There were cameras, conversations and plenty of personal style at London South Bank Technical College on Tuesday 15 September, as an ITV team visited the Nine Elms campus to interview students for World Afro Day.
The photography studio on the top floor provided the setting, with students stepping in front of the camera to talk about their Afro hair and its place in their lives. From family connections and cultural roots to everyday style, the interviews offered an opportunity to explore a subject that can mean something different to everyone.
With an ITV presenter asking the questions and the film crew capturing the conversations, the focus was firmly on the students: their experiences, their perspectives and the stories they wanted to share.
A celebration with meaning
Held annually on 15 September, World Afro Day celebrates Afro hair, culture and identity. It brings people together through education and celebration, encouraging greater understanding and recognition of Afro hair.
It is a subject with plenty of room for both thoughtful discussion and enjoyment. Hair can hold memories, reflect cultural traditions and provide a connection between generations. It can also be a creative outlet, with the freedom to experiment, develop a personal style and choose how to present yourself to the world.
For some people, those connections are closely linked. A hairstyle can be an expression of individuality while also reflecting something shared with parents, grandparents or a wider community. For others, the starting point might simply be liking how their hair looks and feels.
World Afro Day makes space for that variety. There is no single story that captures everyone’s relationship with their hair, which is why hearing directly from individuals matters.
Students in the spotlight
At London South Bank Technical College, the interviews explored what Afro hair means to the students themselves, including its connections to family, style and culture.
The visit gave them an opportunity to contribute their voices to a wider conversation. It also offered a glimpse of television production in action, with the college’s photography studio becoming the setting for interviews recorded by a visiting broadcast team.
There is something particularly fitting about exploring personal style in a space usually devoted to creating images. On this occasion, the cameras captured the conversations behind the looks as well as the looks themselves.
The photographs taken during the visit offer a behind-the-scenes view of the filming, showing the students being interviewed and the ITV team at work in the studio. They also record a different kind of campus experience: a chance for students to share something personal beyond their subjects and timetables.
Making room for individual stories
College life brings together people with different backgrounds, traditions and ways of expressing themselves. Opportunities like this create space to discover more about those experiences, including aspects of identity that might not come up in an everyday classroom conversation.
Taking time to ask someone what their hair means to them can open up a discussion about much more than appearance. It can be about belonging, creativity, family or the confidence to develop a style of their own. Listening to those individual answers is part of understanding the people who make up a college community.
The video and photographs from the day provide a chance to enjoy a look behind the cameras and recognise the students who took part.
Thank you to the students for sharing their experiences, and to the ITV presenter and crew for visiting London South Bank Technical College. It was an opportunity to put student voices in the spotlight — with plenty of personal style along the way.
