Hamdi Osman: Marking Pop Culture Moments on Hair

Hamdi Osman paints what scares her, recreating scenes from Goosebumps #44 (1997), Sinister (2012), and The Conjuring (2013) onto wigs that look ready for both a runway and a resurrection. Her work fuses pop culture and the macabre, beauty and terror, the everyday and the uncanny—fear is something to wear, not avoid, in her world.

At 25 years old, the Dallas-based Somali hair artist has carved out a singular space for her work, one where internet virality, horror fandom, and beauty come together. “People recognise their favorite movie or video game covers recreated in intricate detail on my hair, connecting over a shared love for the storytelling and creativity behind it,” she says.

Osman’s most viral moment came at the Louvre, where she walked into the Paris museum wearing a Mona Lisa (1503) painted across the back of her head. Crowds gathered. Phones rose. Her tour guide joked that more people were photographing her than the da Vinci original. She plans to do the same for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) in one of her upcoming projects, visiting the film set while adorning her latest artwork atop her head.

“My inspirations come from many eras and mediums,” explains Osman. “A great deal of my 3D art was learned through Shinji Konishi. I also draw from the aesthetics of the early 2000s, classic and modern horror films, music albums, video games, and artists like Claude Monet.” The result is a style that feels like an editorial-internet-age remix.

She started small, painting roses on blonde hair stitched under a black wig. As time went on, her work became more intricate, graduating from flowers to movie posters to video game art, teaching herself new techniques along the way. “My creative process is fuelled by a mix of curiosity, the challenge of turning bold ideas into reality, and the possibilities of hair as a canvas all push me to experiment further.”

Each wig starts off as a blank canvas, she tells Dazed MENA—sometimes made from human hair, sometimes synthetic, which then becomes a three-hour process of sketching, stenciling, and painting. She switches between hair dye and acrylic paint, depending on the material, building layers until her image comes to life. Elected bests include her recreations of The Grudge (2004), The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (1974), and Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893).

In 2024, Osman showcased her work at Hyphen Space in Dallas, marking her first exhibition alongside local artists. “It was inspiring to see my creations in dialogue with theirs and be part of such a fun creative space,” she says. “I hope to see the SWANA region’s creative and cultural scene continue to flourish. I’d love to see its unique traditions and stories inspire new art that resonates both locally and internationally.”

In a beauty world still obsessed with polish and perfection, Osman’s work is gloriously tactile and alive. She paints what authentically inspires her and, in doing so, can make even horror look beautiful. “Ultimately, I see myself reshaping how people view hair as a canvas for art, using it as a platform where imagination, identity, and culture collide in unexpected ways.”