My name is Christelle Dossous. I am 30 years old and grew up in Port au Prince, Haiti. I left Haiti after graduating from high school to study in the United States. I moved back to Haiti in 2013 and still live here today. I am the youngest of four children in my family, 3 boys and 1 girl.
Growing up I though I needed to look a certain way in order to be accepted in the society. I thought my hair was too kinky so I had a perm at the age of 11. It wasn’t until I went to University in the US that I began my decolonization journey. I went to a French school in Haiti where Haitian history was not taught. All I knew was European & US history. I took an anthropology class in college and that’s when I began to see things differently. I realized how much I was blinded and how much work I needed to do to value my own culture, but also myself.
If I could speak to my younger self, I would want to tell her-
“You are enough just the way you are. Don’t try to meet anybody’s standards but your own. Your history is rich and you have every reason to be proud of it.”
I launched my company, Onaturall in 2013. Onaturell is an all natural hair and skin care company. Last year we launched Onaturell Hairspa to offer a spa experience to our clients when it comes to taking care of their hair. Onaturell first started as a blog where I wanted to share my experience with natural hair with my followers. It quickly turned into a business when I realized that there was a great opportunity in Haiti because most of the ingredients I was using were not available to my audience. So that’s pretty much how Onaturell started.
The beauty industry has a lot of work to do as far as decolonization. The beauty industry needs more diversity because those who are in charge of pushing what is fashion or beautiful are not people that look like us. I think a major part of the Haitian population still has the western beauty as their standard of beauty. This explains why you have so many bleaching of their skin, still perming their hair or using extensions . The idea that you can be “Tet grenn “ and still be beautiful is something that is new to us . The closer you are to being light or having wavy hair, the more beautiful Haitian society thinks you are.
For the future of beauty and self love in Haitian culture- I dream of a Haiti where every color shade is celebrated, from the darkest to the lightest tone. A place where we learn to embrace the traditional styling that our ancestors passed down to us .
D.S. Series Quick Dive:
What does “decolonization” mean to you personally?
No longer using western ideologies to define who we are, or should I say to validate our existence.
What are you most proud of when thinking about being Haitian and Haitian culture?
Our history and our resilience.
If you were speaking to a group of elementary students about beauty, what is the message you would most want to share?
Beauty starts from within and it is unique. Learn to love yourself first and do not compare it to anybody.
We may have someone reading this who has suffered much pain from the lies they’ve been told and are just kicking off their personal decolonization journey. What encouragement can you give them? Where should they seek sources of truth and inspiration?
You are on the right track , just be patient with yourself and take it one day at a time. Inspiration should start from within. Practice self love first .
About Onaturell:
Onaturell is an all natural hair and skin care brand. All of our products are formulated in-house and we source ingredients from all over the world. Onaturell was founded by Christelle Dossous, a Cosmetic Formulator with a speciality in natural skin & hair products.
We are located at #56 Rue Chavannes in Petionville, Haiti.
You can call us to book an appointment at- +509 4216 2345
