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Texture Diaries is a space for Black people across industries to reflect on their journeys to self-love, and how accepting their hair, in all its glory, played a pivotal role in this process. Each week they share their favorite hair rituals, products, and the biggest lessons they’ve learned when it comes to affirming their beauty and owning their unique hair texture.
Nischelle Turner always knew she wanted to be a journalist. But she didn’t imagine one day becoming the first Black woman to cohost Entertainment Tonight. “It only became a full-circle moment for me a couple of months ago,” says Turner. But she’s long been on the path: She won awards for her coverage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and worked as a contributor for CNN before joining ET. In her spare time, the Columbia, Missouri born-and-raised reporter is cohosting The Big Podcast with Shaquille O’Neal, sharing her workouts on Instagram, and leaving everyone wondering about her shiny hair secrets.
“My earliest hair memory is growing up with these sandy curls and kids calling me Garfield,” Turner recalls with a laugh. “I also remember being very tender-headed. I would go to my aunt Lizzie’s house to get it pressed.” When she internalized the teasing from other kids, Turner’s mother would reassure her and remind her of her beauty.
A few days before she left for college at the University of Missouri, Turner cut her hair. “It was definitely scary and I had a bit of an identity crisis after that,” she recalls. “I rocked it short for a while, but I didn’t really know my own texture until it began growing out.” Early in her career, she didn’t feel she had the freedom to do whatever she wanted with her hair. But when she arrived in Los Angeles to work for KTTV, Turner began to see “all different types of people on TV,” giving her the confidence to explore her hair in a new way.
During her time at Fox Sports and CNN, Turner started playing around with straight styles, extensions, and protective styles. When she first began working on ET, she did her own hair. “I didn’t have a stylist at the time who really knew how to deal with my hair, so the easiest thing for me to do was wear it curly and do it myself,” she explains. Her go-to products include Jane Carter Solution Wrap & Roll Smooth Styling Mousse and Milkshake Leave In Conditioner for refreshing her curls, while Pattern’s hair serums lock in moisture.
These days Turner doesn’t worry as much about the stress of prepping her hair. She’s found joy in exploring her texture, from big curls and “snatched” ponytails to sleek, straight looks and even “dyeing my hair back the color it was when I was a child,” she says. “I’m just learning to love what I have, and it’s freeing in a lot of ways.”
