Disabled representation in beauty still has a long, long way to go, but every now and then there are glimmers that things are going in the right direction. Beyond Vision, a new short film courtesy of charity Hair & Care falls into this category.
Founded in 2019 by hairstylist Anna Cofone – whose handiwork you’ll recognise on artists like Lana Del Rey and Margaret Qualley as well as for brands including Chet Lo, Erdem and Sinéad O’Dwyer – the initiative’s purpose is to make space for blind and low vision women to feel empowered in the fashion and beauty industries.
“We’re a really long way off having all brands, whether it be fashion or beauty, be completely inclusive and accessible and we need to get there,” Anna tells GLAMOUR. In the six years since the project has been running, it has helped hundreds of visually impaired women via its monthly self-care workshops – to give them confidence and make them feel seen and heard in the beauty space.
To celebrate five years of Hair & Care, Anna and team wanted to mark the milestone with a special moment – making way for Beyond Vision, created in collaboration with director Hector Hilleary. “We got to a place where we thought it would be wonderful to create a film and do a photoshoot to give these women and young girls an opportunity to experience what it feels like to have their hair and makeup done and to be photographed,” Anna says, “but also for them to share their experiences and give insights into the power that this had on them. That’s how the film came together.”
Featuring familiar faces like blind broadcaster and activist Lucy Edwards as well as wider community members from the Hair & Care initiative, the short film takes you behind the scenes of the photoshoot while spotlighting intimate moments with the participants. It’s both touching and insightful, dispelling fallacies that blind and low vision people don’t care about beauty or their appearance – told via a diverse range of voices from different backgrounds.
Following the release of Beyond Vision, we speak to the hairstylist to discuss the impact of the film on the blind and visually impaired community and how the initiative is pushing for more accessibility in fashion and beauty.
What was the inspiration behind launching Hair & Care in 2019?
My father had retinitis pigmentosa and he was very passionate about his self-care. Growing up and observing the way he carried himself, his grooming ritual seemed to be the thing that mattered to him the most. I remember vividly seeing the effect it would have on him when people commented ‘Giuseppe, what a beautiful suit’ or ‘Giuseppe, you smell so good.’
Being a hairstylist in the fashion and music industry and working with artists like Lana, you really see the transformative effect that hair and makeup have on people, but both industries can be so exclusive and not inclusive or accessible for blind and low vision people. In 2019, I was at a place in my career where I wanted to find a different purpose and add a deeper meaning to my work – I thought about how powerful it would be to bring my skills as a hairstylist to blind and low vision women and teach them how to style and care for their hair.
How have the workshops you’ve run had an impact on the blind and visually impaired communities?
A lot of what we talk about is the lack of representation, but it’s also a lack of people feeling like they’re in the same room with others like themselves because that equally creates confidence. In 2025, we’ve reached over 500 women and young girls through our in-person workshops we hold once a month as well as webinars and in-person visits to various organisations around the country.
The film was an opportunity to hear and understand the impact, but we see it on a monthly basis. There was one particular woman who was so shy when she started coming to the workshops, but she’s become the life and soul of the group because she’s gained confidence and comes in feeling empowered. It’s a testament to the power that industries can have on people when they are valued and seen as an important part of the conversation.
The day of the shoot looked like such a wonderful display of community, what was it like to be there?
It was such a wonderful day and you can see it in the film, there were smiles all around. We pride ourselves in making sure that everything is thought through. We did role playing with the hairstylists where I made them close their eyes and guided them to a chair to make them feel and experience what it’s like to not have any vision coming into a room and then we got them to reciprocate that by guiding me with my eyes closed to help them understand what’s accessible language. Doing that with the hairstylists, makeup artists, stylist, interviewer makes the blind or low vision person feel welcome and included and creates a wonderful environment where everyone is really happy to be there.
The women and young girls that were in the photo shoot got to experience something really memorable and I don’t think any of them had had their hair and makeup done or had their photo taken so it was incredible for them because it was a first. It really added to them feeling seen and valued. It was wonderful to be able to provide that and it’s just a simple thing, but it is so necessary to give fashion and beauty a deeper purpose. It can be very materialistic and superficial, but we all get up in the morning and look at ourselves in the mirror and have a profound connection with self-care and the way we look and we all know what it feels like when we don’t feel good about ourselves.
You’re also using Hair and Care as a way of making fashion week more inclusive. What can you tell us about the work you’ve done and what you have coming up for the SS26 shows?
As part of our work, we’ve started to make shows accessible at London Fashion Week. Our first one was in February 2024 with Sinéad O’Dwyer and today we’ve done six shows that we’ve made accessible with various touch points in the lead up to the show and one the show day.
Before the show, our blind guests get invited to the designers studio to meet the designer and hear about the inspiration behind the collection as well as getting the opportunity to feel certain pieces from the collection.
On the actual day of the show, we gather everyone an hour before where we have a listening experience of the designer speaking about the fabric swatches to help them paint a much clearer picture of what to expect once they go into the show. We also create a booklet of fabric swatches. Once they’re seated in the show space, we give them headphones and they listen to fully described looks in real time as the models are walking out. It’s important to create this understanding and bring this conversation to designers so they can learn how to make their shows inclusive and accessible.
What positive impact have you seen from these inclusive moments?
There is this acute perception that blind or low vision people don’t care about how they look or fashion and that couldn’t be further away from the truth. We had a wonderful woman who works at the Royal National Institute for the Blind and was born blind and deaf who loves fashion and is so stylish. She came to Chet Lo’s show on the back of experiencing the accessibility that we provided. She ended up buying three or four pieces and that’s the power that we want to bring to fashion brands to understand that the purple pound is huge – it’s worth trillions globally. We want to help brands understand that the blind and visually impaired community want to be able to buy clothes or experience a show and feel like they’ve been considered and valued as a legitimate customer.
How can fashion and beauty brands implement more accessibility into their offerings?
The key thing is learning how important it is for their brand to become accessible and the impact that it has on the community they’re serving. In understanding and creating the necessary changes, we will see a ripple effect that we’ve been witnessing with the Hair & Care workshops. I also feel that they need to not be fearful. Obviously there are huge financial impacts for any brand that is making change, but once you’ve made it, it’s just a continuation of that.
We started off with Sinéad who is a Newgen designer and then more recently we did the Roksanda show too. This coming SS26 season we’ve also taken on Erdem – we’re seeing more luxury brands coming on board. It’s a sign that we’re going in the right direction. We know that making a fashion show accessible is not the fundamental change for visibly impaired people to feel completely considered, but we hope that the impact will start these internal conversations for brands to make long-lasting changes and come to us to consult and support them to implement those changes.
Beyond Vision is a milestone five years after founding Hair & Care. What are your hopes for the next five years?
I’m feeling really proud and grateful for the response, but I’m also a little like: ‘What’s next? How do we get ghd, Dyson and every hair brand to have accessible packaging and tools? How do we get even more people in the room?’ I’m proud, but I’m not content because there’s still so much to do.
I don’t think we can make changes unless we make people feel uncomfortable, because it’s only when people feel something that they then start to question and react. For all industries – fashion, beauty, hair – it’s all about money, but let’s actually make you feel something because you’re not considering the 2.2 billion blind and low vision people there are in the world. We got to hold the brands accountable and I think that’s by making them feel something.
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