Janaya Future Khan Opens Up About “Glow-Up” Skin Care and the Beauty of Being Non-Binary

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Hey everyone, I am Janaya Future Khan,

and these are my beauty secrets

or handsome secrets

or beautiful boy secrets.

Either way, it's how

to keep my skin feeling nice and fresh.

Despite the fact that sometimes I'm up

to three in the morning,

'cause I'm writing

or because of some kind of protest,

and also how we keep these locks nice

and moisturized and that twist out fly,

so that the haters can keep saying our

beautiful lion's mane out in the world.

All right, let's do this.

Every morning I get up,

I end up doing a hundred pushups

and so I need water immediately.

So that is number one on the beauty secrets.

God's juice, water. [sips water]

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So get that in

and get that in as much as you can.

And then I need a whole work

of proteins and greens,

so I use Amazing Grass,

the protein supplement

and the Green's food supplement.

So I put it in my shaker cup here,

and I got to get the greens

and do that,

pop that in there.

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We'll get back to the skincare just...

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So I actually start

with a little bit of rose water

and I just, [water spritzing]

spray that on my face.

And I think it makes,

it makes me feel good,

I feel good about it,

kind of prepares me for what's next.

Which is this guy right here,

I love this cleanser,

it's really sensitive.

It's really kind to my skin,

and I just kinda throw some of that on right there,

get that little glow up.

My skin is very sensitive.

The thick skin that it takes

to do activist work is really a metaphor.

Getting the rose water

and using this really sensitive cleanser,

it just helps to kind of neutralize?

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I like to stay as natural as possible,

and one of my favorite things

to use actually is just aloe straight from the plant.

I put a little bit on,

especially in the parts

that are very, very, very sensitive.

I rub that in there.

And you wanna just give that

a couple of seconds,

or minutes ideally,

to just settle and you can always feel

that it's sort of tightening of the pores.

'Cause aloe is just such a natural astringent.

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I like to think that beauty is non-binary.

Just like me.

And we get to choose however we relate to it,

and however we enter the conversation.

And it doesn't have to be something

that is so highly gendered.

'Cause when I think of beautiful,

people are never more beautiful to me,

than when they're doing what they love.

I grew up with sort of weird looking.

You know I was straight up and down,

I didn't have all these curves,

and I wasn't very feminine.

So I grew up actually understanding

that I was ugly.

And I spent a long time believing that.

And I think so much

of adulthood is unlearning.

And then I sort of got into,

I grew into myself.

And I felt more confident,

I sort of embraced that non-binariness.

So I've had this aloe on,

for maybe a few minutes,

it feels good and tight,

so let's wash this off.

A little bit of aloe got in my mouth.

That's gonna happen on occasion.

And the worst that it tastes,

the better it is for your skin.

So I am suffering at the moment [laughs]

I'm suffering with you.

I'm glad that we can be

in this struggle together.

I am going to pop on a little bit of retinol.

I just pat that in there,

and it's so thick

and rich and hydrated.

And then because it's so thick,

I love having a hydrator like this,

give it one right there.

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I like what I like.

And I don't like to change.

I actually use this.

I got it at target.

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Having a skincare routine actually,

I really struggled with how to do it at first.

Not because there's some kind of science to it,

because it takes time, you know?

But then I thought,

I'm really great at taking time

to drink a bunch of water

which we're gonna take a moment

to do right now,

[bottle shakes, closes]

And I'm good,

at taking protein.

So why, why was skincare hard?

And I realized,

it's because I had sort

of internalized this thing

where it was really feminine to do.

And I somewhere along the line as I got older,

I had sort of deprioritized it,

as something unnecessary.

And how boring is that?

Imagine that there are billions

of people on the planet. Billions.

And that the story that we're told is

that there's two genders,

and two sexes,

and one sexuality.

How boring?

Now, so when I started to realize

that some of my relationships through care of self.

It was informed by these really dated

in our care and understandings

of what masculinity or femininity was.

It was just, you know,

it needs to go.

I think that we should get rid

of the parts that don't work,

and keep the parts that do.

Having done all of that,

I'd like to throw this guy in,

seal that moisturizer in there.

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Next important thing.

Maybe the most important thing, sunscreen.

I actually just got this

at Whole Foods

and I just like it.

It's really thick.

Now, remember you have

to figure out what a of sunscreen

that works for you.

I like something

that literally feels like

a huge like paste, [muffled sound]

I just wanna feel protected.

Have I always worn sunscreen?

No. I had to figure that out

because I didn't understand.

I really did not understand

that my skin needed it

at the level that it did.

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Last night I washed my hair

while it was wet,

I brushed it out after I washed it,

and then I put in this conditioner,

this is great to set twists

to leaving in.

You need leave-in conditioner.

Especially if you have hair texture like mine,

because washing is fantastic,

but it sort of also strips the hair

and our hair is so sensitive.

It requires so much care.

Once you're done,

you always wanna make sure

that your hair is sort of,

covered and protected,

and so I have my,

have my durag on that I slept with,

also I just love the paisley pattern on it.

I know that I sort of want

the curl pattern to sit this way across my face,

and so putting that intention

the night before really helps.

Because our hair is so fantastic.

In that it can sort of hold any shape

that you put it in.

So get your...

You have to wet

and you get your conditioner in,

I use rose water to keep my hair wet.

Because the ends do dry

while I'm twisting it,

'cause it still takes me a little while.

These are two strand twists.

Let's get to the untwisting.

The great thing is this is a bit of an...

and this is like a,

what is it unboxing for me?

Because you never know,

what level of twists you're gonna get.

'Cause it's always like a little bit

of anticipation to see how well you did.

What the chrome pattern is like.

So okay.

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Don't feel like you owe me anything.

But I did this for you.

I really worked hard on these twists. [laughs] For you.

So that I could give you a good show around my hair.

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This is stage one.

I like what I'm seeing.

And if you know,

it's gonna be at about here

by the time we're done.

But this is a really great stage, it's healthy,

And now very,

at your own pace and in your own way.

You wanna start breaking these apart

without breaking the curl pattern.

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So I had bad hair growing up.

That's what people called my hair.

They said I had bad hair.

And I really internalized that.

And then I think

because it required so much care

and because things were complicated then,

my hair was cut very, very short,

and so at a time,

I think when you're really looking

at yourself as a... what?

At the time what was girlhood for me,

I didn't feel beautiful at all.

I felt like I had ugly hair,

and not only was it ugly hair,

but it was so, it was short.

And it was around that time

where I really started

to get mistaken for a boy.

And I wish I could tell you it's

because they saw something in me.

Because some of us are just too cute

for two genders.

But no, it was because I didn't really conform

to this like really rigid standard

of what beauty was.

And then short hair was really masculinized.

Up until I was 18 I would get asked almost every day,

actually 19 if we're being honest,

when I look back.

Are you a boy or a girl?

Are you a boy or a girl?

Are you a boy or a girl?

When I was in high school,

and Alicia keys came out,

she really I think her,

just by virtue of how she wore her hair.

And now I'm sort of gonna start working

the roots a little bit

to get a little bit of body

and to break up some of those parts.

Because you want,

I want that sort of fuller head.

But when she wore those braids,

my God, I felt liberated in a way

and I was still trying to fit in, you know?

And so having these two front braids

that she sort of revolutionized,

the sort of celebration of hair,

it was really a game changer for me.

And I remember when I had these two braids running this way,

which really, you know,

and you remember she would sort of wear them this way.

Nobody asked me if I was a boy

in that time.

And I remember feeling so relieved.

And one day my sister kindly came over

and did my hair.

And she had decided

that those braids were no longer in style.

She was, by the way,

she was 100% correct.

They absolutely were not.

She just gave me these cornrows,

a really beautiful style.

And when I looked in the mirror,

all I saw was an ugly little boy.

And I just remember feeling so badly

and then my sister felt badly,

even though she had done this really wonderful offering.

I think about that moment often,

when I'm in my hair,

literally in my hair,

over my hair.

You know how,

I think about a couple of things.

One how awful it was that I just...

that people like me couldn't find a place

in the world for themselves?

And then two,

what happens when you are so caught up

in your own pain,

that you can't accept the offerings

that people are making around you?

We think it's sort of unprecedented

in the history of the world

and that nobody can know what that's like,

and especially if we live

in a world that's,

doesn't really prioritize healing.

So you really wanna get on these roots right now.

And how we treat people is very much informed

by how we treat ourselves.

So I'm gonna tell you this,

activism doesn't build character,

it reveals it.

This work is,

it's a revelation,

you need the revelation

before we can sort of have these revolutions.

And it's all in steps.

You know, it takes time.

But the muscles that we develop

in choosing life,

choosing to live on our terms

and our way off script,

writing our own stories,

it's always worth it.

And it takes time,

but it's a choice that we make every day.

And there's power in that.

There's agency in that.

In a world that tells you

that you don't get to have a choice,

that you don't get to have a voice.

So I'm gonna use a little bit of rose water.

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But let me tell you something,

we may not have been born into these conditions.

We may not have designed this society,

but when we accept these conditions as our own,

they do become ours.

And we forfeit a part of who we are.

Every time that we accept conditions

that we didn't design,

we forfeit a part of who we are.

And that trade off,

it's simply not worth it.

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This is a leave-in conditioner,

watch, watch the fireworks happen.

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Sometimes I just use things

that I find along the way,

and one time,

or that someone else finds along the way.

So my cousin, [laughs]

got this care package once,

I guess it was just like a random thing

when she won some kind of award.

And it's beard oil, [chuckles]

It's beard oil,

but I mess with it.

I put it in my hair,

it's got jojoba,

and almond oil,

and coconut oil

and all these things.

And I really like how the oil works

with a little bit of water.

So I'm gonna use a little bit of rosewater,

and I'm gonna get, [water spritz]

under the sweet love first.

We love first.

We love body. Alright

No more limiting ourselves

and making us small

to fit into the limited colonial imagination.

Non-binary is beautiful.

Black hair is beautiful.

So I'll be generous with this,

and sort of get in there more.

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All right. We have been on quite the journey

for those of you who are not in the know,

which is to say

that you don't have your hand in my hair,

exactly at this moment,

it's still damp

because you know I did this last night

cause I did it for you,

I'm all that fresh.

So it's actually going

to rise throughout the day,

like a beautiful loaf of bread.

It's going to rise throughout the day

and get that body,

and all that sort of moisture,

and everything else is going

to keep the hair really well protected.

But you know I just,

I feel really grateful

to have shared this space with you.

What I wanna say is this,

time is the greatest gift we have to give.

And the time that you've spent sort

of sharing these experiences with me,

and the time that we offer each other,

I think is so incredibly important.

And I just feel grateful,

and I feel really humbled

and also very responsible.

I think we have to feel so much more responsible

for how we show up for each other.

And I am thrilled

to have been a part of Beauty Secrets.

And I am thrilled to remind everyone,

that beauty is non-binary.

Beauty is non-binary.

And we can, however we want to embody it,

whatever that means to us,

is the right way.

Thank you again.

And I will see you soon.

And as we say in the movement,

stay safe, stay dangerous.

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