Hi, can you see me now?

A reaction to the privileging of Western beauty ideals and (health)care practices in modern society, Hi, can you see me now? invites others to unlearn the ways they approach and understand their body and hair and the networks of care surrounding these aspects of the self. The project started as a self-practice for the designer, which involved unlearning the capitalist value systems of beauty and bodily-care techniques absorbed during Hwang’s training as a hairdresser and experience growing up in the United States. With our systems of care challenged by quarantine, digital interfaces and protest, the project proposes new potentialities for self-knowing and social intimacy through haircare.