Decolonizing: Beauty

My name is Christelle Dossous. I am 30 years old and grew up in Port au Prince, Haiti. I left Haiti after  graduating from high school  to study in the United States. I moved back to Haiti in 2013 and still live here today. I am the youngest of four children in my family, 3 boys and 1 girl.

Growing up I though I needed to look a certain way in order to be accepted in the society. I thought my hair was too kinky so I had a perm at the age of 11. It wasn’t until I went to University in the US that  I began my decolonization journey. I went to a French school in Haiti where Haitian history was not taught. All I knew was European & US history. I took an anthropology class in college and that’s when I began to see things differently. I realized how much I was blinded and how much work I needed to do to value my own culture, but also myself. 

If I could speak to my younger self, I would want to tell her-

“You are enough just the way you are. Don’t try to meet anybody’s standards but your own.  Your history is rich and you have every reason to be proud of it.”

I launched my company, Onaturall in 2013. Onaturell is an all natural hair and skin care company. Last year we launched Onaturell Hairspa to offer a spa experience to our clients when it comes to taking care of their hair. Onaturell first started as a blog where I wanted to share my experience with natural hair with my followers. It quickly turned into a business when I realized that there was a great opportunity in Haiti because most of the ingredients I was using were not available to my audience.  So that’s pretty much how Onaturell started.

The beauty industry has a lot of work to do as far as decolonization. The beauty industry needs more diversity because those who are in charge of pushing what is fashion or beautiful are not people that look like us. I think a major part of the Haitian population still has the western beauty as their standard of beauty. This explains why you have so many bleaching of their skin, still perming their hair or using extensions . The idea that you can be  “Tet grenn “ and still be beautiful is something that is new to us . The closer you are to being light or having wavy hair, the more beautiful Haitian society thinks you are.

For the future of beauty and self love in Haitian culture- I dream of a Haiti where every color shade is celebrated, from the darkest to the lightest tone. A place where we learn to embrace the traditional styling that our ancestors passed down to us .

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D.S. Series Quick Dive:

• What does “decolonization” mean to you personally?

  No longer using western ideologies to define who we are, or should I say to validate our existence.

• What are you most proud of when thinking about being Haitian and Haitian culture?

Our history and our resilience. 

• If you were speaking to a group of elementary students about beauty, what is the message you would most want to share?

  Beauty starts from within and it is unique. Learn to love yourself first and do not compare it to anybody.

• We may have someone reading this who has suffered much pain from the lies they’ve been told and are just kicking off their personal decolonization journey. What encouragement can you give them? Where should they seek sources of truth and inspiration? 

You are on the right track , just be patient with yourself and take it one day at a time.  Inspiration should start from within. Practice self love first .

About Onaturell:

Onaturell is an all natural hair and skin care brand. All of our products are formulated in-house and we source ingredients from all over the world. Onaturell was founded by Christelle Dossous, a Cosmetic Formulator with a speciality in natural skin & hair products.

We are located at #56 Rue Chavannes in Petionville, Haiti.

You can call us to book an appointment at- +509  4216 2345

Introducing Fabiola Coupet

We are so excited to introduce you to Fabiola Coupet, the moderator of the conversations we will be having throughout this series.

Fabiola Coupet is a Haitian Radio talk show host in Port au Prince. A fresh female voice, she’s taken over Haitian radio airwaves with her afternoon traffic jam show and highly contagious laugh. She is also a communications professional, a seasoned content & copy writer and editor. On the air and in her practice, she is passionate about giving Haitian stories a voice.

Fabiola shared her thoughts on being a part of the series-

“Although Haiti broke free from it’s status as a colony to become the first free black republic in the world, as a people, we’ve got a lot of work to do to untangle the knots of colonization so deeply engrained in our minds. Colonization and slavery may have ended in 1804, but Napoleon sure left some us some heavy baggage to lug around these past 200 years. It’s time to put these old bags down, to peer into them and start peeling away at the complex layers. I’m excited to be a part of these chats with Haiti Design Co community, I hope they will help our friends around the world better understand our story and struggles as a people as much as they will serve our community. It’s time to talk decolonization and we all need to hear it.”

We are honored to have Fabiola with us for these important conversations and can’t wait to dive in.

The Decolonization Series will be kicking off this Thursday, July 16th at 4 pm EST on IG Live in an interview with Christelle Dossous over the Decolonization of Beauty. See you then!

Introducing the Decolonization Series

Dear HDC Fam-

I am probably most proud and excited about this project than anything we’ve done in a long time.

After the tragic murder of George Floyd, the world erupted with a long overdue racial awakening that has set the stage for honest & hard conversations around race and racial justice. Some of our network may think that the Black Lives Matter movement is one of controversy and limited to the United States. They may miss how the movement happening right now affects many countries and cultures across the world. The truth of our history is that white supremacy and colonization have formed the world as we know it.  This conversation will inevitably look different for every country and culture. 

In 1804 Haiti became the first Black Republic, as it was home to the first successful slave revolt in the world when she defeated the French. This revolt had a ripple effect as it pushed other nations to fight to end slavery as well. Haiti’s history is a worldwide symbol of Black liberation. 

However, today much of Haiti’s societal norms are entrenched in a mindset enforced by colonization, one of white aspiring, euro-centric ideals. This is not representative of every Haitian experience- because the Haitian experience is one that varies greatly. With that being said, a common experience for many of Haitian descent IS the journey of decolonization, one of unlearning the lies handed down by each generation that were enforced by the oppressor. 

While I am not Haitian, these conversations are ones that are near and dear to my heart. Since making Haiti my home in 2012, I’ve wrestled with the topic of decolonization so much within my personal life. I am thankful for the way that living in Haiti and many amazing friends have pushed me along the way to challenge what I knew to be true and ask the hard questions. On my journey, the work of decolonization, and unlearning a white centered foundation are hand in hand. Unlearning the false narratives and rebuilding with authenticity stronger than before. 

If you are white and follow along through this series, I ask you to engage with an open mind and intent to learn and understand from someone else’s perspective.

If you are Haitian or BIPOC, I hope that you at some point during this series feel seen, heard, and encouraged that you are not alone in your experience, while also knowing that your experience is going to vary from the person sharing. 

During this series you will be hearing from individuals with varying life experiences. Everyone involved is going to have different truths and perspectives. What you will hear is not the experience of myself, of Haiti Design Co, or of anyone else. It is the experience of the person sharing. So if at any time you feel uncomfortable, I ask you to sit in that discomfort before being quick to defend or debunk. This space is a space for unfiltered, honest conversations with Haitians and Haitian Americans. 

Lately we have received some pushback on vocally supporting the movement of Black Lives Matter. We’ve heard things like “You’re a fair trade accessories company, why do you need to talk about this?”. But the thing is, we exist FOR the PEOPLE behind the products. If we are not actively engaging in shifting the moral compass of our society, of breaking the colonial chains of white supremacy, or creating a world where our community can be fully SEEN, HEARD, and FREE, then we are not being true to why we exist at all. 

Thank you for being here! 

N’ap dekole! 

-Chandler Hamilton Busby

Founder, Haiti Design Collective 

2019 IMPACT

While 2019 brought hardship and turmoil in Haiti, it also brought incredible resilience throughout our family.
In the midst of it all, we saw growth. See our Impact from 2019 below.

BRIDGING THE GAP

Day 7: BRIDGING THE GAP

In our final day of #HDCFam Week we are focusing on the core value that brings us all together- bridging the gap for and with our artisan families. Today’s essay is written by Jerry, the head of quality control and a member of the leather team at Haiti Design Co.

“My name is Evens, but usually people call me Jerry. I have been working at HDC for a while now, and even met my wife there. She has a daughter that I feel is my own now, and we have our first baby on the way. I’m really happy to have them as my family. 

I manage quality control at Haiti Design Co., which means that I go through every single product to make sure they are perfect before we ship them to our customers. I also work with the leather team, and help lead tours when visitors stop by to see the workshop. I am also a designer, and HDC always provides opportunities for me to use my skills and create new designs.

Something that I really love about HDC is that most people who begin working with us have no idea that they have the ability to do great things, and have the potential to change their community, and then when they start working at HDC, all of these things are revealed. HDC has provided a lot of training, and has helped a lot of dreams to become a reality. 

One of my biggest dreams was to own my own house. My wife and I were always struggling to pay rent every year. Saving for the future isn’t something that exists in my culture or really is even a possibility, but after receiving training at HDC, this changed for me, and my wife and I began saving for our dream.

After participating for a while in a program that Haiti Design Co started called “Save for Tomorrow”, my wife and I sat down and talked with the HDC leaders about our goal of buying a house, and our financial plan to do it. They were so impressed with our motivation and how much we had saved, that they agreed to give us a loan to complete what we needed. 

A mutual friend of ours helped us find a house, and we bought it. Now we have our own house, and I am so proud of that. I really like our home because it looks like a cube, and at night there is a nice breeze that sweeps in and helps me sleep. It has been really fun to make our home more interesting. We have painted the inside white, have put down ceramic tiles, and have begun to purchase appliances. It’s a great feeling to not have to worry about next year’s rent, to not be so stressed, and to just feel so comfortable in your own home. Our home is the nicest house I have ever lived in.

I really appreciate HDC because it is such a unique organization in Haiti. HDC wants to see less people living in poverty, and more people living a vibrant life, but instead of just asking for charity, they instead ask people to take a look at the beautiful products that we create. I don’t have enough time to talk about all of the different things HDC does, but getting to talk about the dream that HDC helped me achieve is a pretty great thing that I wanted to share.