Challenging stereotypes: a beauty salon for everyone

At the 'Grand Beauty' salon in Leipzig, people with a refugee or migrant background work as hairdressers, make-up artists, and manicurists on a donation basis, with the goal to uproot prejudices. Mara Hesse is a freelance make-up artist and anti-racism activist. As a Muslim woman born in Germany, she herself has experienced discrimination time and again. That is why she works as a make-up artist in the 'Grand Beauty' salon in Leipzig. Performance artist Frauke Frech founded the salon with the idea to use the body-related services to create encounters and conversations that would otherwise not take place, and to break down prejudices. After all, xenophobia is a problem in Leipzig-Grünau, where the salon is located.