LaTisha Chong, a hair stylist who most recently completed the hair for Serena Williams’ appearance on the September 2022 cover of Vogue, passed away at the age of 32 after a protracted fight with breast cancer.
Chong was a member of a wave of young black women that revolutionised the fashion business by creating hairstyles for sportsmen like Williams and actress Tracee Ellis Ross as well as celebrities in the fashion world.
She was born in Trinidad and Tobago and immigrated to the US with her family when she was six years old.
Prior to beginning her career as a professional hair stylist, she served in the U.S. Air Force after enrolling at the age of 19.
2014 saw her get an honourable medical release from the military.
She obtained her degree in biology from Charleston Southern University, a Christian institution, in 2017.
When Chong was eleven years old, she started sweeping the floors in a salon. Over time, she worked her way up and learned the ropes from her mother, a hair stylist.
Chong was up seeing the neighbourhood salons in Brooklyn’s Flatbush that served to a mostly Caribbean clientele.
In our community, black hair is a family thing, my sister Afesha Chong told the New York Times.
“On Saturdays, everyone visits the salons, and you learn to nourish not just your hair but also your spirit.” Latisha immediately figured it out.
When she became a stylist, she collaborated with Michelle Jones, whose Brooklyn salon Thee Salon is famous for its distinctive short haircuts including the pixie cut.
The New York Times quoted Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, an editor at Vogue, as saying, “She was one of the tradesmen behind the fashion imagery — the editors, photographers, stylists, and makeup artists — who are expanding the visual landscape to include the people who have always been at the forefront of style… with a lot of us from the diaspora investigating and interrogating our blackness in a very white industry like fashion.”
She really had a talent; it seemed as if she could imagine a whole map in her thoughts. Her whole family owns a salon. LaTisha was both gifted and talented, which is something that hardly everyone had.
In an interview with Vogue, singer, artist, and family friend of the Chongs Ian Isiah remarked, “She literally just ruled over both and we mourn her.”
LaTisha had a keen eye for detail, a strong sense of perfectionism, and a laser-like concentration on how to complete tasks. Model Paloma Elsesser remarked, “She was one of the first persons from whom I felt a sort of security while I was on set with her.
She could sense when I was feeling scared or when I needed a little additional encouragement, and she knew what music to play to get me going. She genuinely saw me without me having to communicate my needs. And those are only a few of the ways she made a difference in everyone’s life.
Just weeks before she passed away, Chong was seen by nail artist Dawn Sterling.
LaTisha was a perfectionist, a genius, and she was frank and unvarnished. A week or two before the Vogue cover shoot, her kid had a birthday party, and when I arrived with my daughter, she was picking Serena’s wigs at the bowling alley.
She was unable to move or speak much, but she was still plucking desperately for her life while carrying her purse and tweezers, and I thought, “This person is so iconic!”
The Serena Williams Vogue cover was her final significant assignment before her disease brutally rendered her mute and confined her to a wheelchair.
Chong was well-known for working with a variety of models and notables, including comedian Ziwe, South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech, and playwright Jeremy O. Harris, in addition to her work on Vogue covers all around the globe.
Harris paid homage to his pal in a TikTok video that he released.
I found out this morning that Latisha Chong, who I loved dearly and considered a wonderful partner, had died away, and I just wanted to lie in my bedroom and watch TV and weep and think about her today.
Latisha was the person I knew who had the most life and joy, so I reasoned that I should go out and honour her right away and post a short TikTok online that has some of my favourite hairstyles that she created with me. I cherish you, sis.
Makeup artist Raisa Flowers discussed her last project while Serena Williams was being photographed.
Despite being in poor condition, she made sure to participate in the shoot. She acquired all these hair alternatives and spent time dying them since she had a concept for the hair, creating it with all the colours that Serena liked. She was a pro with wigs; getting black women’s hair to look flawless and lovely for photo shoots is particularly difficult, according to Flowers.
She cleaned, braided, and took great care of Serena’s hair since she was equally passionate about hair maintenance. Although the covers we’ve created together have been excellent, this particular one was especially noteworthy.
Malachi, Chong’s 12-year-old son, her parents Darlene and Garrick, sisters Afesha and Tenisha, and her are all left behind.