andra-avi

I'm a Black quoigender neuroexpansive nonbinary femme chronically illin' and devoted to the makings of meaningful living amidst a cosmos of change.


A child of Mercury, Moon, & Saturn, I was born with an incessant curiosity for languages and a heart for creative expression.


In 2018, I moved from Detroit to Chicago and found myself enraptured with the local natural hair scene and insistent on learning the language of tight curls.

I played all the roles in the industry that interested me: client, model, cosmetology student, personal and salon assistant, until I eventually graduated into a licensed independent stylist with a full-time business caring for and educating clients locally and abroad, in-person and virtually, and all within a span of four years.

Before I realized it, my entire life was consumed with tight curls——my own and my clientele's——and I felt trapped by the industry of it all, with little space for my own creative passions, so I left.

I retired in 2022 to go on an indefinite hiatus, and in the spring of 2023, I took Pepita Sandwich's online course,
"Creative Visual Diary: Learn to Draw Your Life", and embarked on a journey of daring to see myself in shape, form, and color, beyond my identity as an entrepreneur.

Since then, I've doodled, sketched, and rendered mixed-media iterations of me as I've fallen apart and reshaped myself, taught myself how to code so I could develop this website, and deepened my understanding of care beyond the salon chair.

After a 4-year long hiatus, I've returned from the void with a newfound sense of self, a robust and ever-evolving creative practice, and a renewed heart for my crafts and community.