JIP 125: Gina Knight

July 13, 2022

Gina Knight: her life with alopecia

Gina Atinuke Knight is a British entrepreneur, model, content creator and alopecia advocate. After years of working in the beauty & hair industry, she discovered she had a form of alopecia, CCCA (Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia).

But before talking about that in detail, Gina starts by sharing about her Nigerian origins. She explains to us how in the 60s, 70s and 80s, it was not uncommon for Nigerian children to be fostered via newspapers in the UK. Gina therefore grew up with her private foster parents who were white. She shares how this affected the way she was brought up, and especially how it impacted her relationship with her own hair.

Even if she is now confident appearing online with a bold head, things were not that easy when Gina first experienced hair loss. Hair is such an important part of us, especially for women as it is often linked with beauty, feminism, sexiness. We discuss in length the effect of the messages communicated to us by the beauty industry and the impact it can have on women's confidence.

Gina also talks to us about her wig business, which started from a personal need. Finding wigs that matched black textured hair was not easy... so she decided to create her own. And after sharing about it online, she realized many other women could benefit from her creations.

We thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Gina, which was very informative for us and we hope will be for you as well.

Follow Gina on Instagram:
@ginaatinukeknight

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