ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Guylaine Conquet

Guylaine Conquet is a French visual artist, activist, and cultural ambassador based in the United States. A former journalist in French television and radio, she transitioned into painting to tell stories of Black identity, natural hair, and resilience. She is also an educator, teaching high school students and leading lectures at colleges and universities on the theme of hair identity. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Miami, Paris, Atlanta, New York, and London. In 2024, she initiated the French anti-discrimination bill that recognized hair-based discrimination in workplaces and schools. Through art, books, teaching, and cultural projects, she inspires others to embrace their heritage with pride.

"I understood that my hair, my nose, my skin, everything about me was wrong. I had to straighten, lighten, and deny myself to be acceptable."

— Maryse Condé, Tales from the Heart

Why This Book Matters

"The Spirit of My Hair"

What does it mean to carry history, identity, and resilience in your hair?

In The Spirit of My Hair, artist and activist Guylaine Conquet delivers a powerful memoir that reclaims the beauty and heritage of Black hair. From her childhood in France, through her career in French television and radio in Guadeloupe, to her transformation into an acclaimed visual artist in the United States, Conquet reveals how hair has shifted from a source of embarrassment to a crown of pride.

Part memoir, part cultural history, and part call to justice, this book shines a light on:

• Black Hair Identity: how hair shapes self-love, confidence, and belonging.

• Heritage & History: the ancestral traditions woven into braids, Afros, and natural styles.

• Discrimination & Resistance: the colonial roots of imposed beauty standards and the global fight for recognition, including Conquet’s initiative in France’s 2024 Anti-Discrimination Bill.

• Art as Activism: how painting, storytelling, and cultural advocacy create spaces for healing and pride. With lyrical prose and unflinching honesty, The Spirit of My Hair celebrates resilience while exposing the struggles Black women continue to face in a world that too often demands assimilation.

If you believe that hair is more than style—that it is history, heritage, and spirit—this memoir will inspire you to embrace your crown with pride.

Art That Reflects Every Shade of You

Celebrating Every Shade of Identity

ART AS HEALING

After thirty-five years of chemical straightening and extensions, I began to paint my journey toward accepting my natural hair moving from rejection to pride. On canvas, curls became a vocabulary and texture became truth. What I couldn’t say out loud, painting could: my hair was not a problem to solve but a story to remember, a language to relearn. The Spirit of My Hair began there as a practice of repair art as a quiet clinic where shame fades, memory returns, and dignity stands in full color.

ACTIVISIM FROM CANVAS TO CONGRESS

Painting and my years in journalism taught me discipline: research, layering, revision. I carried those skills from the studio into civic life. Stories became briefs, portraits became testimony, and the personal became procedural. In France, I pressed for legal recognition that hair bias is not a matter of style but a violation of rights. Step by step, we helped shift standards so that dignity is not only displayed in a gallery but enforced in schools, workplaces, and public institutions. The Spirit of My Hair is both a book and an action plan art that argues.

WHAT I'M FIGHTING FOR

I’m fighting for the right to show up whole: identity affirmed, health protected, history taught, discrimination ended. That means ending policies that penalize texture and protective styles; demanding product transparency and safer standards; and building the evidence data, case studies, and guidance that turns lived experience into lasting protections. The goal isn’t permission; it’s parity. The promise is that the next generation won’t have to transform themselves to be seen.

GET IN TOUCH

For media requests, school visits, or community events, please connect with us:

Phone

(1)7865677079

Email

book@guylaineconquet.com

Address

Atlanta Georgia USA