To me, Chrystèle Saint Louis Augustin was THE model of the 90s in spite of the fact that she wasn’t a household name like Naomi or Iman. I still remember the first time I saw a photo of Chrystèle. I was in college so I had no money and once again found myself at the bookstore flipping through fashion magazines that I couldn’t afford to buy. She was in an ad for Ghost, a half body shot of Chrystèle against a dark background. Her fair skin was practically glowing but what stood out to me, and just about everyone else, was that magnificent hair. As flawlessly beautiful as she is, her natural hair made her something more than just a pretty face, it practically had its own personality. She would say in Vibe Magazine that when she first started doing runway shows people “wanted to touch me, and I'm, like, `Wow, it's just hair. Calm down!' " Her hair wasn’t an accessory or a fad, it just was. Reading her comment on how she thought “straight hair was really ugly [and] suits the white girls but…[not] my hair,” was downright revolutionary thinking for me. I’d struggled for years trying to keep my hair in check, which meant dousing it in lye every few weeks with awful results. Chrystèle became my role model and gave me the final dose of courage I needed to chop off every last bit of relaxer in my hair and start over. Looking at old pictures of her always brings back those memories and makes me smile. If I could get motivated enough to copy her ridiculously toned abs, I think it would elevate me to the superhero status.
Photo source: modeldatabase, TFS, CSLA Livejournal
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