How DO You Take YOUR Hair to Work? by Ayesha Casely-Hayford

Episode 8: “How Do You Take YOUR Hair to work?”

About Afro Archives

Afro Archives explores heritage and identity within UK society. It investigates images of black women through promotion of self-expression and confidence to be who we naturally are. This project seeks to promote and celebrate afro hair by having inclusive discussions about hair and hair-related experiences with people of all ages, backgrounds, cultures and creeds.

“A Performer’s World”

“A Performer’s World” showcases with comparison the experience of women with afro-textured hair through the eyes of the acting industry, where what we look like, matters. By asking to a diverse group of actors questions like: “Would You Shave Off All Your Hair for a Film?” and “Your Hair Represents Who You Are”, True or False?” we uniquely examine the responsibility of media, and curators of culture, as well as how we see ourselves and how society sees and portrays us. “A Performer’s World” could not have been made without the time, generosity, and collaboration of the featured artists, and co-creatives. Thank you to all involved.

Big Thanks to our host filming location, The Black Cultural Archives, in Brixton.

Creatives: Africa Fashion (Afro Archives Blog Host), Robbie Spotswood (Photography), Chris Lovell (DOP), Imogen Mackay Dall (on-location Director), Loreen Brown (Photography), Livvy BakerMendoza (Music) Ayesha Casely-Hayford (Editor, Producer).

Main Creative Team Creator & Producer Ayesha Casely-Hayford is an actress, award-winning voice artist and employment lawyer of Ghanian descent, born in London and raised in Kent. With her roots in law, specialising in employment law and discrimination, and as former chair of the board of trustees for The Act For Change Project, a charity campaigning for greater diversity in the arts, she is uniquely positioned to see the social, performative and legal issues facing black women in the UK today.

Photo credit: Helen Murray Photography

Director Imogen Mackay Dall is a Sydney-born writer, director and ‘ginger ninja’ raised in Tokyo, Washington D.C. and London. She wrote and directed the award-winning conservation documentar y Mystery of the Gnaraloo Turtles (2017) and is writing features for Pinewood Studios and Same Name productions. Keen to advance social issues in her work, Imogen is also writing Creative Breakdown Insurance, a book to help artists and freelancers manage their mental health.

Photo credit: Helen Murray Photography

Featuring in this Episode and With Thanks To

Anwen Ashworth

Alice Fofana

Verona Rose

Anni Domingo

Ayesha Casely-Hayford

India Ria Amarteifio

Peter Warnock

Simone McIntyre

Ketorah Williams

ÂŠ 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

This is a verbatim transcript of our interviews

“How Do You Take YOUR Hair to work?” Part 1 Featuring actors Alice Fofana, Verona Rose with Anwen Ashworth VERONA: Take your hair to work day. So I brought some hair, because I know I’m the one who has got hair in, fake hair. ALICE: I took my hair to work. It’s on my head. Do excuse me, I’m just eating. This is really nice actually. So we’re at the Black Cultural Archives, in Brixton. We just ordered. Ackee and Salt Fish wrap - it’s really good. I would never thought to have put it in one of these wraps. It’s really good. You’ve eaten all the hot sauce! Yeah, what’s your point? We were sharing it. This is already open but, this is the one that I’ve got in, this isn’t the one I’ve already got in now, actually. But it’s the same kind of thing, because they didn’t put this one in. I bought a different one. I found this in the bottom of my hair bag. © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

I’ve got a bag at home that’s got just loads of just, hair in. Yeah, a hair bag is very essential for any woman actually, to be fair with you. But yeah I have all my hair products in there, all my brushes my combs, my blowdryers, my hot comb, my rollers. You need a hair bag. Right. So. Ok what they do with this one, when I go into the hair shop. It’s so tangly, it’s actually horrible. No, I shouldn’t - no it’s not! It’s great. That’s the popular one though isn’t it. Everyone uses those ones for braids. Yeah, and do you know what, when I went in there the other day, it’s quite cheap in there as well, it’s very cheap. How much was it? Like £2.49. Eeeh?! Sister! It’s cheap oh, you’ll have no problem buying it, no wonder why I see so many girls with braids braids braids in their hair. Ah, that’s cheap! Ha! ha! Ghanian. So this one is made in Togo. Is that how you say it? Who? T.O.G.O. “Togo”. So anyway I bought this and I went in to the shop with the hair and I said to the lady, oh can I just get my Ghana braids, you know. Like I normally get - sorry, am I talking too much? Like that’s new. Oh right, sorry.

And she was like, no, no, no, I don’t want this one, go and get the one from Senegal. So I went back. “Do you have the one from Senegal?” “No. This is the best one” So I had to go back to the hair shop, and say this is the only one they’ve got. So anyway, what she did was, she cut it to like three bits, so like from this long bit here. Can I ask a question? Yeah. What’s the difference? Like from the Senegal. I don’t know. She was saying that this one’s like plastic and the Senegal one isn’t. She preferred the Senegal one. So anyway she cut it, so you can see it’s been cut. So easier to braid? I don’t know, I was just like, is it gonna be neat? She was like “don’t worry, yes I’ll do it neat” I don’t know why she kept sending me back and forth like a pony [laughs] Yeah so anyway she cut it and then what she done was she did this - and this is really cool ‘cause I wanted to try this when I got home but I didn’t do it yet So she did this thing where, let me see if I can get a bit of hair - this one’s already been done - so they got a bit like this, and they started doing this [indicates feathering of hair]. Yeah that’s to make sure the ends are like this [Alice touches the ends of Verona’s braids]. Yeah! So I would never have know that. So they do like this, pull it so that it’s like it’s erm, jagged, what would you call that? You know what I mean. Yeah I know what you mean but I don’t know what it’s called. They pull it out so that the ends are not just straight, like that sort of thing. So I brought this bundle with me, today, to show you guys. © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

Take my hair to work day. Then the other thing I’ve got to show you guys - sorry ‘cause I know you’ve got your own hair. So, I had this in and it got messy and I thought “what am I going to do because I haven’t got time to get my hair did! I haven’t got my nails done!” But erm, so what I done - I’ll show you really quickly, I hope this doesn’t mess my hair up, ready, don’t let it get in the ackee and salt fish. So, I put this on like this, make sure my earrings don’t get in the way, and I just twisted it and I absolutely love it. So as soon as this gets a bit messier, erm, I’ll do the same thing. So this isn’t hair obviously but just to show you, like this. And it gives you a bit of a facelift- if you’re like me, it just pulls up my eyes and everything. So my eyes look pretty [laughs] only joking. This is a boring topic that I’m doing here, sorry guys. See I do that, when I haven’t washed my hair. So when it gets really dirty and I can’t be arsed to wash it. Then I get a head wrap and just wrap it up. Is it on properly? It’s perfect. So that’s what I do. Without a mirror. Pro!

ANWEN: I suppose…one of the reasons I didn’t like it having long hair, is that I’m absolutely useless with hair, As you can tell from the fact that I do nothing to my hair So I think if you have long hair people will assume that you can do things with it, Which I think for me it would be an additional pressure as a performer that I also had to make my hair perform. Which is one of the reasons why it’s short I suppose. © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

Apart from the other day when someone said could I put it up in a bun and I was a bit like, no. I don’t have any hair stories at all, I don’t think. Very dull I expect Peter had loads!

Part 2 Featuring actors Ketorah Williams and Simone McIntyre with Peter Warnock KETORAH: Alright, so I think most girls have a hair bag. SIMONE: I don’t. You don’t have a hair bag? Where do you put your hair? I don’t, well I have like a shelf, with products. Erm.. I’ve got a bag for bendy rollers and rollers and clips and things like that. Ok. hmmm, I have a bag full of all different kinds of hair, different weaves, all sorts. This is what I’m gonna go with next. This is my headshot hair. So this is my wavy Brazilian [waves hair next to her own hair and waves] It’s gonna look amazing, It’s gonna look amazing. It’s not cheap. Do you want to feel? Ok, also, so when I take out this hair, if I’m being really lazy and I can’t be bothered with the process of trying to style my afro for a couple of days, I have one of several hundred wigs. Now this one, is actually like an inverted bob, It’s an inverted bob so it’s longer at the front it goes shorter at the back it’s got a fringe in, it’s brown, it’s got some different tones in it. Can you imagine me in that? I look a lot older in it an like quite sophisticated. What else have I got. Anti-itch. Very important. Every black girl knows about these kinds of products, because when your hair is in your tracks and your scalp starts itching you do need a range of products to really try and ease that because you don’t want to be [taps top of her head]. You know if you see girls at the bus stop just doing that loads tapping their head. I didn’t know there was such a product. © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

Oooh girl?! Okay so what kind of products do you use? Well I’ve got erm, do I get it out? Yeah. For the roots, for the sides. This one: Kera Care Edge Tamer. Good product. Actually their other stuff is good too. So I’ve got that. And I have, for when washing, Acai Thermal Protection Styler. What’s the other one - so this is Gloss Yeah, so before blow-drying, so even if your hair is not properly straight or whatever, it just makes it sheen-ee. I really like it. It’s not a gel, it’s like a cream. Can I see. [Simone shows her] oh okay. That’s why I like it. It’s like a miracle worker. You just need a tiny bit. I’ll show you a miracle worker. I have a miracle worker. I’m not going to show the price. This is Strength and Grow, Restore Leave-In Conditioner. It’s by Shea Moisture, and it’s amazing, it’s got like, all the products in it, all the ingredients in it are really natural. It hasn’t got anything in it that’s damaging for your hair. So it’s a bit pricer than most products but it’s definitely worth it and yeah, if you’re on a natural hair journey and you type “natural hair journey” into YouTube a lot of the girls, you will see with this product. That’s where I found it.

PETER: Gosh, well what can I say about that. During my time for working for a very well known bank. “Zee Bank, could not be bald”. So I had two length animals, I call them the animals, that I kept in a box, I still have them, But it meant that I could use various hair products and pack it out and make it all look bigger. A bit of a Kevin Spacey, not on the front, but on the top. But no, I’ve never had a problem. So that was the only thing I’ve kind of had to do hair wise. Sherlock Holmes, years ago, they tried to, I had very curly hair, they kept straightening every morning I’d have to appear for an hour and a half. I once played the werewolf, erm, and that took 4 hours of hair being added. So yeah, it’s all fun.

Part 3 Featuring actors Ayesha Casely-Hayford & India Ria Amarteifio With Anni Domingo AYESHA: I remember when you had your headshots when you were about 9 for around the time of Lion King And they brushed it all out in an afro, but you didn’t like it, did you. INDIA: No. Why? I think it’s because when I had my headshots done at the time, looking at people outside with European hair, Having their hair like, their mums saying “keep it straight! keep it straight!” “make sure it doesn’t get damp otherwise it will frizz-up” Like to me, when they said to frizz up, it sounded like a negative thing rather than it’s something to embrace because I think for European hair I mean I’ve never had European hair, obviously But because it’s such a thing like, people want to have straight hair, they don’t want to have frizzy hair, so when I had them done, I dunno, and even everyone was like “oh my gosh you look a bit mad”. Really? They said to you? yeah, even though I was younger they said, not necessarily hurtful comments, like to hurt me but at the time it didn’t seem like it was fair, like they just said it because it looked funny rather than, it wasn’t how my hair was, they were judging it from other people’s. Comparing. yeah. I understand you, So how does it feel for you being at school because you’re at Sylvia Young’s you’re at a performing arts school How does it feel for you with your fellow performers who have got different hair, do you have any feelings - do you feel like you’re with them, or you’re apart from them? Do you think about your hair? © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

Well Thursday and Fridays we do vocational studies, so that’s like dancing and singing and acting. We have to have our hair up in a bun for that. And it’s probably a bit easier for me to put my hair in a bun, and for them they’re always like really conscious looking in the mirror, sorting out their hair, making sure bits aren’t out at the sides, making sure it’s really flat. Where as I want to keep mine a bit puffier almost, because it doesn’t, because when it’s straight, it looks not like me, it needs to look, even though it’s up, it needs to look slightly afro, Because then that’s what my hair looks like, that’s what it’s like in real life So you find it easier, your hair’s done quicker. Yeah a lot easier. I don’t really look and go, oh I need to sort that bit out. Let it be. Yeah. ANNI: As an actor your hair is quite important sometimes because people don’t see you as something else, they see that face. So I have friends who if they know the kind of part they are going to, will put on a wig. I have wigs but I never use them for auditions. But I have used them for shows and it’s amazing how much it can change your look and erm, just the period. My hair is at the moment very modern and it looks like a modern person. Old, but modern [laughs] But I think that your hair as an actor can change the shape of your face, the character and so on. So yes, hair is important as characters, for representation of a character but not as a reputation of myself.