Laura Bibbs Embraces Her Curls After Years in Classical Music

Laura Bibbs performs eight shows weekly, Wednesday through Saturday nights, as trumpet player and composer with Harry Styles at Madison Square Garden for a nine-week residency. At 29 years old, she’s solidified her place in one of the world’s most iconic arenas, where she not only supports Styles’ ensemble but also delivers a vocal performance alongside saxophonist Lorren Chiodo on the hit “Sweet Creature.” While her musicianship has earned recognition, her hair, now a defining visual element on stage, has drawn equally enthusiastic attention online and from Allure, who highlighted her talents alongside her striking curls.

From High School Dream to Professional Reality

Bibbs decided during high school that trumpet performance would be her only professional path, making it her singular life goal to play at a professional level. That commitment eventually carried her to sold-out performances at one of America’s most famous venues, though her original aspiration was different. “In high school, I had decided that this was the only thing that I wanted to do, and I made it my life’s goal to play trumpet professionally,” she explains.

The Classical Music Aesthetic

In those early years, her visual presentation was tightly controlled. Her hair stayed slicked into a neat bun, anchored with pearl earrings. That styling was calculated. “Historically, Western classical music is conservative,” she reflects. “It’s very European, Caucasian-looking, so being a Black woman in the orchestra was already an anomaly. A woman playing trumpet is uncommon, but then to be a Black woman playing trumpet is extraordinarily uncommon. I wasn’t trying to stand out all the time.” Through high school and college, she straightened her hair, conforming to an industry aesthetic that felt safer than distinction.

The Journey Toward Natural Hair

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The Turning Point of 2022

Around 2022, while touring with Harry Styles on Love on Tour, which ran from 2021 through 2023, Bibbs began experimenting with her natural curl pattern. Her approach during this phase remained tentative. “I was in my early 20s, and I was so scared of everything, and I didn’t want to do much,” she recalls of that era. Her early explorations involved braided styles and heavy glitter on her face, techniques that represented trial rather than refined artistry. That same year brought what she describes as the catalyst moment: a stylist gave her “a very bad balayage,” a single-session lightening that pushed her natural color to an extremely pale blonde. “It was devastating,” she says.

Recovery and Rediscovery

Rather than accept that damage, she sought repair. About a month after the balayage, she found a new stylist specializing in curl recovery through Keratin treatments. Against the odds given the extent of damage, this specialist revived her curl pattern. “It was the first time I appreciated what I had,” Bibbs reflects. That stylist also taught her foundational styling techniques, including the use of a dime-sized amount of gel combined with a quarter-sized amount of leave-in conditioner, worked through her curls.

Wearing Curls on Stage for the First Time

The real breakthrough came in 2024, when she performed with Mumford & Sons wearing her full, unstraightened curls on stage. “I made it my goal to just be,” she says of that decision. “This is who I am. My natural hair is curly, it’s really big, and I’m just going to start performing this way. It was scary and uncomfortable at first.” That vulnerability transformed into confidence. “It’s been this ongoing thing of me just being like, no, just do the natural look, rock it.” What enabled this shift wasn’t impulsive courage but rather deliberate engagement with her hair’s needs. “I started learning more about my hair type and texture and what I need to style it, and I think that that helped me fall in love with my curls being out,” she explains.

Building a Routine That Works

Her research into curl care led her to Shea Moisture, specifically the brand’s Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen & Restore leave-in conditioner, which became her go-to product. She also keeps Kurl Fusion Multitextures Gel Cream as a styling staple. She washes her hair once or twice each week, a frequency she arrived at through prolonged experimentation. “It’s taken a while to know what’s right for me and it’s been a journey of trial and error,” she says. “I research products, which could have perfect reviews, so I try it and then maybe it just doesn’t work for me, and that’s okay. Dialing in my routine has been a process of accepting not every product is going to work for me.”

Stage Expression: Color, Confidence, and Glam

The Together, Together tour provided an environment conducive to pushing self-expression further. The stage design featured encouraged dancing, abundant lighting, and club-inspired electronic elements that invited performers to take aesthetic risks. For the first time, Bibbs introduced bright red into her hair via braids that glowed under the stage lights. The shift in confidence was immediate. “I felt like I had this confidence in a different way,” she says. “I was like, Oh, I’m this new character that I haven’t seen or felt [before], and I thought that was a cool thing to live and experience.” Her initial reaction had been nervousness. “I was really nervous and uncomfortable when I first got them done, because I was like, This is so out there for me. I wear black, I like being invisible, but now I want to try it again and try different colors.”

Bibbs doesn’t apply her own stage makeup; that role belongs to Ayae Yamamoto, the hair and makeup artist for the ensemble. The transformation affects her performance confidence significantly. “When my glam is right and my hair is right, I definitely feel way better and more confident going out there,” she says. She didn’t grow up wearing makeup regularly and has learned performance makeup through direct experience. “I didn’t grow up wearing makeup. I don’t really wear makeup on the regular. Learning what I like in performance makeup and what looks good on me has been really helpful in feeling like myself on stage.” Her current stage aesthetic centers on bold eyeliner paired with bright sparkly eyeshadow and face gems, elements coordinated with the tour’s visual direction.

Adapting Across Different Artistic Visions

Off stage, her look remains understated; on stage, she follows the creative vision of her current artist. When touring with Mumford & Sons, the wardrobe and aesthetic leaned heavily into denim, Levi’s, earth tones, and black. “I loved because that was the vibe at that time,” she says. The transition to working with Styles required a complete recalibration. “Now I’m in this new era where I feel like I hung up my Levi’s jackets and my boots, and it’s cool to feel like I’m stepping into other people’s artistic palettes.”

The Late-Night Wind Down

After each MSG performance concludes, Bibbs makes her way back to Brooklyn, typically arriving around midnight. Her post-show routine is deliberately restrained for someone who’s just performed to a sold-out crowd. She snacks, decompresses, and then tackles the removal of stage makeup, which requires patience given all the glitter and gems. She applies Caudalie oil makeup remover to dissolve eye makeup, then showers with cleansers to wash away the remaining sparkle. Only then is she ready to rest, until the next performance begins.

Source: Allure