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On Rotation | The three-step scalp-care routine I've been looking for

Nolu Mkhonza Where else can you order a new beauty product online, get a call from the creator of the product and end up having a fat chat about her entrepreneurial journey, plus get your order an hour later? Only in South Africa. Nolu Mkhonza is co-owner and director of Hallyu Korean Skincare, an online platform for authentic Korean beauty products, and co-creator of Bephor, a K-Beauty haircare brand for natural hair. We’ll get to Bephor in a minute ... what I love about Hal

Last year I came across a luxury brand from Madagascar called Pok Pok on Instagram. I was drawn in by the intricate detail of the bags, zooming in to get a closer look, raffia worked into rounded and sculptural shapes, inspired, the brand explained, by the braiding techniques used in the creation of the hairstyles of southern Madagascar. According to the brand: ‘Braids speak without words. In Malagasy culture, braids are a silent language, a coded system read by an entire vil

Parkview Heritage Festival. Friedrich Naumann Foundation Sub-Saharan Africa. A panel on SA’s local elections on November 4 2026: Sithembile Mbete (executive director, Public Affairs Research Institute), William Gumede (associate professor, Wits School of Governance), Peter Bruce (former editor, Business Day and Financial Mail), Mondli Makhanya (former editor, City Press) and Rob Rose (editor, Financial Mail). It opened with two polls that disagree. The Social Research Foundat

Collecting is not a competition. Music is personal.

My top five best burgers

Lots didn’t set out to build a haircare brand.

THE VIBE Rich people flee New York City during lockdown, a woman goes missing on a hike, and as neighbours, family and friends go searching for her, secrets slowly come to the surface – a masterclass in what lies beneath WHAT GOT ME The wonderful cast of characters whose worlds you disappear into and momentarily forget the main plot YOU’LL LOVE THIS IF … You appreciate layered and artful storytelling. Underneath the woman’s disappearance is an incisive exploration of race, cl

My question is, is marriage still the prize, and if so, for whom?

Nirox. UNI FORM’s performance with ecological artist Annegret Affolderbach, who has spent some time pounding rock to a fine powder of different shades – a colour palette of winter highveld, earthy and charred grasslands. The powder became dye. In a three-hour session, Affolderbach performed the dyeing process of the cotton, set to become part of an upcoming collection. Rock sketch, Ruby Valentine Recall – UNI FORM’s founder and creative director Luke Radloff won the inaugur

Tomato sketch, Ruby Valentine Decorex. Botanicus stand: Room spray, candle. Candle priced just under R7,000. Couldn't place the scent on first smell – intensely green, slightly bitter, hairy, very familiar. Tomato plant. Recall: – Loewe's tomato clutch. Reportedly began as a meme, a photo of a heirloom tomato compared to the brand's own design language. Quick Google: — Babylonstoren does one too. Summer Heirloom Candle, R690. Green, tomato leaf, ambery. – Flamingo Estate, LA

The reality TV thirst is a sickness. I'm sitting here watching House of Stassi, trying to work out what exactly this show is. First she tells us she pitched the show to Disney – and, I'd guess, half a dozen other networks before that. Then she tells us she coached her own family on what it takes to make good reality TV: that you have to be open, vulnerable, willing to have the hard conversations on camera. She doesn't hide her hunger for fame or relevance but what I can't wor

I bought my first pair of Birkenstocks in Barcelona in 2010. I can’t recall whether they weren’t available in South Africa or they were just hellishly expensive. I wanted a pair because they were touted as some of the most comfortable flat shoes out there – and they looked damn cool to me. So for about R600 (I think it was) I bought a pair of the one-strap sandals – the Madrids, in Black. I wore them all over BCN. Some background: In 2021, L Catterton – a private equity firm

A deck of tarot cards, pulled out when family or friends gather round a table does something ordinary conversation rarely manages. It doesn’t always have to be that deep or meaningful; it’s just such a lovely way to draw out different perspectives and thoughts from your people. I’m not an experienced card reader by any stretch, but I had been looking for the right deck of cards for the longest time. I wanted something a little different from the typical but I didn’t know wha

Things change so quickly you forget what they looked like before. Suddenly you realise your usual routes have shifted, and your habits have quietly rearranged themselves. Like … what was once a nursery car park with room to spare is now the busiest corner of Parktown North. Nine Yards, October 2025 The parking situation at the newish Nine Yards is frankly, diabolical. From early morning to late afternoon cars stream in and out as people descend on the precinct’s cafés, resta

Roland Barthes’ Mythologies unpacks the cultural myths we’ve stopped noticing. In the chapter Romans in the Movies, Barthes talks about how all the male characters in Julius Caesar wear bangs – some curly, some straight. And they all sweat. Presumably, to signify that they are Romans. 'Every face sweats unremittingly,' he writes: 'workers, soldiers, conspirators all bathe their austerer and tense features in an abundant perspiration (of vaseline). And the close-ups are so fre

I spend some of my days thinking about what a book cover should look like to capture its contents and its target market. A title, a colourway, an image, a photograph vs an illustration … The job of persuading or enticing a potential buyer all hinges on what the cover looks like. So, often I have to think more broadly and more commercially – aiming to attract the widest audience possible. Not my favourite thing to do, I confess. Thinking mass market, I mean. I'd rather think a