It always starts with a DM. A saved Reel. A friend who just touched down from Jozi, edges laid, cornrows on point, and wild stories about rooftop parties in Maboneng.
Then it turns into a plane ticket. A whole trip. Not for safaris. Not for sunsets. But for braids. For real hair. Hair that tells stories. Hair that holds history. Hair that doesn’t bow down. Right now, a whole wave of Afro-Brazilians are pulling up to Johannesburg—specifically to Maboneng—not just to vibe, but to connect. It’s deeper than Instagram aesthetics. It’s about bringing hair back home, about tapping into roots that colonialism tried to erase.
It’s culture on the scalp. It’s Black joy, beauty, and heritage—braided up.
At the centre of this movement is Lebohang Motaung, the visual hairstylist and artist who treats every braid like a brushstroke. Her work blurs the line between hair, art, and ancestral magic—museum worthy, but still available for appointments in the heart of Jozi. Backing this cultural wave is Kolene, a curly hair brand partnered with fragrance house Symrise. But this ain’t just about product. Their latest collab flew in a whole squad of Brazilian creatives—an influencer, a film crew, and mad love for African hair culture.
They weren’t here for polished, salon-glossed, Eurocentric styles. They came for the raw. The real. Downtown Jozi’s type of hair game—twisting, coiling, living.
Maboneng is the perfect stage: Art district. Street style. Underground galleries. Braiders posted on every block.
Pop-up shebeens. Walls dripping with graffiti. Here, you see the past and the future braided together, side by side.
On any given weekend, the queues are long—local queens and global travelers alike—waiting for their turn in the chair. Waiting for hands that carry generations of technique and tradition. Because in Maboneng, hair isn’t just style—it’s statement, it’s resistance, it’s art.
For Afro-Brazilians, this trip is personal.
Centuries of slavery and colonization cut them off from their roots. Now they’re coming back—not just to visit, but to remember.
“It’s more than getting my hair braided… it’s like touching my ancestry,” one traveler said.
“It’s remembering what I wasn’t allowed to remember. It’s tribal.”
Through CURIOCITY Africa and Brafrika—a Joburg-based travel collective built on connection and counter-narratives—the Brazilian crew linked up with Jabu Stone, one of South Africa’s OG natural hair pioneers. His brand was one of the first to tell Black South Africans: love your hair, no chemicals, no apologies.
They also spent time with Lebohang Motaung, whose braiding literally lives in art museums. Yet her studio remains open to the people—that’s the vibe. In Jozi, hair is income, art, resistance, and flex, all in one.
The trip wrapped up at South African Fashion Week—because obviously. Braids hit the runway. Locs told stories.
Edges were laid with ancestral pride.
What’s happening in South Africa is a whole movement, pulling in the diaspora—especially from Brazil, where Black hair is still policed and pressured into Eurocentric molds. Now, Brazilian women are crossing the Atlantic to Maboneng for box braids, meeting stylists who turn scalp into statement, shooting Reels that rack up views, and creating content that heals while it entertains.
This isn’t just about hair. It’s about history, healing, aesthetics, and identity. CURIOCITY is out here curating these journeys—bringing the curious to the culture, one braid at a time. If you’re trying to tap in, hit up www.curiocity.africa or follow @experiences_by_curiocity to see what’s next.
Because sometimes the freshest fade or the tightest cornrows are more than style—they’re a homecoming.