Charlotte Mensah marks 40 years in hair with new exhibition

Hairstylist and entrepreneur Charlotte Mensah will celebrate four decades in the hair industry with Charlotte Mensah: Community Matters (CM:CM), a mixed-media retrospective opening at London’s Ladbroke Hall from 8 to 13 September 2026.

The exhibition will also mark 25 years of Mensah’s Notting Hill salon, Hair Lounge and the 10th anniversary of her Charlotte Mensah Manketti Oil product range.

The Ladbroke Hall exhibition will use photography, film, archival material, personal artefacts, soundscapes and installation to trace Mensah’s journey from her childhood in Ghana and upbringing in 1980s north-west London to a career specialising in Afro and textured hair.

It will examine the relationship between hair, heritage, identity and self-expression, placing Afro hair within wider discussions about culture and belonging. The exhibition will also consider the commercial and community structures that have supported Mensah’s four-decade career.

CM:CM is curated by Madeleine Haddon, Senior Curator at V&A East, with exhibition design by Jacqueline Douglas. Both are long-standing friends of Mensah and clients of Hair Lounge, bringing direct experience of the salon and its community to the project.

“This exhibition is about much more than hair. It is about heritage, resilience, creativity and community,” said Mensah. “It is about celebrating the people, places and experiences that have shaped my journey, and recognising the role hair plays in how we express who we are.”

Mensah said Haddon had curated her story with care, while Douglas had designed the space to reflect the warmth and welcome associated with Hair Lounge.

Loïc Le Gaillard, founder of Ladbroke Hall, Carpenters Workshop Gallery and Sunbeam Project CIO, said the exhibition connects Mensah’s career to Ladbroke Grove’s wider creative community.

“Ladbroke Grove has shaped some of the most significant cultural figures in this country, and it is a privilege to host an exhibition that places that history, and Charlotte’s place within it, on public view at Ladbroke Hall,” he said.

Mensah trained at the London College of Fashion in the late 1980s under hairstylist Winston Isaacs before establishing Hair Lounge on Portobello Road. She has since won the British Hairdressing Awards’ Afro Hairdresser of the Year title three times, securing a place in the British Hairdressing Hall of Fame.

Her business includes the Charlotte Mensah Manketti Oil range, developed for Afro, mixed and curly hair, and Good Hair, her bestselling book published by Penguin. Mensah has also written about natural haircare since 2005.

A supporting programme at CM:CM will include talks, conversations, workshops and live cultural events spanning beauty, business, music and the arts. Further information about the programme, community events and ticketing will be announced ahead of the exhibition.