Instagram’s modern-day muse opens up to Alice Audley about business, branding and the future of being an influencer…
Photography: Linda Blacker
In a vast bathtub in the centre of a vintage hotel room, a pair of delicate legs emerge from milky water. Next rises a tiny torso shrouded in a blanket of thick, wet, silver hair.
‘This way,’ says the photographer and the woman turns her body towards camera. It’s then that you see her face. Impossibly symmetrical, with huge eyes and rosebud lips – it’s a face that has become one of Instagram’s icons. It’s the face of Nyané.
Despite having one million followers on Instagram, there’s something quite elusive about Nyané. Elusive and intriguing. Whilst with many other influencers, there is the feeling that you really know them, with Nyané there’s relatively very little to go on.
You know her face, you know she is a chameleon when it comes to hair colour, you might even know she owns a hair company (Temper)… but what she’s actually like, what she sounds like, who she’s friends with… is all a mystery. We (Blogosphere) wanted to investigate who this modern day muse really is…
Born in Lesotho, South Africa, one of five children (and a twin), Nyané Lebajoa, 25, moved to Wales when she was nine.
“It was definitely a better place to nurture my creativity. I’m not very good at maths and academic subjects – and I have to file complaints about people using my photos every week, especially hair brands that was what was praised and valued in Lesotho. If you weren’t good at them, you were looked down on,” Nyané remembers.
Her voice is a mix of accents; there are hints of American, Welsh and English. She speaks quietly but with confidence when telling her story. She’s switched on, reflective and business-minded.
“I first came across social media when I was fourteen, which is when I joined Facebook. I mainly used it to upload pictures; I suppose I used it in a similar way to how I use Instagram now, actually.
“The first time I came across the blogging industry was via Tumblr. My older sister had it and I would always say to her ‘what is this, it seems so weird!’ I didn’t understand it but I was interested so she suggested I should join it, and I did.
“I uploaded pictures on there and got a huge reaction. My following basically happened overnight. I put pictures up of myself and I would wake up the next morning and find they had 5,000+ notes. I didn’t really understand what was happening, but that was my first big social media platform.”
After finding success on Tumblr, Nyané made the move over to Instagram in 2014.
“I didn’t expect to grow a following quickly on there, but I think because I already had Tumblr lots of people moved over with me,” she says. Another reason for her growth, no doubt, was people regramming her images and tagging her. However, although the regramming started in earnest, as her popularity on the platform has grown, so too has the volume of people simply taking her image to market their own products without even tagging her.
“Sometimes I’m happy to be regrammed when I’m tagged in the photo because it’s good promotion for my account. But if they don’t tag me, I get very annoyed – especially if it’s a big hair brand because I have my own hair business.
“My issue is that brands typically pay for images. They pay for advertising campaigns for their products to promote them. They shouldn’t just be taking people’s pictures and posting them – it’s free advertising and it’s not beneficial to us [influencers] if we’re not tagged.
“I have to file complaints about people using my photos every week, especially hair brands. Reporting photos on Instagram is a long process; you have to upload your picture and show the date that you uploaded it and then they can remove the posts from other people/ brands.
“After you’ve gone through the process of reporting, they actually remove the images quite quickly though, which is good.”
It’s not just the constant use of her image that causes Nyané upset on Instagram. As her popularity has surged, so too has the levels of negativity towards her.
“The negativity that I experience on Instagram is getting worse. People know that they can say whatever they want and you can’t do anything about it.
“If you get angry or respond to it, people become even meaner. Most of the negative comments I get are based on aesthetics. People will also come into my DMs and say ‘you need to eat’.
“I eat a lot of food. If I eat any more I’ll fucking explode, you know?! So I try to tell people that just because I’m skinny, it doesn’t mean I’m starving myself to look that way. We all have different metabolisms – having to explain that over and over again to people can get exhausting.
“It’s body shaming. People don’t understand that telling someone they’re too skinny is just as hurtful as telling someone they’re too fat. You’re saying something negative to make someone feel bad about themselves.”
Despite the lows of being a prominent influencer on Instagram, it has given her the exposure and resources to set up her own company – Temper – where she sells custom-made wigs.
“I used my own money that I had earned through Instagram to invest and launch Temper. I started the company because I was constantly being asked about how I got my hair a certain colour and where I got my wigs.
“I did a few videos showing how I dyed the wigs and what products I used to get certain colours, but it was a long process and people kept asking me about my hair… so I decided to start my own brand. I come up with the colours myself, so I can create wigs and the people that follow me can then easily have the exact same hair colour as me.”
Temper launched in March 2019 [Temper is the second iteration of this type of hair business. The first – Mood, which was launched in October 2017, came to an end in 2018 after a board disagreement], and Nyané has big plans for its future.
“I want it to grow massively. I want to have a hair salon and already know how I want it to look – I’m hoping it will be in London or in LA.”
Although she has a business partner in Temper, her boyfriend (who doubles up as her manager) – Nyané does find it hard to delegate, and with her career as an influencer in her own right taking off, she is increasingly short of time.
“I find it really hard to get the balance between everything I do. I tend to do everything myself; I create the hair colours myself, I draw the illustrations for the Temper packaging, I manage orders…
“I do have a few people working for me now. One of my friends runs the social media and customer service, which is really helpful. But I am still trying to grow it and I want to get someone to help with PR next.”
Nyané is definitely more interested in growing her own brands than working as an influencer to promote other brands, however there are some opportunities that she has said yes to – such as the luxury fashion brand Revolve’s influencer trips.
“Revolve approached me about their influencer trips around three years ago, but I didn’t really know what it was about so I said no. But last year my boyfriend and I decided to go to Paris with them, and after that we’ve been on most trips with them.
“They’re pretty insane trips and the girls that work for Revolve are really nice – you can talk to them as a friend but also as someone within this business. It’s comfortable and not stressful.
“There’s no pressure to get lots of stuff done during the trip. They allow us to relax and create the content we want to, when we want to.”
Revolve trips are the anomaly for Nyané, though.
“Usually, I hate going on trips with other influencers because if I’m going to travel somewhere or shoot something, I want to have the location to myself so that I can concentrate on creating my own content.
“If you’re with other influencers in the same locations, wearing the same thing that really annoys me. Of course, with Revolve it does happen to an extent and you do end up in the same spots, but because everyone has such different style and we’re allowed to explore, it doesn’t end up looking so similar.”
The rise of luxury influencer trips is something that Nyané thinks needs to be re-evaluated.
“For the brand, it’s definitely worth doing big extravagant trips for influencers. But for the influencers, I really think it depends on what your interests are.
“Personally, it’s often not worth it. After a while, you do end up thinking ‘I can’t keep doing this just because it’s free.’
“Of course you get a free hotel and an amazing trip, but that doesn’t pay your bills. It’s good for showing off.
“If you’re one of those people who likes to show off, then influencer trips are great, but I want to share my passions and inspire people. I don’t want to make people feel jealous and I think a lot of people on Instagram do feel jealous now.
“They go online and see influencers constantly travelling the world and sharing experiences that they get to have for free – and they can’t experience that.
“So yes, it’s good for the brand, but it’s not always worth it for the influencer.”
Nyané plans to do fewer trips and collaborations in the future, and to really concentrate on expanding Temper.
“Collaborations can be good, but I see them as a short-term thing. If I work on my own brands, it’s a long-term thing – and I want it to have longevity because I am invested in it.
“If you want to last long term, it’s important to diversify your income. You need to expand out of Instagram and realise that there’s more to being an influencer than that. I think people are stuck in a rut of creating Instagram content because it’s the ‘in’ thing right now.”
As part of her expansion plans, Nyané also wants to show a bit more behind-the-scenes content around Temper.
“We’re thinking of showing more of the process behind creating the wigs as people will complain about the prices [$449 – $679] but they have no idea how much time and work goes into creating each of them.
“I want people to see how we source the hair, what we do and how we come up with the ideas. I hope that if we do that people will appreciate the business more.”
As for her personal goals, and what she would like her legacy to be, Nyané wants people to genuinely know the real her.
“I want people to like me and my personality. I don’t want there to be a disconnect between me and the people who follow me. I’m a real person, who works hard. I’m not just a face on Instagram.”