HUMAN COLORS: discovering the countless colours of diversity

Inquisitive eyes, infectious smiles, high spirits and disarming enthusiasm were all on display when four young disabled people enjoyed an inclusive experience with the Fanola team and became models for a day.

Fanola has started a new chapter in its social responsibility story. The professional haircare brand aims to share the notion of individual freedom of expression with its unconventional community and promote the message of inclusive beauty, enabling everyone to showcase their personalities by endlessly, creatively playing with colours and shades.

The first chapter in the brand’s “colourful” journey focused on individual freedom of expression: having the liberty to show your identity without feeling the weight of judgement. Fanola supports and promotes this message through colour. It has also done so with the launch campaign for ColorZoom, a new line of professional colouring creams that gives unbeatable performance in just 10 minutes. Choose these colours if you want to think outside the box and find your own shade in this world.

The second chapter is Human Colors. It takes an even more inclusive approach as it explains the meaning of colour – which is part of the brand’s DNA – and “blends” it with the more human side in each of us.
Instead of run-of-the-mill mainstream models, for the colour-oriented new “Human Colors” shoot Fanola decided to work with four young wheelchair users who have lives full of colour thanks to their incredibly strong spirits. The colours encapsulated by their characters are bursting with life and span the endless shades in the rainbow.

Luna, Roberta, Nicolò and Mattia are the names of the four models who have decided to tell their stories in the Fanola Human Colors photo shoot. They all have exceptional inner strength and they wanted to send out a message to the Fanola community to show that every one of us – no matter what we look like – is special because beauty can be hidden in unconventional places and perceived through countless shades of colour.

Each of the four young people has a different story to tell, but one thing that they all have in common is that they have all had to deal with a time in their lives when all of the colour faded away.

Luna has a rare disease, with symptoms that first appeared when she was 12 years old. Since 2019, she has been unable to walk and run. Roberta is a mother of two whose life was filled with darkness after a motorcycle accident. Nicolò ended up in a wheelchair at 19 years of age after an accident at work. Mattia had a horrific crash during an enduro motorcycle race that left him paraplegic.These four amazing “models for a day” showed all of their strength of character as they faced up to these circumstances and brought colour back into their lives.

For example, Luna’s treatment allows her to lead a normal life with her wheelchair: “The shoot with the Fanola team was a wonderful experience, not so much because of what we did but mentally speaking. I didn’t feel like I was being judged for being different. I felt at home!”

First and foremost, Roberta fought for her children because they needed her. She has now accepted her new life and sees things differently from before. She has learned to appreciate every single moment and she has a real thirst for life.
“The shoot was a unique experience and exactly the kind of thing that I love. I was welcomed to Fanola by professionals in the field like a star. I really identify with the message about colour that Fanola wants to send... I can’t deny that I nearly always wear black, but I realized a few years ago that my colour is inside me. My disability and I have been through all of the shades of grey and we’ve touched the bottom, the very darkest tones of black, but we’ve come back up again. Now I can say that sky blue is my colour... It’s my safe space.”

Nicolò is now the president of Padua wheelchair rugby club and he also plays tennis. He has decided to get back out there by registering as a student at the University of Padua’s Health Education Department.
“It’s really great that a brand like Fanola has decided to work with disabled people on this shoot because it sends out a brilliant inclusive message by showing that everyone can be a ‘model for a day’, including us. Highlighting the value of diversity is one of the things that I try to do in my own little way during activities to raise awareness in schools.”

Finally, Mattia Cattapan has an incredible lust for life and he has become the first disabled crosskart driver in Italy to race against non-disabled drivers. He has launched a project to help other young people in the same situation: CROSSabili is a non-profit association that provides disabled people with the opportunity to take part in activities that revolve around inclusion, sharing and fun.
“I would like to thank the Pegorin brothers because they supported me at the darkest time in my life. They made a dream come true and now I am the one who can help other people who’ve gone through huge changes in their lives, just like me. Initiatives like this one by Fanola have an essential part to play in our society because people need to know more and more about the world of disability in order to make it as inclusive as possible.”