When Nepalese model Varsha Thapa moved to New York from Kathmandu seven years ago, she brought something on the long-haul flight to remind her of home. “It allows me to be here and still feel like I’m back there,” the Bushwick-based 20-something says of the thick red tasseled thread traditionally known as dhago, which she folds into her signature waist-grazing braids. “It was the first thing I wanted to do when I grew out my hair,” she adds, explaining that she performs the intricate weaving technique, which was passed down from her grandmother, for Nike campaigns and performances with her hypnotic band, Sita Virgin. With her hair constructed into these visually arresting twin plaits, Thapa feels “unstoppable, unbreakable,” she says—“like a very strong, powerful woman.”

But braids aren’t the only export she brought with her from Nepal. A treasure trove of DIY beauty recipes from her mother has also proven instrumental as Thapa braves long hours on set. Face masks made of flour, turmeric, and green tea powder help soothe skin after a full day in the makeup chair, while blended eggs whisked with maté keep her impossibly long strands ultrasmooth. She also has a surprise hack for banana peels: “My mom likes to rub the inner part of the peel on her skin to make it tighter, so I do that once a week too,” she says. But her holy-grail product is shilajit, tar-like antioxidant drops that she mixes into her water every morning. “It’s very hard to get and quite expensive but it’s worth it,” Thapa notes of the prized immune- and circulation-boosting Himalayan mineral that she stocks up on whenever she visits her family. Drinking this elixir and delicately doing her hair have become part of a daily ritual that serves as a nice reminder of the cheerleading squad that has buoyed her nascent career. “We’re a very, very small country, so to come from Nepal and start modeling here is a really big thing for me and everyone back home. They’re all so proud of me,” she says before adding: “If it’s possible for me to do this, it’s possible for me to achieve anything I want.”