A Bundle of Fear: "Bad Hair" grips into Colorism, Subjugation, & Cultural Appropriation

Elle Lorraine as Anna Bludso

I’ll be honest I was automatically intrigued by the “Bad Hair” trailer I saw on Instagram -- another film attempting to tackle the hair politics plaguing Black women for years. The million dollar question is: where does the obsession of (Black) hair originate from? Why is our kinky hair policed so much? Now that I’ve seen the film, I’ll say this … it creeped me out in many ways than one but in a “good” horror satire kind-of-way lol. I’m not into scary movies at all because let’s face it, I’m a scaredy cat and I don’t like movies that give me the feeling of weird energies. I'm protective of my peace.

Back to the movie, it just resonated with the little girl in me, all those times growing up I wished I had long straight hair like Pocahontas or Jasmine. Or those times I begged my mama for a kiddie perm, so I could be just like the other girls in my elementary class. The straighter the better, the longer the prettier I’d be received. This movie showed me how much of ourselves we lose everyday as we try to survive and thrive to get ahead. Anna Beluso (played by Elaine Lorraine) is a young aspiring Associate Producer, who is stuck as an assistant at the television network “Culture”. Culture is the pinnacle of Black 90’s music videos (Pop, Hip-hop, and R&B). The network goes under a reprogramming by the network's owner, Grant Madison (played by James Van Der Beek) who fires many of the black executives and hires lighter skin former supermodel Zora (played by Vanessa Williams) as the new manager of TV programming.

Soon after many employees find themselves unemployed after meeting with Zora, who is firing individuals who do not fit their new image or suggest many women employees to change their hair to appeal more to the “Cult Network”’s new audience. Everything around Anna begins to change as she begins to assimilate into the image-obsessed environment of the television industry. So to get ahead, she gets new hair better known as a hair weave. The whole ceremony is ritualistic and has grave consequences that Anna will soon realize. It reminds me of the time I got my first relaxer, I was so happy picturing how long my kinky hair would be once permanently straightened believing it would be easier to manage. For a while it was easy to comb through and sew-in ready when I wanted to add extensions to dress up my look. But I did not consider the damaging affects the lye chemicals were having on my hair and how visibly it burned the skin on my scalp.

Anna’s consequences were more horrific and supernatural in-nature but it was all the same; we sacrifice a piece of ourselves everyday when we subjugate ourselves to appeal to the European Beauty Standard. We are taught that our hair, the afros and kinky coils are not just bad but they’re ugly. This movie reverses the mirror showing that it is bad to suppress a woman’s beauty to one standard, loose textured hair. Now I don’t believe in saying that wearing your hair naturally is the only way to be your true self but I think the movie tackles on why Black hair is celebrated when it's hidden and tucked away underneath someone else’s hair. We lose a piece of ourselves because (the dominant) society teaches us that our desirability is attached to our hair but a hair that they understand or tolerate. So we play a rigged game to win, we change our hair, voices, and clothes to appear hirable in a competitive market.

This is shown to be true as the other women in the office begin to encourage other Black women to get a sew-in to keep their jobs at Cult Network. The hair has other plans of its own as Anna soon learns that she is not alone, as she constantly has bad vision after her hair install. She even almost forgoes her rent to appeal to the executives at her office in hopes of a raise. It's crazy because even in 1989 bundles were expensive. We are sacrificing our quality of life for a certain look, as women we are taught that value is associated with our hair and bodies. It's an exhausting standard that we spend most of our lives at the salon.

No more! Exorcise those toxic thoughts that you are incomplete, you are complete and you have the tools and the knowledge or the power to seek the knowledge to cultivate a beauty lifestyle that compliments your authentic self. Everything else is just trivial, healthy hair and protective styles or whatever makes you feel awesome is the standard -- and that’s on period pooh. There were some minor loose elements in the plot that were not tied up near the end of the film but the overall cinematography was amazing (Director Justin Simien). It lightly touched on black historical storytelling and slave lore, which the film is based on the “Moss Haired Girl”. Overall, it’s a good flick for “creeps n’ giggles”, Lena Waithe’s character (Brook-Lynne) does an amazing job of providing comedic relief in this tense thriller.

This film is available on Hulu. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.