I was born and bred in Wasmuel, a small, working class village in Belgium. I grew up to the sound of the hustle and bustle of my mother’s hair salon situated in the entrance of our family home.
“Coiffure Nanda” is the story of the women who have come to my mother every week since she first opened her salon 40 years ago.
Every week they are present, come rain or shine and sometimes even in ill health. They come to socialise and swap stories. The salon is a friendly, vibrant place but it can also provide a moment of solitude for reflection and transformation.
All the women in this story are aged 60 or over and come from working class backgrounds.
If, for some, coming to Nanda is purely a functional exercise, others come to look and feel good. They want to please themselves and others. Their quest for beauty & coquetry is engrained in their being. It is part of their lives, a weekly ritual that has spanned decades.
Gianni Soglia
