In Africa, mental health remains largely taboo. Seeing a psychologist means exposing yourself to judgment, being seen as fragile, or simply not being able to afford it. For women in particular, spaces for free expression are rare. At home, you stay silent. At the market, you stay guarded. But in the hair salon, something is released.

HEALING SPACES: HAIR AS THERAPY documents this reality. A photo series shot in Abidjan, following hairdressers and their clients through those suspended moments between hands and words. Hours of braiding become hours of confession. The gesture becomes care. The salon, an improvised, warm, communal space.

To photograph this is to address a social reality that concerns me directly as an African woman. It is to refuse the invisibility of African women’s inner lives. And to say that healing, sometimes

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