Nour Solo: From Saudi to Egypt My Journey Through Culture, Creativity and Curation

Nour Hassan shares her journey from growing up in Saudi Arabia to building The Curation, a platform celebrating art, fashion, design, and culture across the Middle East and beyond.

• Born in Jeddah to an Egyptian family with Saudi roots, attending the British International School that shaped her worldview
• Credits her international school experience for teaching critical thinking and instilling values of unity, diversity, and acceptance
• Early creative passions included art, magazines, and creating collages that foreshadowed her future career
• Chose to attend university in Egypt rather than London to reconnect with her Egyptian heritage
• Studied architecture before switching to mass communication, with additional education at UCLA
• Founded "Radical Contemporary" in 2018 to highlight young regional creatives, later rebranding to "The Curation"
• Built a career as a stylist, creative director, producer, and writer featured in Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Vogue, and Forbes
• Values being niche rather than mass market: "I am for those who get it, for the intellectuals and the girls who want to be smart"
• Believes we're in "the era of curation" where personally selecting what defines you is essential
• Morning wellness habits include waking up early once weekly and delaying coffee intake
• Despite her social professional persona, values alone time for reading, thinking, and strategizing

Make sure to follow @theCurationPodcast on Instagram, @NourHassan and @PilatesbyNour to stay updated on all available content, as well as The Curation podcast on all podcasting platforms and @The.Curation on TikTok.

Transcript

Welcome to The Curation

Speaker 1 0:08

Welcome to the Curation , a show for the culturally curious . This is your host , noor Hassan . Each week , I'll guide you through a curated edit of the finest in art , fashion , design , culture , luxury , wellness , tech and more . This is your go-to space for discovering trailblazing ideas , untold stories and meaningful conversations with innovators and creators who are shaping our world . There's no gatekeeping here , so sit back , tune in and let's discover only the best together .

Growing Up in Saudi Arabia

Speaker 1 0:53

Get ready with me . We'll talk a little bit about myself . We reached 10,000 followers on TikTok , but it's the perfect time to do a get to know me .

Speaker 1 0:59

I feel like a lot of people on this channel don't really know me that well . I am 31 years old , you guys , and I'm very , very proud of that , alhamdulillah . I start with it because I feel like a lot of women like try to hide their age , and there's no need for it . I always say you know , the 30s are the best years of your life so far and the 30s are the new 20s . So I grew up in Jeddah , in Saudi Arabia . I did not grow up in Cairo at all . My mom has Saudi Arabian roots and my father worked there his whole life . I grew up my whole entire life 18 years in Jeddah and Saudi Arabia . I'm Egyptian . I'm very much an Egyptian woman . I love , love , love . Being from Egypt , basically , I wasn't very connected to Egypt at all throughout my childhood and that's how my obsession with Seyhel began as a child . But it was Seyhel Tayeb and to this day , shout out Virginia Beach . To this day it's like my heaven and thank God my parents never sold their childhood home and , to be honest with you , it is for me my happy place . It's the place that I go back to and feel the most myself . I am a very , very creative person . I've always been a creative person . I've been obsessed with magazines since I was a kid . I would do collages and I would cut up little bits of magazines and I would kind of create my own little world .

Speaker 1 2:35

I took IGCSCs and then IB and my favorite subject in IB was art and my second favorite subject was English . I was a mega nerd in school . The perfect balance between you . Know . I wasn't like hanging out with the cool kids but at the same time I wasn't hanging out with like the ones that were like super introverted . I always hung out with everybody . I went to the cool parties . I studied in breaks with the nerds . I tutored . I did a lot of different things .

Speaker 1 3:07

What I can say about growing up in Saudi Arabia is that the school I went to really shaped who I am . It was called the British International School of Jeddah Conti , so for the Egyptians it's like the bisque of Saudi , but at the time it was one of the top rated schools in the world and I credit my school for seriously teaching me how to think . Ib was such a challenge to the point where when I finished IB and I was predicted 40 something major nerd I was supposed to go to London . I did a last minute decision to come to Cairo because I wanted to reconnect with my Egyptian roots . Can you guys imagine I wanted to reconnect with my Egyptian roots . Can you guys imagine ?

Speaker 1 3:53

Another amazing thing about my school is that I had friends and still do , alhamdulillah from all walks of life . So everyone from America to Australia , to Spain , to Lebanon , to Syria , to Saudi Arabia , of course , to literally every country you can think of . We had someone at school from that country and we used to have something called international day . International day that can be what in our cultures would come . Dressed in our culture , I would always dress as a pharaoh . You know , you guys know my obsession with Nefertiti . If you've been following me , I go to Berlin specifically to just see her . But anyway , I would dress as a pharaoh and you would bring food from your culture . You would talk to people

Educational Journey and Cultural Connections

Speaker 1 4:41

, we would sing our cultural songs , speak our languages , and it just enriched you with cultures from all around the world . It instilled in us values that I use to this day , of unity , diversity , acceptance . We always talk about these topics in school and it made me feel that there is no judgment .

Speaker 1 5:02

I do not judge anybody for what they choose to do in their life , and that , I think , is one of the keys that made me a successful person in my job , which is a podcaster , an interviewer , a journalist , a person who needs to be curious in their work about not just my life but other people's lives . I always ask questions , I always ask questions . My grandfather used to say I would ask a million and one questions as a kid , and they were like questions that were way beyond my years . But , like I said , I was into art , into fashion , into writing , and all of that came to fruition when I moved to Egypt . I went to AUC and I did architecture for a year because I also have a deep obsession with design , interior design , buildings , homeware , etc . But for me , this is not really my calling . What I like to do is tell stories and communicate .

Speaker 1 5:55

I switched to Mascan , which was the perfect decision for me , and I studied that for a couple of years , went to UCLA , studied public relations , public speaking and , as well , film , and graduated after three years at AUC . Because , truly , guys , ib made me skip like two semesters . That's how crazy that program is . And so , yeah , I mean like in the end , I think moving to Egypt was the best decision I ever made in my entire life . Why didn't you go to London ? Why would you move to Egypt ? All of this , and I honestly think , guys , you need to be connected to your country and your culture somehow , and I think it changed who I am , it changed the course of my life and it created a space for me to thrive , because when I started my platform in 2018 , I called it Radical , contemporary .

Speaker 1 6:49

At the time , for the OGs , it really was something completely radical and contemporary . No one was writing about the young creatives in the region . No one had an expansive network , which is Gulf people and people in Dubai and people in Cairo and my dad's family is also half Emirati , so I had a big connection there as well and I expanded this over the years and so it kind of built a platform that was a first mover in so many things in the way I talked , in the way I presented myself , in an unapologetic manner with which I sort of kind of spoke to the audience in Arabic , in English and

Building The Curation Brand

Speaker 1 7:30

in all the languages I usually use in the day , right , a little bit of French , a little bit of French guys , not a lot , a little bit . But I felt that at the time , wow , I couldn't believe the reception . It was fantastic .

Speaker 1 7:44

And I did Radical for a few years and I did everything , guys . I was a stylist , creative director , producer , writer every role you can imagine . I appeared in Harper's Bazaar , elle , vogue , forbes , interviewed over 150 people of the top , top , top , top , top individuals in the region , really fulfilled so many of my dreams , you know , wrote for all of these magazines as well , not just featured in them , and it was just such a wild ride . And then I think last year I was like you know what I've done everything I wanted to do with this platform . I think it's time to pivot and so I renamed it and rebranded it the Curation , because I think my first and last love in life is picking and selecting and editing the best art , fashion , literature , design , ideas and presenting it to you guys .

Speaker 1 8:35

This is what I love to do and I think , honestly , we are in the era of curation . If you can't pick and choose and edit and maintain the character of who you are and kind of like curate your own character in life these days , you're really going to be completely lost , because in the age of AI and technology , I mean , we're being fed who to be , and so if you don't select it yourself , if you don't follow it yourself , if you don't follow creators who are selective with the content that they present to you , you're going to be in trouble of kind of like being a copy paste which I talk about a lot of everyone else and the winners in this world , they're the ones who are going to be able to stick to who they are , and so I always like to say that I am a person who is niche . I don't want to be mass market . I am for those who get it , for the intellectuals and the girls who want to be smart and also kind of take care of themselves . Why not try to do both ?

Speaker 1 9:32

I'll tell you more about my Pilates journey on a different video , because it's a completely different and parallel story in my life that involves my journey with scoliosis and many other things that I want to talk about separately . But in terms of my childhood , my upbringing and sort of like , how I built my brand , that's who I am , and I definitely will do a more personal Get to know me on me as Noor , but I hope this gave you guys a little bit of insight into the curation , how it came about , and right now I live in Cairo , but I'm between here and Dubai and Saudi and I go around interviewing people who I think are actually extraordinary . So follow the curation podcast , stay tuned , and I hope you liked my get to know me . Get ready with

Q&A on Daily Life and Habits

Speaker 1 10:27

me . All right , guys , I'm gonna answer some of the questions that I got from you on Instagram .

Speaker 1 10:34

Okay , so a day in the life I think I'm gonna do a video for this one . The day in the life I think I'm going to do a video for this one . The day in the life in general is something that is really hard for me to film because every single day is kind of different , but in general , what I do like to do , like I always say in my episodes , is wake up early at least once a week , but I don't wake up early every day . I definitely would recommend the seven step fall reset , glow up guide and that kind of will show you , not a day in the life but at least in a month , the tools and the strategies that I use to kind of try my best to stay on it . Okay , all right , favorite wellness beauty ritual , I would say at the moment it's Gua Sha , because I know that a lot of people don't believe in Gua Sha . But guys , gua Sha is life changing . Like , think about it . You work out the muscles of your entire body and you never really work out the muscles of your face . Gua Sha , for me , is top tier . I'm very into it right now and it's the wellness ritual that really I'm really , really enjoying . I'm very into it right now and it's the wellness ritual that really I'm really , really enjoying .

Speaker 1 11:36

Okay , what's the part of being what ? Oh , what's the hardest part of being an entrepreneur podcaster ? The hardest part is that you're your own boss . It's 1000% your choice and this is really , I think , the toughest challenge . Sometimes I wish I had a nine to five and someone to tell me when to clock in and clock out , but the hardest part of being an entrepreneur is that . The hardest part of being a podcaster is in . Definitely , you can drain your social battery very quickly . You talk a lot , whether to the camera , to other people , to whatever . It's very much a job where you need to pour in your own cup in order to be able to give to others .

Speaker 1 12:25

Okay , what's a habit that completely changed my life ? I really do think it is the waking up early , once a week at least . It's one of those habits that I just can't . I cannot find something better . I wish I could do it every day and , to be honest , maybe one day I'll get there , and I have in the past done that . But I think that's the biggest one . And I think the second biggest one habit that has changed my life would be not to drink coffee first thing in the morning . For sure . Delay coffee intake and , yeah , have something to eat , drink anything else . I have my detox tea here . It's from royal . It's a brand in cairo that I really like and it's like it's just called detox . Drink anything before your coffee . You guys , it's way better for you .

Speaker 1 13:12

Okay , what's something you're currently obsessed with , like a book , a brand , etc . I think I'm currently obsessed with my makeup by mario blush stick . It's like insane as something that I'm obsessed with . I'm also obsessed with my b5 laroche haya . It's

Personal Insights and Episode Closing

Speaker 1 13:31

called haya lu serum insane , guys , it's such a good serum Obsessed . And a book that I'm currently obsessed with . I'm not really obsessed with a book right now , but I would say I mean , obviously , power by Robert Greene is always the book that I ultimately think is the best thing you could read in your life . Basically , okay .

Speaker 1 13:51

Last question what's one thing people would be surprised to learn about you ?

Speaker 1 13:55

I think one thing people would be surprised to learn about you I think one thing people would be surprised to learn about me is that I am not the most um , don't know like , I'm not the most social person you'll ever meet in your life , but I am a social butterfly . But I'm also Libra , so I go through phases where I can socialize for hours and days , but I definitely do need to like get back into my shell and and I love being alone . I love it more than anything because I am an intellectual , I like to read . I like to think , I like to strategize . So , yeah , I don't know . I think people would be surprised to learn that , but I think it works well for my job and the structure of what I have to do . Thank you for listening . Make sure to follow at the Curation Podcast on Instagram , at Noor Hassan and at Pilates by Noor to stay tuned on all of the content that is available , as well as the Curation podcast on all podcasting platforms and the Curation on TikTok .