Designer Tolu Ojesina’s Gift of Genuine African Style Accessories

By Nicole S. Daniel
The Birmingham Occasions

Tolu Ojesina’s head wraps and bonnets give a crystal clear description of who she is and what matches her moods.

“Some patterns are daring and vivid. Other individuals are extra subdued. All are gorgeous,” stated Ojesina, founder and creative director of Moadacrafts, a collection of African-print head wraps and bonnets.

All of her merchandise are handmade by a 25-yr-aged seamstress in Nigeria, the place Ojesina grew up sporting head wraps.

“They are standard attire for Africans,” stated the business operator, who can be identified advertising her head wraps at activities in the course of the metro region.

Most lately Ojesina was at this month’s African Heritage Pageant at the Birmingham Museum of Artwork and the Caribbean American Carnival Festival in Bessemer, Ala.

“African and Caribbean festivals are my favored for the reason that I get to join with Africans from the Diaspora to the Motherland in a quite concrete and significant way,” she said.

Timeless Trend

Throughout appearances, Ojesina teaches about many factors of African society, these types of as clothing, meals, coming-of-age rituals, classic wedding ceremony ceremonies, and a lot more. She also discusses the origin of African-print fabrics from Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and other nations.

Ojesina also delivers demonstrations on how to fold the head wraps. Asked about her strategy, she reported, “Wrapping and tucking is all you are accomplishing. It will take about 20 seconds regular. There are two items: 1 piece is a belt, and the other is bonnet, and that 1 does not have to have tying—just wrap and tuck.”

Head wraps have been a timeless manner pattern in the lives of African women for centuries, and their reputation has transcended African culture. Head wraps are classy, and they give an stylish appear to a woman’s face, come in a wide range of colors, and are really functional. Although many may wear them for manner explanations, head wraps and bonnets have develop into critical for girls of coloration who choose to wear natural hairstyles.

“When I lived in Boston, [Massachusetts], the cold was something intense,” said Ojesina, who moved to Birmingham in 2015. “I use my hair normal, and it commenced to drop and split. Head wraps had been the answer. My normal hair commenced to thrive.”

Wonderful Childhood

Ojesina, who grew up in the West African nation of Nigeria, is one particular of four siblings she is the 2nd child. Early on, her mother and father instilled the virtues of challenging get the job done and integrity into the youngsters. “My family members wasn’t loaded, but my siblings and I are intently-knit and understood we were being cherished,” she reported, introducing that she had a wonderful childhood.

Both of those of Ojesina’s parents have been in the residence, but her most vivid recollections are of her mother’s voice as she sang even though cooking. By the age of 10, she started to cook dinner supper just so she could sing just like her mother.

Ojesina was a sickly little one, and her earliest recollections are of hospitals. The visits, though repeated, had been enjoyable. She would normally see a kind pediatrician who was originally from India and who was her most important inspiration for pursuing a vocation as a physician.

Ojesina earned a clinical degree from the University of Lagos in 1998. A several months following getting married, her husband enrolled at Harvard for graduate university, and the few moved to the United States.

In 2008, whilst Ojesina was still dwelling in Boston, her mother passed away in Nigeria. “She was the most nurturing mother at any time,” stated Ojesina. “She was an outdated-university elementary instructor, a rigid disciplinarian.”

To honor her mother’s legacy, Ojesina commenced to design and style and generate reliable African-print fashion extras, these types of as sleeping bonnets, head wraps, and bowties, through the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Feel Like a Queen

Moadacrafts head wraps are crafted with colourful cotton African prints on the outside and soft satin on the inside of. Wraps can be utilized to secure a woman’s head from the warmth of the sun and can also be employed as a protective model for women with organic hair.

Her bonnets are exclusive simply because they are developed with large headbands to guarantee edge management, as very well as loads of home to comfortably fit in excess of massive curls and significant protecting types like braids. The bonnets are straightforward to slip on to safeguard tresses right away or to be applied as a fashion accent on a undesirable hair working day. Moadacrafts bonnets are built of 100 p.c satin to protect and retain moisture in the hair though sleeping. Satin has so a lot of terrific gains, Ojesina defined, because it shields hair from the dryness caused by friction amongst hair and dampness-absorbing elements, these kinds of as cotton. The material also keeps hair hydrated and reduces breakage, tangles, and thinning.

Head wraps and sleep bonnets perform an vital part in protecting all-natural curls, braids, and other models just as much as other solutions employed in a organic hair-treatment schedule. Apart from preserving hairstyles, head wraps and satin bonnets hold a great deal-required humidity in the hair.

“When I put on my head wraps, I truly feel like a queen, Nefertiti, and resurrected like the African that I am,” Ojesina stated.

To discover much more about Moadacrafts head wraps and bonnets, check out the Fb retailer at www.fb.com/Moadacrafts.