate and berate, yet turns us invisible when another person outside of the culture uses the exact same shit. Convenient for others but inconvenient for us. Shit’s a drag of a laced blunt, but that’s not stopping the good fight to create and relate in our terms and to our own. At the end of the day, you can see us but won’t be us, cause the Black Aesthetic isn’t surface but internal (and eternal like the soul). Especially within our art, whether it be fashion, music, painting, writing, filmmaking, etc., there’s a certain fine print that can help generally navigate our art to help define our aesthetics.

For today, we’re gonna take it back. Way back to the basics. We’re gonna read!. Dust off your library card and pick up a copy of Addison Gayles Jr.’s “The Black Aesthetic.” Within it, he elucidates on Black art and breaks down the 3 elements that help define if the art is the Black Aesthetic:

Allow me <clears throat>.

Functional: meaning it’s useful

Collective: “From the people and must be returned to the people in a form more beautiful and colorful.”

Commiting: “Committing to the revolution and change”

If you got it memorized? That’s Tight! If not, don’t worry, you’ll catch on. If not, just tattoo it all over your body, Memento style. Now that’s just the exterior of that, but sadly, that’s all I can really do for today. You can schedule a tour for November 16, 2033. 3 vital principles are layered through many of our Black creatives who are constantly pushing forward the walls that constantly try to close in on us from every which way. Whether they realize it or not. It’s best you wear your favorite pair of Aaliyah shades, cause there are countless creatives whose 8th light shines brighter than a diamond ring in a Hype Williams video, who are checking off the Black Aesthetic boxes. A good reference point is… I’ll actually let her introduce herself.

 

 

Let me break out the trusty cardboard sign in case the people in the back couldn’t hear. Let’s hope they can read from the back. Kayra Theodore is her name, and creating dope shit is her game. Hair stylist, model, actress, storyteller, and part-time sonderer. The Long Islander has been slowly and surely climbing up the ladder to recognition with her talent and many of her ambitions. In an overstimulating world where art is being created at the same rate as Kanye collects public outrage like sonic rings, Kayra’s art takes a few steps from the usually blank canvases and color-coated Dickies Carpenter Pants, skipping the Michaels Arts and Crafts store haul and deciding if she should go with tea tree oil or coconut oil.

Creating from the top of the dome. Literally. Using her hair, she creates hair art that stops you in your doom-scrolling tracks and leaves you crazed and amused with thoughts of “YO, that’s super ill” while leaving mental sticky notes to remind you and teach you the beauty and versatility of Black hair. European standards reign more supreme than a WWE Championship run, and every day, little by little, we try to break down the walls entirely to one day see all of us blasting Chief Keef and dancing all over the rubble. Sadly, though, it’s gonna be a while until Black people’s freedom of expression is repressed no more, including with our hair. We’re reduced to certain choices that stuff will deem appropriate, whether at work or out on the streets, but Kayra’s self-taught styling is helping push the boundaries of what our hair can do, express, and inspire. Now, whether you have to clean off your glasses or rub your eyes cartoon style, you’ll get a clear view and see how her few years of her craft have been paying off. From setting Twitter ablaze as art inspo and being in Vogue Magazine to her mass following of 80k followers and 191k followers on her Instagram and TikTok to even having Rihanna fanning out over a bit.

 

 

“I was so nervous. I wanted to pitch myself to her and do her hair for anything she needed, and the moment I saw she recognized me. I just felt a sense of calmness, and I also didn’t believe it’ Like, girl, what do you mean you know who I am?!? But it was validating, and what I’m doing is seen.”

Kayra has managed to show off the glare of black hair and ripple the modeling industry, whether it be by 1% or 100%, showing Black models can offer so much more than a face to serve but a vision. As her vision continues to become reality, she has plenty more goals, hopes, and wishes that she plans on working on and getting opportunities that must be a fever dream to imagine getting. One step at a time: “I just find myself wanting so much of my life, and I’m not there yet, and it’s like, what can I do? But there’s also only so much I can do in my own power, so I’m just trying to balance that.”

While Kayra’s story continues one page at a time, let’s go back to the first chapter of her life. Coming from a Haitian family and being an artsy and crafty kid, Kayra has had a knack for creating in some sort and going the extra mile to express. When it came to my creativity in art classes, that’s where I thrived, or through projects. I remember we had book reports. I was so extra, and I would do whole poster boards and decorate and do all these things.” She continues. I always had a creative mind. I did pop-up art and loved arts and crafts, so any project that I can incorporate doing something visually exciting.” But either crafting art, she was another kid/teen trying to craft her identity. And Lord knows, being Black and going to Catholic schools doesn’t make that journey any less taxing. ” For me, it was being in predominantly white spaces. So I just felt like, “Man, it was just rough.” Continuing, she explains, “The trauma was there; I felt like I didn’t understand my place. I felt like I wasn’t Black enough or couldn’t fit in with the white kids either. There was literally one year where I had lunch in the bathroom like that the whole year.

 

However, she doesn’t have the resentment but accepts that time as a piece of her story that helped shape her into the woman she loves being today. “You can’t go back in time and change it, but I’m really happy where I’m at,” continuing, “I wouldn’t take it back, but it was miserable, and I’d never put my kids through it.” While growing as a person each day, what’s been instilled in her veins for years is a DIY/Get it done yourself” attitude. Being told no made her wanna work extra hard to get where and what she wanted, all in good faith and with good intentions. That determination would mark her rendezvous point of her relationship with her hair. Where? At her local hair salon. Now, the beauty salon is a place of sanctuary for Black women, and getting your hair braided is a cultural experience, but what happens when the two clash? One particular moment would knock the first domino of Kayra’s hair craft. “I saw these jumbo box braids, and at the time, it wasn’t a thing. When I showed them the photo, they were like, ‘Oh no, it’s gonna be too heavy & too big.’ So it was like, if you can’t do it for me, I’m going to find a way to do it myself. So I went to YouTube, looked up tutorials, and did it myself. And after I did that first style, everyone thought I got it professionally done.”

People peeped, and soon after, in her sophomore year, she started braiding classmates’ hair and made a small business for herself. Planting the entrepreneurial seeds, things would take a few more years before her and her hair’s relationship blossomed into a bond stronger than hot glue and a broken vase. All it took was a day in college and a small moment of people-watching. “I always thought Black people were beautiful, but I didn’t see it in myself. Then I saw someone wear their natural hair/Afro, and I thought they were so beautiful, and I was like, ‘Ok, if they look that good, then let me give that a shot.'”

 

 

That spark would rock her boat of thought and lead her to realize that we all hope to say with pride, “I love myself.” She started her path of experimentation and self-love. And soon we’d be on the journey with her. Thanks, social media (for once at least). Whether it’s TikTok, Instagram, or Twitter, Kayras’ consistency with posting and constantly crafting new hair art and hairstyles on whatever platform is highly respectable. Pics, videos, tutorials, and whatever she may feel like posting. The more she kept on, the more traction and recognition she began to get, due to her hairstyles that feel like theatric, animated, eclectic, and eccentric. Pazzas and je ne sais quoi, some say her looks are straight out of a Tim Burton movie, while others (including myself) say she’s straight out of a Solange video.

 

 

Fans meet at the round table every post to help pinpoint Kayra’s inspiration, but she explains her inspirations. “I pull inspiration from anything: emotion, anime, etc.” Not being afraid of influence and open to new ideas, Kayra has been able to transform inspo into her self-art. With plenty of noteworthy looks and hairdos, her social media timeline gives off “TV character.” How you never see characters wear the same outfit twice, it feels that way with Kayra’s hair.

 

Giving countless looks, fans must be impatiently checking their watches, waiting for an appreciation post for her looks on major social media pages. Looks that are gonna spark the minds of other Black women, Black girls, and perhaps Black men and boys to try to experiment with the possibilities of their hair and find the love of themselves when society convinces them otherwise. Ultimately, that’s a big goal. Kayra’s hair art is a form of self-art in the same vein as how FKA Twigs uses her body as self-art (along with her music, of course). So it’s no wonder agencies and companies saw the potential in her work. Leading to more photoshoots and runway opportunities, but while she was all smiles and Hallmark cards in the beginning, as she got deeper in the modeling industry, she learned how, no matter what field, you’ll still be misunderstood, misrepresented, and in some form, your skin will work against you. While her art has made waves and possibly has increased her spotlight in being cast/booked if she never did, there are still gaps of equality that need to be filled.

As she continued down the road of professional modeling, she’s gotten a behind-the-scenes reality of a Black model and the limitations plus select expectations they’re still dealing with. “I would say within the modeling industry, there are spaces where they want my Afro specifically, which at first I thought was a good thing, but also it’s that they have this ‘Black idea’ of someone. ‘Afro is really Black,’ but it’s not coming from a place of ‘Black is Beautiful’ but coming from a place of ‘We need to hit a diversity quota’ type of thing.”

In an industry that’s still narrow in ways, it makes you wonder how Kayra has maneuvered the age-old battle of sticking to her integrity and her natural hair while conforming to what they want. While she’s never “conformed,” however, as time went on, she definitely side-eyed certain projects that needed Black women. Some jobs wanted an Afro, not cornrows, because they were too “hood.” Elaborating, she says, “When I went to do a <company named censored> job, they told me how nappy my hair was, and I’m sitting here like, ‘WTF.'”

It was this part of the convo where I felt like I was doing an Anderson Cooper tell-all piece as well. Kayra was getting a lot off her chest and giving me more insight that was more eye-opening. “I always pride myself in speaking my truth,” she says before going more in-depth with the modeling industry. “The discourse with Black models, they typically want you to have your head shaved, like a very low cut. There are not too many models of color that have long, big hair, and it’s because they don’t know how to style it. Also, they’re looking for a specific type of Black person.”

Now, you’d think in 2025, with diversity (whether wanted or pandering) issues like that would cease to exist, but reality likes to make us look stupid because it’s still the same old, same story told, and Kayra offered up a theory. “I think it’s because the people being hired, it’s not based off of skillset; it’s a lot of the hires are based off, who you know and the connection. A lot of times they would rather cost that friend who’s trying to make it and still learning vs. a professional who you don’t know too well, you know what I mean?” However, make no mistake, it isn’t necessarily a Black stylist vs. a White stylist, because Kyra has experienced her hair being fucked up by “professional Black stylists” at a shoot.

 

The issue has to change from the source, as cosmetology doesn’t typically teach Afro textures. “That’s why I haven’t gotten my cosmetology license, because I know how to work with all recruiters cause I did the research.” Being self-taught has def paid off cause now doing her own hair and conceptualizing her own hairstyles comes in handy for convenience, whether it takes all day or 10 minutes before a shoot like a Clutch G. “Last minute is where my best work comes out.” It’s a craft that helps relieve the ease of worry of going through the bullshit of stylists who aren’t familiar with Afro textures. While it also feels like she’s adding more creative direction to a shoot. Being her own hair artist, she’s going into a shoot for the art and creative expression and collaborating, not for the love of money. “I still wanna honor the collaboration, cause I love collaborating. I don’t feel it has to be around money. However, I would say I’ve established myself, and I pick and choose the collaborations more. I just look at the work and see if it aligns with how I feel my hairstyles fit. I just wanna make sure the work, the styling, and everything else add up and equal the level of everything.”

A password to enter her creative world is “genuineness.” Focusing on the work and not the notoriety. It doesn’t matter if you’ve worked with Beyoncé and Jesus themselves or only do local stuff; if she feels you have a great body of work, she’ll love to collab. As she dopely puts it, “Work horizontally vs. vertically. Look who’s around you now.” Now, seeing how far she’s gotten with her hairstyling, some would wonder, “How do you stand on the balance beam so smoothly?” and maintain confidence. Some may guess it’s probably easy for her to maintain confidence. I mean, when you have Winnie Harlow and Tyler, the Creator recognizing you and expressing how dope they think you are, you’d assume that would be a lifetime dosage of unfuckwitableness, but even the strongest have moments of doubt. But she gets through it: “Having people in your circle that can help bring you out of that helps. You could sit here and say you need to do it on your own, but you’re not alone. We’re born into the world and into a community to an extent. There’s someone out there who has your back.”

Once she gets her confidence back on track, she’s on the go, and on the go she is. As she’s ready to expand her artistry in other ways and to other people. First order of business: tune the procrastination to 35%. As a procrastinator, she wants to turn it down a tad because if she began to plan better, her work could be “100x better,” as she puts it. Multitasking with that, she’s throwing coins in plenty of other wishing wells. For starters, she’s ready to expand and not just create art pieces for her own hair but for others as well. Of course, big-time names are a goal; however, she’s absolutely not shoving anyone out of the way. She wants everyone to be a part of her journey: “Anyone Black and anyone who believes in what I do.” We might not need the Magic 8 Ball and magic conch shell to guess if people will believe in what Kayra does.

Case in point, her being art inspo on Twitter in 2024. “Kayra Theodore Art Trend,” where a demotic number of people started to share their artistic take on her after a video of hers went viral, of a compilation of her various styles. When asked about it, she expressed, “That was so insane I couldn’t even wrap my mind around it. I took a screenshot on Twitter; it had reached up to 67 million views, and over 10,000 people drew me. It was almost impossible to go through everything; I just felt really honored my art helped spark creativity in the drawing world. It’s all art at the end of the day, and if we all just appreciate everyone’s uniqueness and what they can do.

 

In the small virtual city of thousands of people who drew her, there was a lucky one who had the artistic energy Kayra needed. Because, in the midst of that trend, she ultimately found someone to help flush out her next goal: an illustrator to help with creating her comic book. “About a Black girl whose superpower is her hair,” elaborating, “I can conceptualize different ways she admits certain powers, then just having the movement.” It’s gonna include historical context, which makes me excited. It’s deeper than her hair moving; there’s a store of context to serve the powers we’re making”. Pulling from her life, how she grew through the hardships and feelings of repression and journey of accepting herself, it’s a story of Black people that happens all the time but isn’t told enough. It’s nerve-wracking telling your story, but she knows it’ll be worth it. “I’m pulling from a vulnerable place. Of course, the names will be different, but it’s stuff that’s happened to me that’s really able to black people growing up in those types of situations, not being understood and not appreciated at a young age, and trying to conform to fit in. It’s a vulnerable thing to put out, but I think it’s important and we need more media where little Black kids can look up to a superhero with natural hair and whatnot.”

In a perfect world, Kayra, Moon Girl, and Static Shock will be the real endgame crossover.

 

Hair Artistry, modeling, and storytelling acting (making her debut in the film “Vial”), Kayra has gotten a lot of dope experiences and, in turn, dope life lessons she’s learned on the way: “Follow your intuition, trust what’s best for you, and take control of your own life.” She continued, “I made sure my morals and values were strong, and when I joined modeling, they told me to lose weight, and the only way to do so was an unhealthy way, and I refused to do so. I stood firm and said no.”

From the first minute to the last second of this interview, Kayra came off with pure, unadulterated sincerity and genuine curiosity, asking me more questions than I asked in general, so by the time we wrapped up our 4-hour convo, it felt as if we had learned each other’s life story. I learned so much about her, and yet I know not all of her because she established herself as a constantly developing, authentic person eager to add to her character each day with her art and her world. Creating and living. “I don’t look at myself as above anyone else; I just make stuff and create what’s on my mind.” A dreamer with big moves and goals in her mind, “I see my work taking that space, feeling like a visual museum.”

Kayra feels like the Black aesthetic. To anyone who gets to meet her, prepare for yourself to be overpowered by her positive energy, helping those to love their natural hair and opening eyes to the Black girl magic to those who need it and those who refuse it.

 

 

 

Be sure to keep up with Kayra on her social media and perhaps be a lucky one to join her journey. Pick Door 1 or Door 2. Remember: Plastic Afro Picks are better than metal.

[Photos from @kayratheodore and belong to the rightful owners…and all that stuff]