No Age to Beauty
Evangline Mensah-Agyekum (2022–Present)No Age to Beauty by Evangeline Mensah-Agyekum :: Supported by FRFF (#2022-015) from STUDIO for Creative Inquiry on Vimeo.
“No Age to Beauty” is a documentary film that seeks to unravel the intersection between age, beauty, culture and legacy through the lens of Black women with gray hair. In western culture beauty is synonymous with youth. Advertisements, social media, and patriarchy create false standards for women to uphold and maintain a certain level of beauty which equates to youthfulness. Aging is unavoidable. When looking at Black women and aging in the media, one of the phrases that always comes up is “black don’t crack.”
This phrase adds to the pressure and expectations of Black women to always look younger than their age, making it difficult to embrace their gray hair. Hair care has always been a point of pride and contention in the Black community. Despite the natural hair movement, a movement that celebrates natural hair textures, the acceptance of gray hair has been largely overlooked. “No Age to Beauty” seeks to bridge that gap by highlighting the personal stories and experiences of Black women with gray hair in a way that empower viewers to reflect on and embrace the natural changes of life. This project was made possible with support from the Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art @ the Frontier grant #2022-015.