How this 7-year-old boy is changing the modeling industry with his beautiful long hair
- Farouk James is a 7-year-old model from London whose long, curly hair has made him an Instagram star.
- He's encouraging people to embrace their natural hair.
- His mom, Bonnie, takes care of his Instagram account — and his hair.
Farouk James is a 7-year-old boy from London. He's famous for his long curly hair, which has made him an Instagram star and has even led him to walk the runway at London Fashion Week.
"We have a lot of positive messages to share with people which are about to be yourself, to be confident to be different, embrace who you are. And especially with boys. Every boy's entitled to have long hair, short hair," his mom, Bonnie, told INSIDER.
The success of his account is due to his mom, who takes care of the photos and posts them on social media (along with taking care of his hair, of course.)
"Farouk was born with a lot of hair. In fact, even when I had a scan done when I was pregnant, at about six months, you could literally see it floating around in the womb."
Farouk was signed with a model agency since the age of six months. "I think the hair was at a reasonable length then for him to be a boy with hair," she said. "It was like the cliché bold-style afro."
"Because it wasn't really accepted, especially at that time, for boys to have long hair."
As his hair grew longer and longer, Bonnie was pressured to get Farouk a haircut as the only way to him on the scene, but she never gave up, and in a few years Farouk's hair became sought-after in the industry.
"Nowadays, people are trying to get that sort of length hair. It's really cool that the fashion companies want that look. They want that androgynous look to be a little bit different."
Produced and filmed by Claudia Romeo
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