Behind the scenes with jay birmingham at the black panther premiere

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to dominate screens when it’s released in cinemas on 11 November. And as the cast reunited for the Premiere on Thursday 3 November in London’s Leicester Square, Celebrity Hairdresser, Jay Birmingham reveals how he created his red carpet glam looks on Maya Jama and Alex Scott.

Maya Jama

“Maya wore a stunning floor-length, red gown with an eye-catching design and necklace that did all the talking to complete her red-carpet look at the Black Panther premiere. With this in mind, I wanted to create a soft, sultry and understated sexy hair look for her to compliment this. The overall finish of her hair was undone and effortless which worked perfectly with her outfit to balance it out,” says Jay.

“Firstly, I created a soft curl through Maya’s hair to give texture to the hair up, and movement to the pieces of hair that would fall to frame her face. I used a small tong to create this through her hair before creating the shape of the updo. I carefully secured this using grips and then teased pieces of hair to fall around her face and towards the back to give the effortless chic feel.”

Alex Scott

“Alex wore an incredible, embellished jumpsuit for the Black Panther premiere. It was sleeveless and we wanted to pair this with a hair up to ensure her collar bone popped and showed off her gorgeous decolletage. To control the texture, and reduce flyaways, I prepped the hair to ensure it appeared super sleek. I then styled her hair using a straightening iron.

“My top tip when straightening hair for an occasion like this, is to ensure you don’t pass the hair through the iron too many times. This can create unwanted lines in the hair and it’s best to gloss over each piece lightly just once or twice. This was especially important for this look as we left out two significant pieces of hair at the front.

“To finish the look, I ensured her hair glistened under the flash of the cameras as it gives the hair that expensive look.”