Shakira on “Pelo Bueno” and Her New Ulta Beauty Line, Isima

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Show me a curly-haired girl, and I know immediately: that’s someone who’s had a complicated relationship with her hair. Curly hair is never just hair — it’s a history of unlearning and relearning. Behind every curl is a memory, a myth, a story, and the journey of growing to love what once needed to be tamed.

Even Shakira — whose goddess-like curls are as iconic as her voice — has been there. After years of experimenting with treatments, products, and even collaborating with a pharmacist to develop her own customized formulas, the Colombian singer dreamed of a line that could serve other curly-haired girls — especially Latinas — who’ve long struggled to find products that truly meet their needs. Enter Isima, a new line of science-backed, innovative products made for curls, available only at Ulta.

Unlike most curly-haired Latinas — especially those from her generation — Shakira’s struggles with her hair didn’t stem from the cultural pressure to style it straight. While she occasionally wore a sleek style or fresh blowout, she mostly embraced her natural texture, especially when she began performing live.

“I guess I didn’t have a choice, because when I’m on stage, I need to feel empowered — I need to feel true to myself,” she tells PS. “I’m free. I cannot wear super high heels. I cannot wear a wig.”

Shakira’s complicated hair journey was brought on by the damage that came with coloring, heat styling, and treatments like Brazilian keratin.

She shares that her healthiest hair days were before she started coloring it — when she still wore her natural color.

“It used to be, believe it or not, really dark — almost black,” she says. “[It was] very shiny and wavy. I had soft waves. I guess with years and hormonal changes, the texture changed quite a lot. It has become a little more curly, I would say, and even frizzier.”

True Shakira fans who have been following her career and listening to her music since the “Pies Descalzos” and “Dónde Están Los Ladrones” days remember her long dark hair as much as we remember her red hair phase.

“I had decided to bleach it and make it bright red [and] obviously, to go from almost black hair to red — I had to really bleach it. So, my hair suffered a lot, and that was kind of the beginning of the end,” she says with a laugh. “But it was still a very important part of my identity. That was around the time I did MTV Unplugged, and I did it with a kind of punkish, reddish hair that sort of represented an era and a period in life. The way I wear my hair has a lot to do with the way I feel. It has always been a huge part of my identity.”

While many curly-haired women — including Latinas and Black women — proudly embrace the phrase “I am not my hair” (a nod to India Arie’s iconic 2006 single), plenty of us also recognize the deep connection between our hair, our identity, and how we show up in the world. Shakira herself has admitted in interviews that cutting her hair into a short lob was one of her biggest regrets — she just didn’t feel like herself. As a curly-haired girl with even tighter curls than Shakira’s, I relate. Every time I’ve chopped my long curls into a lob, it’s felt like I’m losing a superpower. It’s women like us — Latinas like us — who inspired Shakira to dream up a line that truly understands and serves our hair’s unique needs.

“Women like us are underserved, in a way,” she tells me after complimenting my waist-long curls — a mix of 3B and 3C spirals.

I didn’t always hear compliments on my hair; in fact, I grew up hearing I had “pelo malo.” For those unfamiliar, pelo bueno (“good hair”) and pelo malo (“bad hair”) are terms rooted in colonial Latin America, dating back to the Casta system — a racial hierarchy imposed by the Spanish that favored proximity to whiteness. Coily and curly textures were often associated with the hair of enslaved Black people and deemed undesirable, a harmful legacy that has continued to shape Latin American beauty standards. But in the past decade, younger Latinas have begun to reclaim and redefine those terms, including Shakira, who believes good hair simply means healthy hair, period.

“Pelo bueno is hair that’s bouncy — [it’s hair] that is natural. [Hair] that makes you feel confident and that is healthy,” she says. “So, it doesn’t matter what texture your hair is. It just needs to feel like you give it some love.”

“Pelo bueno is hair that’s bouncy — [it’s hair] that is natural. [Hair] that makes you feel confident and that is healthy.”

With curly hair being especially vulnerable to dryness and breakage, Isima is focused specifically on deep hydration and repair.

“This is inspired by Latina women because in my community, there’s so much diversity. In Latin America, you find all kinds of textures,” she says. One of Shakira’s favorite products in the line is the Súperbomba Triple Repair Peptide Mask ($38), a rich, deep-conditioning treatment that checks all the boxes. Formulated with patented nonapeptides, hydrolyzed soy and rice proteins, and a unique glyconabond complex, this product is designed to nourish the scalp, repair hair bonds, and deliver intense hydration after every wash. Shakira uses it once a week, leaving it on for five to 10 minutes, depending on her schedule.

And while countless celebrities have launched beauty brands, few deliver the way Isima does. Shakira truly thought through every step of wash day — a ritual she calls sacred.

“The day I wash my hair, I know I’ll get at least five minutes of peace where my kids won’t interrupt my shower,” she says. “My assistant isn’t allowed in. So, I need those minutes to really count.”

From start to finish, she considered it all. Instead of offering just one shampoo, Isima includes two. There’s Reset ($32), a clarifying shampoo that deeply cleanses the scalp without stripping the hair. Then there’s Riquísima ($32), a hydrating shampoo infused with Mexican aloe extract that gently cleanses while replenishing moisture — ideal for following Reset.

Shakira is also the first curly-hair brand founder to launch a blue shampoo specifically for color-treated curls — a game changer, considering how harsh most blue and purple shampoos can be on textured hair.

There’s also Suavísima ($32), a rinse-out conditioner so hydrating that I’ve been able to skip the hair masks on busy wash days and still have silky, soft curls.

For styling, Shakira likes to apply Curls Don’t Lie ($32) — an appropriately named curl cream — on soaking wet hair, scrunching it in before sealing everything with Delicia Reparative Hair Oil ($36) for an extra boost of hydration.

“I know for some people it feels heavy but no, I need that,” she says. “I think women like us need more. It’s like the phrase — less is more. But it doesn’t apply to hair like ours. We need more. We need more hydration, more moisture, more performance, more strength — all of it. “

The line also includes All In ($32), a restorative leave-in conditioner that can be used in place of the curl cream or layered with it for extra hydration. It’s lightweight enough for looser waves but rich enough to deliver serious moisture. Then there’s Iconic ($42), a scalp serum designed to hydrate, soothe, and balance the scalp while promoting stronger, healthier, and thicker strands.

As for the name Isima, let’s just say it wasn’t chosen at random. In Spanish, “ísima” is a superlative suffix that inspired the names of her shampoos and conditioners — as in riquísima (very rich) or suavísima (very smooth). Shakira brought that same level of thoughtfulness to the packaging: the shampoos and conditioners come with both pump dispensers and fully removable caps, allowing you to get every last drop.

As someone who grew up in Dominican hair salons, where I would get my curls blown out straight every weekend to hide any trace of texture, I rarely saw celebrities openly inspire others to embrace their natural hair. There was a specific way I dreamed of wearing my curls — long, flowy, and full of definition. But very few celebs at the time reflected that vision. The only ones who came close were Keri Russell in “Felicity,” Jennifer Freeman, and, of course, Shakira.

So the fact that one of my actual hair icons not only launched a curly-hair line designed specifically for women like me but also sat with me and personally walked me through what products would work best for my spirals felt surreal. It was an honor.

“I have 30 years of a career making music, and I feel like I have a certain credibility. I want to make sure that these products deliver what they promise,” she says. And honestly, the quality speaks for itself — it’s clear she’s been preparing her whole hair life for this moment.

Johanna Ferreira is the content director for PS Juntos. With more than 10 years of experience, Johanna focuses on how intersectional identities are a central part of Latine culture. Previously, she spent close to three years as the deputy editor at HipLatina, and she has freelanced for numerous outlets including Refinery29, Oprah magazine, Allure, InStyle, and Well+Good. She has also moderated and spoken on numerous panels on Latine identity.

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