Weave Come So Far: What the Movie 'Bad Hair' Brings Up for Me Regarding Black Women’s Hair

Photo of Anna, the main character int he movie, Bad Hair

You ever get some bundles of hair, get them installed and they just won’t act right? They won’t take color well or they frizz up with the slightest bit of humidity and will only hold a curl in the winter. Well, I’m here to tell you that has nothing on these weaves in the movie Bad Hair (streaming on Hulu). Set in 1989, the film stars Elle Lorraine, who plays Anna, a twenty-something Black woman, who wears her natural hair (pictured above). She’s an assistant at a television station with a goal to have her ideas for improving the station’s content taken seriously. And, one of the ways she realizes she can do that, is to change her image and her hair. So, she gets a weave.

I won’t spoil the movie for you, but I will talk about what it brought up for me when it comes to black women’s hair.

Weave Come A Long Way, But Still Have Far to Go

Weaves were not that great in the 80s for the everyday Black woman. Techniques and hair quality were being developed, so many women opted for what was available even if it didn’t look great. Black women were taught to hate our hair. It’s kinks and coils. Curls and textures were not celebrated on a large scale like they are today. So, Anna’s desire to change her hair to get where she wanted to be in her career was nothing new, and it still happens today. Bad Hair took me back to memories of being in elementary school and getting perms that burned my hair and scalp so that my kinky hair would become straight and silky, and therefore beautiful.

We’ve come a long way from the days of having perms and presses being the standard of beauty for hair for Black women, but we still have far to go. I used to get so excited when I saw my young middle-school aged Black girls wearing their kinks, coils and curls proudly to school. My friends and I wouldn’t have dared do that twenty-five years ago. You can hardly find a hair relaxer in stores now because so many Black women have opted to stay natural no matter how they wear their hair.

This is in no way an indictment on Black women who choose to wear relaxers, weaves, and wigs. I wear a weave. The movie just made me think of how hard things were to be different (be yourself, or wear your hair how you wanted) and how happy I am that the choices we make regarding our hair aren’t frowned upon like they used to be.

Why is Black Women’s Hair a Legal Issue? (CROWN Act)

Another thing Bad Hair made me think about was the fact that, although we’ve come so far with Black women (and men’s) hair being acknowledged for its beauty and uniqueness, there are still issues with certain hairstyles being accepted in schools and in the workplace. There have been several stories in recent years (Google them because I am tired right now, lol) about how Black students couldn’t attend a school event or school, because their hair didn’t meet the school’s standard. Their braids and dreadlocks (locs) were deemed unacceptable. Why? There are adults who also experience anxiety about going on a job interview with a natural hairstyle or braids because many still see those styles as unprofessional.

Like Anna does in the movie, I long ago realized that my natural hair isn’t bad. The system of White supremacy that deemed it unworthy and unpretty is what’s bad.

It’s so bad that lawmakers introduced an Act in California in 2019 that was signed into law to prohibit race-based hair discrimination. It’s Called the CROWN ACT and is now a law in these seven states: California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Washington and Colorado.

CROWN Act, which stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is a law that prohibits race-based hair discrimination, which is the denial of employment and educational opportunities because of hair texture or protective hairstyles including braids, locs, twists or bantu knots. The CROWN Act prohibits discrimination based on hairstyles by extending statutory protections based on race to hair texture and protective styles in state Employment, Housing, Education Codes (www.crownact.com).