Saudi singer TamTam is known for two things: her soulful, high-pitched vocals and her halo of gravity-defying golden curls. Born in Riyadh, the Los Angeles-based singer has gained a following for her socially conscious music and natural beauty – namely, the bleached, fuzzy coils that point to her Arabian roots.
For the unsigned singer, beauty and music are tied together. She launched her career with “Gender Games,” a song that explores the challenges she underwent as an unapologetic Saudi woman who shared her face with the world. The music video was a follow-up to her debut, “Little Girls,” where the she was blurred out because her conservative parents weren’t keen with society knowing her face.
Since then, the artist stopped caring what people think, and made it a mission to empower women and champion understanding in her music, all while letting her luscious spirals run wild and free. To care for her larger-than-life mane, the singer reaches for vegan haircare line American English. “I wash my hair twice a week because it’s really dry and curly, so it’s not good to wash it every day. On the days I do wash it, I sometimes put mayonnaise in my hair for 40 minutes to hydrate it, and then I wash it with American English shampoo and conditioner.” For hydration, she uses Oi Oil by Davines and allows her hair to air dry. “That’s it!”
TamTam has carved a signature voice – her single “We’ve Got Wings” was used for 10KSA, a non-profit organization founded by Princess Reema Bint Bandar that focuses on breast cancer awareness, and she’s performed at actor Geena Davis’s See Jane symposiums on gender equality in media. She’s also performed at the Bridges of Understanding Gala in New York honoring Arab fashion icon Reem Acra. TamTam is bound to gain even more attention when her enviable curls take center stage again for her new music video, “Identify Myself,” from her first EP of the same name, which comes out on the 28th.
Imaan Hammam serves major hair goals at Tiffany & Co.’s gala
