EAGG meets Eden Ng, British-born Chinese-Malaysian hair and beauty content creator

EAGG is feeling seriously chuffed to be speaking with member Eden Ng (@eden_nugget). She is THE British-born Chinese-Malaysian hair and beauty content creator known for her viral claw clip hack, "5 day curls", and heatless curling tutorials. It is her serious conviction that hair and beauty run more than skin-deep and functions as real science, valuable forms of art, with teachable (hence, learnable!) skills. She is that singular creator that seeks to prioritise connection over transaction, community over followers, and deeply thorough, clearly explained tutorials over speedy, forgettable microtrends. Beyond her content, Eden also works freelance - as a creative consultant, video editor, and vox pop host at events across London.

Eden you are a very successful beauty content creator, freelance creative consultant, video editor and vox pop host. What does a ‘normal’ day look like for you?

Lately, ‘normal’ has looked like spinning two dozen plates and hoping through a cocktail of sheer will and blind optimism that none of them shatter - but I feel utterly grateful to call this my life and to be so overwhelmed by plate(s) stacked full of food I chose, bought, and cooked for myself.

I’ve been lucky enough to have spent the last two weeks holidaying in Guangzhou and Shenzhen with my family. My days looked like early wake ups to film in the morning light before my family arose; walking 20,000 steps a day to sightsee (and sight-eat!); editing in any and all spare pockets of time; responding to comments in-between activities on public transport; making thumbnails while waiting for my coffee; working on freelance gigs on my laptop in the dark at midnight; keeping to my strict, self-prescribed schedule of posting 1-2 videos every day; recording voiceovers in the hotel lobby at 2am; averaging 4-6 hours of sleep (would not recommend); and all while remaining as present with family as possible, and as off my phone as a social media career allows me. Then, repeating the whole shebang tomorrow. It’s been a hectic two weeks, and now that I’m back in London, I look forward to settling into my usual routine with workout classes, vox pop hosting at events around London, and (slightly) more sleep.

As a British-born Chinese-Malaysian, what significance has this dual heritage taken on in your personal life? And has your perspective on this changed over time?

I have never been more proud of my identities than I am today, but that certainly hasn’t always been the case. As a global majority kid growing up around people who don’t look like you, you learn what Otherness feels like before you have the words to describe it. And you find ways to cope.

I grew up feeling as though there were a certain number of defined boxes available to me, and at any one time, in order to feel grounded, I had to occupy only one of them (lest the world crumble at the ghastly feat of an individual person containing multitudes). In my younger formative years, I sat proudly in the Smart Kid box. (Because I was Asian - so obviously this was My Box.) Upon reflection, I can say with confidence that I worked harder aged fifteen than I do today - not because I’ve grown complacent, but because I held myself to unsustainably high standards as a teen.

It was never enough to achieve the highest grade - I needed to achieve as close to (or equal to) full marks as possible.

It wasn’t enough to overachieve in a handful of subjects - I had to be top of the class, in every class.

In Religious Studies, while studying the compulsory Christianity unit, we had to memorise quotes from the Bible to include in our exam answers. It wasn’t a requirement to know precisely where in the Bible these quotes were derived, or to know more than five, or maybe ten. But that wasn’t enough: I had to be exceptional. I sourced and memorised pages of quotes, word for word, including every exact chapter and verse.

Numbers and letters, teachers’ opinions, comments scrawled in the margins in red and green pen defined my self-worth. Because I was the Smart Kid. And I didn’t know who I was beyond that.

Soon, university brought a new wave of freedom and experimentation. I picked up a keen and sudden interest in makeup, which gave way to a much more feminine presentation. In a brand new environment, surrounded by new and diverse groups of people who had no prior expectations or knowledge of me, reading and learning more and more by the day, vast oceans of possibility flooded out before me. And I began to play. I had never before allowed myself to care about my outward presentation - because I thought that as the Smart Kid, especially an Asian one, it was not my place to be the Pretty Girl. To take interest in ‘shallow’ and ‘material’ things.

In the years since, I’ve deconstructed such tired and dehumanising 2D self-definitions. I am the Smart Kid, and the Pretty Girl, and the Funny One, and the Strong One, and ten dozen other personalities that don’t have neat labels because none of this categorisation matters anyway. I am me. I am my mother’s daughter. I am British and Chinese and Malaysian. I am, I am, I am.

Your management agency is Mami Management, which exclusively supports ethnically marginalised models & creators, especially Asian ones. This feels like a very conscious and intentional choice. I’d like to ask what significance your dual heritage has taken in your professional life?

I was extremely hesitant to sign to any management agency when my social media started taking off. I didn’t want to be told what to do, I didn’t want a voice in my ear numbing my authenticity, and none of the emails in my inbox felt like they came from sincere people who had my best interests in mind anyway.

Enter: Cinsy Tam.

Cinsy, first and foremost, will always be my friend. She doesn’t know I’m writing this, and I won’t be sending it to her to proofread (and that should tell you everything you need to know about the level of trust and freedom she affords me as my manager). We met organically, through attending the same pilates classes in Victoria Park every Sunday throughout the summer of 2025 (shoutout to @pilatesroom26, formerly @pilatesonthepark).

I wanted to be Cinsy’s friend the instant I laid eyes on her bubblegum pink hair and Hello Kitty sneakers. Our friendship was written in the stars, and I quickly learnt that she was one powerhouse of a woman.

Because one thing to know about Cinsy is that not only is she an irreplaceable friend - but she is bloody brilliant at her job. She had her professional eye on me as my social media gained traction, and before I knew it, she was asking me to sign to Mami Management over two matcha lattes. Already knowing exactly the kind of compassionate, hard working, creative, community-focused person that Cinsy was, I believed whole heartedly in her professional mission behind Mami - way before signing to it was ever a prospect. Too many agencies focus on volume and efficiency. Cinsy prioritises close relationships with her models and talent, mutual growth, and meaningful client relationships.

The advice to “never mix personal and professional” has never made sense for me, when everything that I have ever done for ‘work’ has always been deeply personal. Eileen, we met through our mutual work with Sesame Organisation - a mental health charity and community group for East and South East Asians in the UK. Prior to Sesame, I worked with Community Centred Knowledge, an African-centred collective working at the intersection of racial justice, climate justice, food justice, and embodied healing. I was deeply embedded in the heritage sector for a while, thinking about decoloniality in museums, and advising on a youth panel for Historic England.

I have always been driven by the personal, and the personal will always inform my professional.

With over 76k followers on Tik Tok and 18k followers on Instagram, what are the key messages you would like your community to share, embrace and take away?

First and foremost: every version of you is you. I tend not to explicitly talk about this, because it defeats the purpose of it all, but I make a purposeful effort to show up on my pages without makeup on - and to not address it. There is no apology, shyness, or embarrassment when I land on your For You Page with my bare face. Because this is just how I exist. There is nothing to disclaim, because seeing a woman’s face covered in makeup holds no more significance than seeing another woman’s completely bare. As a creator known for her signature makeup look, her huge hair, her transformative transitions, I feel a huge responsibility to simultaneously be transparent about my reality. I’ve received hate before, I’ve been called ugly, I’ve had people express shock when I’ve turned around and my face didn’t match what they expected, and I will continue to show up makeupless until we stop expecting women to disclaim their appearances. There is nothing to be ashamed about. A face is a face.

I also hope that anyone who lands on my page quickly recognises that I am known for the same handful of products. Though I am far from perfect, and though it is challenging as a beauty creator, and though we all unavoidably consume in today’s world, I make an effort not to showcase or promote overconsumption. I don’t do lavish weekly unboxings and expensive designer hauls. I turn down free gifting that does not make sense for my type of content, or that I know my audience would not be interested in. Wherever I am given the opportunity, I specifically request products that I would like to try from brands rather than accepting a huge unknown bundle. I don’t buy into trends. I don’t try out new products every week. I have a set routine. My product trialling process is strict. I never recommend a product before it has passed rounds of testing. I believe in investing intentionally in your hobbies - not throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. I hope I encourage those who view my content to be mindful with their every purchase.

And what’s next for @eden_nugget?

Going forward, I want to weave more themes of identity into my content. Hair and beauty means more to me than a hopeless surface-level quest for external validation. I’ve talked a little bit about this before, but it’s only a molehill so far and I’d love to make it a mountain. I also come from a writing and speaking background, and would love to incorporate this into my work. I’ve been asked before to launch a substack, or a podcast, and these are both things I am considering. The Youtube Question has hung over my head for a while now, and I will be making my debut soon. I am, after all, known for my ridiculously detailed content teetering on long-form (I spent 20 minutes talking to my camera about claw clips and it was impossible for me to edit it down to less than 8 minutes for Tiktok because every sentence contained vital information - in my opinion).

Hair content will always be my baby. There has been a direct correlation between my hair journey and my self confidence journey. I love sharing makeup tips and tutorials because every comment from an East Asian person telling me I’ve helped them figure out eyeliner on their eye shape, or contour for their nose, is healing my inner child. Learning makeup was a journey of shame, frustration, confusion because I never saw faces like mine represented, and to be that for someone else means more than I can express with words.

I do have one specific dream. To develop my own claw clip, one which fits all my very particular needs for my Claw Clip Hack. Now that would be surreal. More on that one day - I’m sure.

Please tell us your favourite top tips for all hair types!

Please prioritise your scalp health. Not all shampoos were made equal, and you must use a clarifying shampoo (at a frequency that suits you) to remove product/dirt build up. If you don’t give your scalp this complete ‘reset’ to zero - you’ll find it getting greasy much faster, and your next wash day will be around the corner faster than it needs to be.

In the same breath - prioritising your scalp health also means not fussing over ‘training’ your hair. The frequency of your hair wash days is determined by much more than just the products you use: your genetics, your natural hair type, the climate in which you live all play a role in how fast your hair gets greasy. So I can recommend the products that I love, but there are many other factors at play. There’s no shame in needing to wash your hair more often than me. If you’re listening to your scalp, you’re winning.

I also believe that hair is happiest when you treat it with a mix of water based and oil based hydrators. We’ve all heard of hair oils, and how great they can be for sealing your split ends and hydrating your lengths. But many oils sit on the surface of the hair cuticle, working their magic on the outside of the hair strand. From my experience, you need to use these in tandem with water-based hydrators, because these are more able to penetrate into the hair itself, delivering meaningful long-term hydration from the inside out.

East Asian Girl Gang is all about celebrating a shared cultural and ethnic heritage. What does it mean to you and why did you join?

Nurturing communities of shared identity are essential. Though we strive towards a world where we can all freely exist as ourselves despite our differences, we do not yet live in this world. While we work on making it a reality, safe spaces are mandatory. EAGG is a beautiful network and I’m glad to be a part of it.

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To learn more about Eden's work, or to contact Eden:

Tiktok: @eden_nugget

Instagram: @eden_nugget