In African society, beauty often means bending to globalised, usually Western, standards.
However, Nigerian entrepreneur Olivia Emeodi, popularly known as Livyland, is rewriting the narrative. From her Lagos-based salon, Captive Hair, she is quietly leading a revolution: one that encourages African women to fall back in love with their natural hair, unprocessed, unbothered, and beautifully their own.
“We’ve been taught that beauty must come with pain or with covering up,” Olivia says. “I’m here to say that African hair, in its purest form, is already stunning. We don’t need to become someone else to feel beautiful.”
That belief is more than a personal conviction, it is the foundation of her growing beauty brand. At Captive Hair, Olivia has pioneered over 10 faux loc styles and more than 15 signature loc techniques, all lightweight, painless, and protective, specifically designed to work with Afro-textured hair, not against it.
These creations aren’t just aesthetic innovations. They solve real, everyday problems African women face when it comes to haircare: painful salon experiences, breakage, scalp stress, and the all-too-common feeling of being disconnected from their own natural hair.
“So many protective styles out there are actually damaging,” Emeodi explains.
“When I started creating my own techniques, I wanted something women could wear with pride, and peace of mind.”
Her clients often walk into Captive Hair expecting a hairstyle. What they leave with is something far more meaningful: a sense of restoration, of identity reclaimed.
Emeodi’s work stems from a deeper mission to redefine beauty standards for African women, standards that have, for decades, centered on long, straight, and silky hair textures that reflect anything but African authenticity. For her, this isn’t just a trend; it’s a form of cultural resistance.
“African women deserve to see their natural hair as not just acceptable, but desirable,” she says. “It’s political. It’s spiritual. It’s personal.”
Faith is at the core of Olivia’s creative journey. She attributes her ideas, direction, and resilience to her Christian beliefs, describing her salon as a space inspired by the Holy Spirit as much as by design.
“God gives me wisdom,” she shares. “This is more than business, it’s a calling.”
That calling is expanding. In addition to her work in beauty, Olivia is also a recording artist, having just released her debut single, a project she says is another dimension of her Afrocentric storytelling. Whether in the salon or the studio, her mission remains consistent: celebrate African womanhood from the inside out.
She’s also the founder of Captive Mag, a digital platform highlighting trends, stories, and creative talent across the African beauty space. Through it all, her ambition is clear: to restore the pride and joy that once defined African hair, before colonization and assimilation blurred the mirror.
“In five years,” she says confidently, “Captive Hair should have captivated the world with Afro hairstyles.”
Her vision isn’t about creating yet another beauty empire, it’s about building a movement that makes women feel whole again. “I want to be remembered as the Cupid who shot the arrow of Afro hair love back into the heart of Africa,”she says, smiling.
As more African women search for authentic ways to express their identity, Olivia Emeodi is meeting them at the intersection of culture, creativity, and confidence. And she’s doing it one strand, one style, one song at a time.
