Aminata Sambou, at the origin of TransformaTresses

At the origin of TransformaTresses lies the journey, experience and perspective of Aminata Sambou.

Born in Senegal, Aminata Sambou came to Europe at the age of 19 to continue her studies. Before settling in Belgium, she lived in France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Her personal story, her experience of migration and her close observation of social realities have given her a particular sensitivity to issues of dignity, work, emancipation and recognition.

When she arrived in Europe, she braided hair herself to finance her studies. Over the years, she also met many African hair braiders, observed their working conditions, their places of work, their difficulties, but also their skills, their courage and their important role in the daily lives of many women and families.

This immersion made her aware of a paradox: real expertise, sometimes highly technical, largely passed on informally, but practised without genuine institutional recognition, without suitable training and often in precarious conditions.

This reality was one of the first motivations behind the TransformaTresses project: to contribute to better recognition of the profession of hair braider, to better working conditions, and to the creation of training programmes truly adapted to curly, coily and kinky hair.

But Aminata Sambou’s view of this issue does not only come from the professional side. Since childhood, she has also known this reality from the point of view of the people whose hair is braided. In Senegal, like many girls, she grew up with braids as a common practice, at once cultural, aesthetic and practical in everyday life.

She recalls that her parents used to take her to hair braiders before each new school year, and that these hairstyles represented not only beauty, but also a real time saver in hair care.

Living in Europe and then in Belgium, she also observed the difficulties faced by many people of African descent and mixed-race people in finding quality hair care truly adapted to curly, coily and kinky hair, both for themselves and for their children.

When the offer is insufficient, not very professional or not attentive enough to the specific needs of clients, the women, girls and families concerned are left to manage on their own for what is nevertheless a concrete and everyday need. This question of service quality, listening and respect for textured hair is now fully part of TransformaTresses’ mission.

First trained in accounting, and then active for 25 years in the insurance sector, Aminata Sambou has concrete knowledge of the importance of declared work, social protection, coverage in case of accident or illness, and rights that are built up over time, such as pension rights. While working, she also obtained a Master’s degree in Economic and Social Policy at UCL/FOPES.

This journey allows her to bring together lived experience, social reflection and an understanding of economic, legal and institutional issues.

With TransformaTresses, she wants to contribute to the emergence of a fairer framework for professions linked to curly, coily and kinky hair: better recognition of skills, better working conditions for hair braiders and professionals in the sector, but also better access for clients to quality, respectful, suitable and genuinely professional care.

The ambition is social, professional and cultural at the same time: to make a need visible, to value practices that have long remained in the shadows, and to help develop a more inclusive offer of training and care.

TransformaTresses is therefore the continuation of a personal commitment that has become a collective project: to advance the recognition of the profession of hair braider in Belgium, while contributing to a more serious, more accessible and better adapted service offer for the realities of curly, coily and kinky hair, for adults as well as for children.