Ledisi knows a thing or two about love and loving life. The Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, author and actress is known for her soul-stirring ballads about romantic relationships as well as soaring anthems that explore loving and celebrating yourself.
These days, Ledisi has much to celebrate. With her critically-acclaimed rendition of “Precious Lord (Take My Hand)” for the Ava DuVernay directed film SELMA, sold out shows on her #TheIntimateTruthTour with fellow artists Raheem DeVaughn and Leela James and becoming the new face of Design Essentials Naturals, 2015 is proving to be icing on the cake of an already delicious career.
BlackDoctor.org recently caught up with the Oakland, California loc star to talk about being an ambassador for natural hair, weight loss and learning to love herself.
BDO: Congratulations on becoming Design Essentials Natural first Beauty Ambassador! How did this partnership come about?
Ledisi: Frank Sheifield, who owns a hair salon in Washington DC called Epiphany Salon with his wife Tika, who is also one of my hairstylists. She introduced me to their products and their distributor in that area.That is where my relationship with Design Essentials began, but it would take 3 more years after that before we actually started to really connect.
BDO: Your locs have become a signature look – what inspired you to take the loc journey?
Ledisi: I’ve always been a naturalist since I was little. My mom wore an afro and celebrated being black and beautiful. So that’s all I knew until I was pushed into the world [laughing]! I’ve had one perm my entire life and a lot of childhood memories with a hot comb. An ex-boyfriend had long thick Bob Marley locs and it fascinated me how beautiful I thought they were. I wore my hair in Bantu Knots and naturally my hair would loc together. I would take it apart and one day I just let them loc. And that was the beginning of my journey wearing locs.
Ledisi: “It’s Time To Love You How You Love Everybody Else” was originally published on blackdoctor.org
