‘The Hair Shop’ explores Black-owned hair salons and features interviews with those who run them along with some of Ivy’s peers, as they discuss how salons have helped shape their identities.Kalungi and her interviewees describe the hair salon as a beacon of culture, providing care, community and conversation that ranges from advice and family life to heritage and politics.
The film portrays the hair salon as a culturally important space, somewhere that can offer a meaningful experience in a similar way to what a gallery or museum can. Alongside the film, the installation includes objects and materials that you’d find in a typical hair salon, including mirrors, hair extensions, hair sprays, and more.
The Hair Shop was featured as part of our exhibition Just Browsing, which was shown from Sat 25 Oct 2025 - Sun 12 Apr 2026.
Ivy Kalungi’s practice centres on storytelling through materiality and collaboration, shedding light on the nuanced complexities of identity and belonging. Through sculpture, installation, video, and social practice, she explores themes that navigate the intersections of migration concerns, identity construction, and symbolism, which have shaped her personal philosophy.
Janaya Pickett is a historian, writer, archive specialist, archivist and researcher, and is currently a Research Associate at the University of Liverpool. She's also an expert on the Liverpool born radical teacher and political activist, Dorothy Kuya, and a leader of walking tours of the city, exploring stories and histories, especially those connected to colonialism, slavery and the black Liverpool experience.
Laura Yates is the Head of Participation at the Bluecoat, and also works as a socially engaged practitioner, producer and writer. She was raised in Liverpool in a hair salon run by her mum and auntie, and has a long history of hairdressing within her family.
