What Erika Alexander Can’t Live Without

So a lot of people have been talking about bonnets and whether they are appropriate and all of those things. But for many years, people have been wearing scarves. I think there’s a kind of renewed interest in scarves, not just from a cultural point of view, but from a reference of those in the Deco period; they always wore these beautiful scarves. It didn’t matter what color you were or where you were from. And so this is kind of a nod to the beauty of those scarves, but she adds wire to make it sculptural. So when I’m not having my hair in a wig or anything on, how can I look really coiffed? I grab that silk scarf and I wire it up, put some earrings on, and I look like I’m ready to shop or get on a plane.
And the silk, of course, is good for preventing breakage in my hair. I love it. Ashaka Givens also used to be Erykah Badu’s hatter.

The Gymwrap is by my friend Nicole Ari Parker. Again, there’s emphasis on my hair and laying these edges down, but also making sure so they don’t break. Having edges at this age especially is a result of wrapping my hair up at night. But when you sweat and you go to the gym, you need something to not only catch the sweat but to keep the hair from getting wet. It will start to draw down. But it doesn’t do that with this. And it’s successful for Nicole. She’s an actress like me. I really love that she’s an entrepreneur. It actually works.
I don’t just put it on when I’m walking or working out. I put it on the shower to protect from the mist and humidity. I’ll also wear it to travel, and I’ll wear it with Akash’s scarf on so I don’t get any of the oil and stuff on my scarf. I’ll put it on as an in-between thing.

I went into Pineider’s Rockefeller Center boutique after noticing it had beautiful leathers. I bought quite a few bags, and one of them was this shoulder bag in a beautiful orange, which I like. I’m really trying to be conscious now and not just buy a bag because it’s expensive or has a logo.

And it turns out that they not only do bags, but they do pens and stationery too, and I love to write. My favorite pen is a beautiful ballpoint pen that has enamel on it and gold tongue. I now buy all my stationery and gifts from there. I recently bought Hillary Clinton some stationery from there, which I have to send to her because it was just her birthday. She’s one of my mentors in life. And of course, she would appreciate it because I’ve gotten so many thank you letters from her that were written by her and signed by her. I think she’s old school in a way that she understands that people don’t often send correspondence that way, but one of the most precious things I have is my stack of letters from her.

[While Erika didn’t specify which stationery item from Pineider she likes the most, we’ve linked to a similar item on its site here.]

I met the co-founder Stephen Satterfield while he was hosting the Netflix series High on the Hog. After that gig he went into sourcing cotton after hearing about Black farmers who didn’t know how to distribute their cotton. So he created Comoco T-shirts so they could have a place to put their cotton. It’s fantastic. They have both a white and black T-shirt. I love it, and think people should know about it, because it’s actually beautiful cotton. It’s made here in America, and you’re supporting farmers and Black people in the South.

I get the small, but I think that you should order a little bigger because I don’t think it’s preshrunk.

About five or six years ago, I was at Brooklyn Bowl and learned about this body butter from the Black women working at the shoe rental counter. She had a bottle of Don’t Be Ashy next to her on the counter, which turned out to be her side business. I bought a couple, because I like to buy things to give when I visit people on Broadway, whether it’s Audra McDonald, Joy Reid, or Nikole Hannah Jones. I’ve now given several people Don’t Be Ashy. You can’t beat this body butter. It’s the best.

My makeup artist, Frederick Sanders, uses a bunch of different things, but I find that on me, this deep red, Bawse Lady, just happens to be a really pretty red, especially on my skin, which has a lot of red in it. This has a little blue in it. It’s really nice and deep and sexy and bright. I also like the name of it.

I discovered this at one of my favorite shops, Layla, in Brooklyn. The perfume itself is from a Los Angeles perfumer, Leanne Hirsh, who makes natural colognes with natural ingredients. Beautiful, unique smells. Choita is what sent me to her. It’s really nice, not sweet or musky. It’s got a good balance. It smells like you’re in an inn, somewhere in New Hampshire or someplace that’s kind of old and worn, but bright, because it’s got a woodiness. But I like sweet smells, so I can smell that there too.

She also gives perfume-making classes. So I took a class with her, and now I’ve made my own perfume called Maverick. I then just went down the rabbit hole with her. She’s fantastic, and I just love everything she does, but this is my favorite perfume from her.

I buy people these robes when I don’t know what to give them. These are also from my favorite shop Layla’s. When my boyfriend was losing his mother, his two aunties were there and were always sitting on the couch in their clothes. So I said, “I’m gonna get them these robes.” And they lived in those robes while she passed away. They’re hand-blocked, cotton, and prewashed. They turned out to be perfect for them, and they still love them. I have one too, but I love to give them as well.

This is a dress you could put on a president or an empress. It’s just beautiful and I love the way it hinges at the hips. It’s a dress that you can wear anywhere. I like to wear it for press and speaking engagements. This color is a good color; it’s not a hard red, it’s kind of a saffron red. I also just love the way Sergio makes clothes. I love his story. I like the way he came into fashion and built something for himself, and all the word of mouth on him meets the moment. He’s a good man who knows how to make clothes.

I spend a lot of time dealing with my hair. On my current set I have Nray Locs, so I have to oil my scalp a lot, but it can’t look too oily. This oil is perfect. My hairdresser for The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, Roseline Davies, who’s Liberian American, created it. It’s just soft enough to get in my hair and oil the scalp, but it’s not greasy. Also, I need a healthy scalp. There’s a lot that’s happening to it every day. A lot of attention, especially as an actor, is on my hair and my scalp. It gets so much abuse trying to stay natural and also trying to be trendy. This is perfect.