What Things Do People Say About Your Hair? by Ayesha Casely-Hayford

Episode 2: “What Things Do People Say About Your Hair?”

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

Alexandra Conlon

Alice Fofana

Tania Rodrigues

Ketorah Williams

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Ayesha Casely-Hayford

Verona Rose

! Simone McIntyre

ÂŠ 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

India Ria Amarteifio

Peter Warnock

Amrou Al-Khadi

! Linden Walcott-Burton

Tobias Deacon

Holly McFarlane

Syreeta Kumar

! Anwen Ashworth

Judith Quinn

Annabelle Brown

! Ann Akin

Anni Domingo

Nicky Goldie

Jasmeen James

Martina Laird

Andrew Macbean

This is a verbatim transcript of our interviews

What Things Do People Say About Your Hair? Part 1 Featuring actors Alice Fofana and Verona Rose with Martina Laird VERONA: Things people say about my hair, erm okay one of them, “your hair’s long for a black girl” ALICE: I get “your hair’s really soft” What did you expect it to feel like?! But then again, I have had somebody say to me, this is from back home, well my home town, not back home. Yeah, “your hair’s like a Brillo pad”. Yeah. That’s not even a lie I’ve actually had someone say that. No, I’ve just had “you’ve got really soft hair. I just didn’t think you’d have soft hair.” I don’t know what you thought I would have then! Because my hair’s usually packed away I would have it cane rowed, so when people see me with my afro, they’re like - “oh my God! You have hair underneath there!” I do! “It’s really soft” yeah! “Can I feel it?” That’s what I get, “let me touch your hair.” Ok I actually had a bus driver, this is when I had my hair in twists, big twists, I just had it up like a pineapple, I was a bit younger. And he was like “Oh, are you trying to make some kind of statement?” and I was like, what the hell? What does that mean? © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

I was so young I didn’t even know what it meant ‘are you trying to make some kind of statement’. I was actually really annoyed about that. I’m being serious. Well you know with black peoples hair, we do go all out. It’s true. That doesn’t matter, that’s just how our hair is. It doesn’t mean I’m trying to make a statement just because my hair isn’t the same as yours. MARTINA: At the moment I’m working on something, It would be called a period drama. It’s set over 100 years ago, 150 years ago. And I’ve opted for several reasons to wear a head wrap, or Tignon, as we call it as well. Part of the reason is to do with not having to do my hair every day. Because when we started out and they experimented with it they were kind of really combing it and pinning it and putting it in all kinds of places and it just ended up actually looking like I didn’t have any hair. It didn’t work with the styles that they were going for. And interestingly the actresses in the production who are not of colour are all given wigs, which accentuate obviously, their hair. And so I wasn’t being given that. So there was definitely not a level playing field there. So what I opted for before I realised the whole wig situation, thankfully, was the Tignon, as I said, and that was the head wrap. I had just done a wonderful production called “The House That Will Not Stand” at The Tricycle Theatre written by a wonderful playwright called Marcus Gardley And in the research that we did for that, which was set in 1806, what we discovered was that women of colour, there was an actual law passed in New Orleans in late 1700s and of course this trend would have then had repercussions Right down the West Indian Islands which had that French influence as well but also obviously communication between the cultures going right down from the main land of America and down through the archipelago. There was a law passed because the women of colour, the free women of colour, were wearing their hair in such elaborate styles and making such bold statements That people were getting jealous and people did not like that and thought they were actually calling too much attention to themselves. So they passed this law that women should cover their hair with cloth, with a wrap.

And of course what these marvellous, clever women did was they then started to make these wonderful elaborate head wraps that were even more of a statement than their hair styles had been. Somehow this attempt at oppression was turned into an absolute joyous thing and I just wanted to pay tribute to that memory in this character that I’m playing So I’ve chosen to dress her in these head wraps.

Part 2 Featuring actors Ketorah Williams and Simone McIntyre with Alexandra Conlon, Amrou Al-Khadi, Andrew Macbean, Annabelle Brown, Ann Akin, Anni Domingo, Anwen Ashworth, Jasmeen James, Judith Quin, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Linden Walcott-Burton, Martina Laird, Nicky Goldie, Peter Warnock, Syreeta Kumar, Tania Rodrigues, Tobias Deacon and Holly McFarlane KETORAH: Things people say, about your hair. I think as a child growing up people would say, “does your hair grow?” “Can I touch it?” “What does it feel like?” Erm, and especially in primary school I used to have the two cane rows, SIMONE: I had that too And I used to get a lot of comments about that. I used to be like “mum, I don’t want the cane rows!” But it was kind of the only way it would be manageable for throughout the whole week. Then as an adult I kind of get more, oh, why don’t you wear your natural hair, why are you wearing weave all the time. Erm, so I think it’s kind of gone around full circle for me. I remember my mum was never really a hair mum I remember, so she used to plait my hair, I used to call them doo doo plaits. I think some people might recognise that. I used to love going to my aunties’ and they would do like lovely braids, And then I discovered texturiser. Refused to get involved with the curly perm because I thought it looked whack and then texturiser because with that you can have it curly as well as straight. So people would say, “you change your hair a lot”. “How comes yesterday it was straight?” Its called a blow dry. They didn’t understand. Then when you want to relax and not stress out your hair, you just braid it. So it’s cool, We’ve got flexibility. We’ve definitely got a big range. Yeah, I like it.

Quick Fire Round: MY HAIR IS… MARTINA: Curly TANIA: A changing thing, actually. It’s always being changed different colours so in some ways, my hair is a disguise. ALEXANDRA: Shiny. A lot of people have commented on my hair in my life actually. It feels like it’s something that’s very like attached to me or what people think of me. ANN: My hair is a new friend maybe. SYREETA: My hair is very important to me. HOLLY: Blond. Big unpredictable, very long. JUDITH: At the moment it’s ginger and short. NICKY: Apparently my hair is a jew fro. ANNABELLE: It’s slippery and annoying and it doesn’t do what its told. ANWEN: Short and brown. It’s extremely thick. Yeah short and brown and thick. KOBNA: Natural. Unkempt. But waxed. LINDEN: Short. Brown, It looks black cause it’s short. ANDREW: My hair is grey. AMROU: Black and short and quite male but I often like to change it by wearing wigs. TOBIAS: My hair is blond. And a little bit curly. PETER: ...And I’m referring to you not to me?… Ok, my hair is balding brown. With a solar panel at the top JASMEEN: Beautiful. My hair is unique ANNI: Short. Quite thick and peppered with grey MARTINA: My hair is. Erm, curly. My hair. Oh my gosh I don’t know how to describe my hair! That’s a really tough one isn’t that really funny.

Part 3 Featuring actors Ayesha Casely-Hayford and India Ria Amarteifio with Nicky Goldie INDIA: Things people say about my hair “Oh my gosh, it’s so soft!” “can I touch it?” “What’s it called? Oh, that’s an afro! Never knew that!” Just really, irrational things. AYESHA: But it is soft But you don’t need to say it! If I said to someone with straight hair or European hair “oh God your hair’s so long!” I never thought of that. I would never say to someone oh, your hair is really soft who had European hair. Exactly. But they feel the need to kind of say it to me because it’s different. Or there is a different expectation or something. It’s interesting. I don’t think anyone’s every really said anything about my hair particularly, I’ll tell you what, since I’ve not had my hair relaxed, people have said, “I love you hair”. Actually, everyone says that to me. They love your hair? But my mum always says, you always want what you can’t have that’s true Which is true the grass is always greener Ever since I was little I’ve always wanted straight hair. I think everyone does with afro hair, at one stage. It just seems easier. It seems like you just want to be with everyone else. I did always put a skirt on my head. Did you do that? No! And flick it? No! and dance and sing? No! NICKY: When I was young, my mum apparently, although I never knew this at the time,

put a sign on the back of my coat, because people were so entranced by my hair when I was four and five and had hair, and they always used to touch it and want to feel it. Apparently it said “Please do not touch my hair” Because everybody wanted to touch my hair Even now people say to me, “oh my God your hair’s amazing, can I touch it.” And erm, I don’t mind people touching my hair, at all. Unless it’s very dirty but I’ve always wanted to have long hair I had dolls with long hair which I used to play with apparently for hours and do things to their hair. I used to plait them and put them in ponytails because I could never do that. And I really felt that I was, you know, missing out. And I had extensions once and this was in the days before the extensions looked like they actually were their own hair, they used to knot them into the roots of your hair and my extensions were green and brown and red and all sorts of colours Because I was a bit of a punky person I so enjoyed having that feeling of being able to do THAT!