Estrop/Getty Images By India Espy-Jones ·Updated February 12, 2026 /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

Last night, Public School—a CFDA award-winning fashion brand founded by Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow—presented their first New York Fashion Week show since 2017. Calling in a star-studded front row, including Monica, Vashtie, and Sergio Hudson, the men’s show titled “Everything Is Now” was a homecoming for the brand. And, with half the models being Black men, it was also a love letter to Black hair.

The hair styling represented a necessary pause. Amidst the uncertainty and chaos of today, Chow says the inspiration around the hair was about being present, yet ready for whatever is to come. “Our guy, our protagonist, he’s ready, he’s made up, he’s sharp, he’s on point, everything about him is ready for battle,” he tells ESSENCE exclusively. “It’s such a wonderful opportunity to work with such a visionary like Lacy Redway,” who was the lead hair stylist for last night’s show. 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 11: A model walks the runway at the Public School show during the New York Fashion Week February 2026 on February 11, 2026 in New York City.(Photo by Estrop/Getty Images)

“We have barbers, we have people that can braid, we have locticians, we have curls and coils,” the show’s lead hairstylist Lacy Redway says backstage. Using TRESemmé’s Dry Texturizing Spray, she achieved a look she calls “the power slick”, which is a sleek, polished style in an ode to a city that, the show notes says, is “furiously marching towards a new day.”

For the foundation, Redway used a

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