about
​In 2017, Denise started by doing her friends’ hair out of necessity with little knowledge of braiding. With time and practice, her self-taught skills improved quickly resulting in what you see today. Recognizing, from personal experience, the difficulty for black women to find decent hairdressers at reasonable prices, Denise decided to launch ‘Rafet Hair by Denise’ in 2019. Rafet was created not only to provide a professional hair care service including braids, twists, and natural hair styles, but also an enjoyable experience.
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“Rafet” is a Wolof word meaning “beautiful”. She chose this name as a means to disrupt the narrative often attached to black hair (ugly, unkept, unprofessional, etc…) which implies it is not “beautiful” unless it is tamed to fit white styles & aesthetics.
With “Rafet”, Denise uses her craft to showcase the beauty of black hair in all its complexity.
Her vision is to "highlight black hair one black beauty at a time".
GET TO KNOW DENISE
denise preira
Background / Origin story - I am 2nd generation Capeverdean-Senegalese, I lived in Tanzania, grew up primarily in the Netherlands, studied in Canada, I’m currently privileged to be working on the unceded, ancestral, and traditional land of the Musqueam people (in Vancouver), and I have a French passport...you can see why the “where are you from” questions are stressful. I think "third-culture kid" is a little limited so what do you think my cultured hyphenate/prefix could be? You can help me figure it out!
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Travel - I have travelled a lot but one place I really hope to visit one day is Cape Verde because that is part of my history and heritage.
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Food - If I could live off one food for the rest of my life, it would be FRUITS (if you think that doesn’t count we’re gonna have to fight) and fried plantain.
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Hobbies - I have probably watched EVERYTHING good (and maybe some not so great ones) on Netflix, that’s how much I love watching TV.
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I look forward to one day getting to know you too and help you love and care for your hair!
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xx Denise