Natural Black Hair, Identity, And Discrimination - Beyond The Scenes | The Daily Show

Hey welcome to beyond the scenes the daily show podcast that goes a little deeper into segments and topics that are originally aired on the daily show. This is what this podcast is like right. All right, you pregnant you having a baby, you go to have the baby right and the doctor be like surprise. You got a baby, then the doctor be like it's another baby in there it's a little smaller than the first baby, but we think you'll still love it. The same. That'S pretty much! What this podcast is today. We'Ve got a topic that was featured in the dull saiyan segment of the daily show. This segment is hosted by our daily show: correspondent, dulce sloan. In this episode of dil, saying she discussed the history of natural black hair, that's right! Y'All! We got beauty topics too scroll. The clip black hair is like gluten white people are scared of it, but for some reason, they're obsessed with it and for most of america's history white people have done whatever they can to stop black folks from wearing our hair. In its natural glory and our hair has a lot of natural glory when we lived in the motherland hair was so important that you could tell a family's name and social status just for their hairstyle. Basically, your hair was how you told all your business, and this is still true today - show me a black man's waves and i'll tell you if he drives the bins or runs after the bus, but when the slave masters came, they cut off our hair as a Way to control us and erase who we were - and you know how some people cut off their hair after a bad breakup. It was like that, except they didn't give us blonde, highlights so to walk me through this topic of natural black hair, because i do not have a lot of hair, so i can't be talking about no hair journey. I'M joined by dulce sloane and a couple of other producers and writers from the daily show first up well, first off dulce. How are you doing today, i'm well friend? How is you hi everybody, hello friends, also joining us daily, show deep dive producer, chelsea, williamson and daily show writer, josh johnson chelsea josh welcome to beyond the scenes, how's it going um how you doing hey roy well. Thank you, chelsea for sounding excited about talking about black women's hair, this damn misogynist over there. No, this is this is how i talk. I i didn't made to do anything bad. Are you excited yeah black women hair? You know this is actually why it's hard. For me to find love, because no one believes that's a whole lot, you got a whole girlfriend. You don't been with four years shut up josh, i said i said find, but you found it so shut up, yeah yeah, but before that this sounds like a topic for a separate podcast, still say before we get into this conversation about natural hair and everything that Goes within that journey, first and foremost just break down the term natural hair and what it means to be natural. So the term natural hair, real literally just refers to hair as it how it grows out of black people's heads. So just our natural curly hair, so hair, that's not been processed by chemicals um, so it hasn't been relaxed. It hasn't been jerry curled. It hasn't been s, curled ain't, nobody put no conch in it, but now - and i'm just asking as a layman and also a stupid man. Uh does heat when you apply heat to hair. Is that still technically natural hair? That'S just styled natural hair. It'S styled because, with hair that's been straightened once you wash it, it curls back up again: okay, gotcha, now, first off, how long have you all been natural? Let'S just start there like and was there anything in particular that made the two of you just go. You know what [ __ ] it i'm done. I would ask you josh, but i know sometimes you just put a pic in your hair and let the afro grow uh, but chelsea. We'Ll start with. You walk us through the journey to you deciding to go natural. Yeah, so i had kind of reached a point in college where i was getting the relaxers um and then i was getting my hair straightened every two weeks and in college you don't have a lot of money and that is expensive to do um and it just Didn'T make sense anymore either for me because, like my hair is like fine, so like the relaxers in my hair were not jiving very well, so i went natural in like 2015 and i transitioned, which is like. Basically, i kept the same length of hair for like three ish years and they were just cutting it. The relaxed ends off like over a period of about like three years, like i said and they'll say when when when was your, is it called an awakening? What'S it called when you decide, you know what i want to do something different, a decision because it's like so there's two ways to do it. I so i have been natural at multiple times but because, like my mother did my hair, because you know she went to beauty school and all of that, so my mother relaxed my hair and my mother would do my hair so like in middle school. I just always had braids, so braids are considered like a natural hair style, but i remember asking my mother: i was like mama. Should i go natural she's like no, you always need a perm, but that was because she didn't think that i would do the work needed to maintain natural hair, but in like 2009 i was like i'm good with this because, like my mama told me like she Stopped because i'm like 2006, she was like i'm not gon na. Do your hair anymore and i was like no one agreed to that, and so i was having to now go to like the dominicans to go. Get my hair done, and i was like i'm kind of over this because also it's like i like, like big hair, and so i was like well wait a minute. I grow big hair so because i was just tired of just seeing what i look like relax and i'm just like. Well, let's see how this works, so i grew my hair out for a year because my hair would grow so i would have to get a relaxer like every eight weeks, because i would truly have two different textures of hair and my hair would not sit down Because it was curls with flat hair on the end of it, so i grew my hair. For a year i had like sew-ins, i had braids. I had tree braids that all kind of stuff, and then i did what's called the big chop and so after growing it out for a year, i went to my mom's house and i was like cut it. It'S like you're gon na cry, because when she used to trim my ends as a kid i used to balk and my hair was getting shorter and she's like you're gon na cry, and i was like chop it off cut it. She cut it all off she's like how do you feel i was like yay, i felt pretty cause like. I wanted to see what my hair looked like, because i had done so much work trying to not have not have my hair on my head like it grows out of my head, so i was excited to see what it looked like and what i look like As an adult and a styled afro, because i'd never had a styled afro before you know, what's interesting about that, you know as it compares to black men, and you can correct me if i'm wrong, ladies, but it seems like because women have so many different alterations Of yourself that making the decision to go no, as my hair grows, is what i will choose to style and deal with josh. Were you making decisions because you have a fro now at what point did racism and discrimination if at all play a role in deciding to finally wear a fro or keep you from having a fro for a while? I i think that, for the most part, what ended up happening is. Is that my hair, i didn't fully understand it, and so i used to when i lived in chicago. I would just cut my own hair. I would just shave my own hair. I i tried to give myself uh a line up, but it didn't work and it looked like the bat symbol. It looked like that simple and here's the thing my natural hair, my natural hair, looks like the bat symbol. So then people wouldn't even see the work that they actually thought that i made it the ears on purpose, and i did it's just that that's how my hair grows. So then, eventually i was like hey. I want to see what my hair looks like something similar to what dual size talking about where i was like. Let me let me just grow it out, because i grew it out in high school and i went to this like. Obviously, you can't call it all white, because i was there, but i went to a predominantly white catholic school and i think that there was something about my hair that i was really proud of, especially my junior senior year that i wore and it was uh. It was so different because not only was i different, but now i had a hairstyle that was very different and i, as opposed to thinking it, would make me insecure or feel weird about it. I was actually very proud of it and it got to the point where other people thought it was as cool as i thought it was, and i only ended up shaving it when i moved chicago, because i just couldn't take care of it or anything. And then, when i grew it out again this time as an adult, i faced a different set of problems because at first like when i do my hair, when i shave it there's the bat symbol which is a problem. But then, when i, when i grow my hair out, there are a lot of other problems. That begin, so you know, dulce has been a true angel and friend and helped me out a lot in this journey taught me things that i didn't know uh. That, probably i should have known i - i probably looked like a person undercover trying to get black hair secrets from a black woman, because because i would ask her things sometimes where she was always she was never. This is the thing. This is why dolce is a true friend she never looked at me like so who would you like steal this hair from like, like like this clearly, isn't your head, you're growing it out of for you to be asking me all these questions, so she was always Very patient, helpful and everything, and then i think it became as i started, to do more comedy and um and get a little bit more known. It became synonymous with me like just that that extra circle around the circle that is my head and that that's like how people saw me from far away. That'S like how people came to know me the fact that my hair has changed now, i'm i'm really finding out who my true friends are because a lot of people don't recognize my face and we're not talking about a beard situation where no one's seen my face Before my face looks like it looked why i had afro, and now i just have these twists but and people are like what is it, but you got a mask on top of that too, you got a mask. You look different. You only look the same in the middle. I walked into the seller, no mask so the comedy club, where you work regularly. Yeah there were some people who were like hey, we uh. What was it? Oh, hey, i'm gon na need to see your vaccination card. I was like yeah you've seen it, i'm a comic i'm here like josh, i'm like yeah. This isn't a face-off situation like it's still my same head and so that that now i've i've moved into the twist scenario. I'Ve moved into the because dulce actually over the uh holiday did uh did a whole little twist up for me. You know we. We we celebrated the first day of kwanzaa by me, twisting his hair after washing and deep conditioning, because, if dave because christmas day i detangled his hair, then he came back over and i washed and deep conditioned and twisted his hair on the first day of kwanzaa. Why you don't never offer none of that [ __ ]? For me, i know my hair short yeah. You try and give me an edge up or something i got clippers, hey man. I know to do no clippers. If it's a bunch and the things that made me the most mad about um twisting up josh's hair is josh, has the hair that i wish i had like this [ __ ] has so much hair and i'm just sitting there doing his hair going i'll kill. You i was so jealous the entire time i was doing his hair, like the twist that i had just in the back of his head was the number of twists. I get on my whole head whole ass, hair envy, so so chelsea the deep dive department. I'Ve tried to explain it to people that the job of deep dive as a research unit is to go and find the groceries, and then the writers and the correspondents decide what meal to assemble, with the groceries that you go and find. So when you made the decision to pitch this dulcine segment on natural hair, what were some of the things that you discovered that you didn't know about the journey of black women and natural hair? What are some of the things you understa? You un? You discover uncover you know, y'all know what the hell, i'm trying to say: [ __ ]. Now, what were some of the things you uncovered in your research and then after that don't say i want to hear from you on some of the things you wish could have stayed in the piece. One of the things that i didn't know was how many like legal cases specifically existed. Um, especially in like the 80s, like we did go over the bo derek 10 moment where she wore braids and all of a sudden. It was like a craze all over the u.s, and you know there was actually a specific legal case where a black woman then was fired by her employer for wearing braids, and it was because the employer was like this is trendy. You know like this. You just saw 10 and that's why you did it and she's like no, this is a cultural hairstyle and she lost the case um. So i feel, like i didn't know, like all the details of like the legality like um. I wasn't as aware of that. So it was good to learn about that side of things and then other than that. I think just how far it goes into dress and workplace codes like it's like you know about it, and you know that is the reason that black women, um and black men did not grow out our hair, for so many years was because of dress and workplace And societal codes, but just like hearing about, like you, know the military, especially banning black hair, specifically in natural hairstyles, and all of that you know it, but it's like to actually like read it and see the cases themselves. It'S always a little bit different. So then, based on all of that dulce, what were the parts that were important to you? What were the points that you like? They got to know this because we always go into segments like all right. We know it's a lot of groceries. We can't put everything into the meal, but what are the things that had to be in there? For you? I think the great thing is is like the things that were included in the piece was everything that i wanted to see, but i think something that would have been interesting to talk about that we never really talk about. Is that when i started going natural, a lot of the slick comments that i got were from older black women about me going natural like i would just be out, and some woman would just walk past me like. Oh, your hair is napping. I'M like [ __ ]. Do you know how long it took me to comb this out? I did a twist out. I combed it like it's like this hairstyle. This hair is done, but we don't talk about how, because that hair, our natural hair was seen as unkept and nappy and unprofessional that permeated through black culture. To the point that you know, we didn't wear our hair natural into like the 70s and then after the 70s, everybody was relaxed again and then we did it again in the 90s when the pro black movement and then we were relaxed again and then now we've Come back to because after the 90s we've kind of like been able to like kind of maintain having natural hair but like in the 80s, you really didn't see. You saw alfred woodard, maybe on a tv show he was a sister soldier immediately. If you hadn't used angela davis with him off the top off, who called you, angela davis josh, no, no one called me: angela davis, okay, it wasn't a b thing. I i was gon na make a totally different point uh, but uh yeah, to what you're saying i feel like, because our hair was seen as this unkempt or it had to be conformed uh in a way to make it comfortable for other people, no matter how Uncomfortable it was for us that now you see crazy hairstyles that i actually think are super progressive. I feel like the weekend has done things for black hair that we're never gon na have to go back like that. Don'T you dare the weekend has made. No, no! The weekend has made such an insane move that the overtune window has shifted so much that now everything is is dope them locks where everybody just looks like a lego or palm trees right. The palm trees yeah first thought it looked like the play-doh man or the um. The pilon ceo, like the that mexican, like the candy, the spanish candy, where the tamarind comes out, the the peanut seal. That'S what that looks like, and i was like. Oh so we're just honestly, i'm glad we're free uh to be able to walk out here like jim henson characters, but sometimes it's like okay, sir, you know what i don't get it and also there's a lot of things. I just don't get, and i'm just like this isn't for me. You know this is for the children, i'm glad they're just free, but your dreads look nuts and that's my only thing where i'm just like it can be wild, but i just wanted to look right. Like it's like, but i can say that it's just the person's interpretation, because we've all seen certain like certain sets of locks and been like that's just the wilderness or people's afros, where you're, just like, ah or sometimes you know, when josh would get the sleep box Right yeah, but here's the thing: here's the thing. Not only did i love my was short. I actually felt like it looked like a plan because when it was when it was short, it was like so tight in my sleep, but okay. So for anyone listening that doesn't know what a sleep box is um. I when i was initially growing my afro out. I so i have night terrors right, and so i would go to bed and i would do a lot of rolling around because i'm i'm in my in my dreams, fighting for my life and when i woke up, i would have essentially a nice smooth over pressed. Look that was completely even it was like a miracle. It was like completely even and once my hair got long enough, it no longer looked like a plant or anything, but the people of the sleep box was amazing. Listen, we know we were never on board um, but because the thing is, if he tried to do it, it wouldn't have made sense. But what you needed was those two two good hours on this side and then two good hours on the back and then two more hours on the other side, and so you just had that pressure kind of lit. So it looks like a box haircut. So sometimes we would come in, but you know i loved uh how cuz josh didn't your mom call you will i ain't one day? Look i've had a lot of hair things happening in my life, okay. So this is my thing. The reason i bring up the weekend the reason that i think all this is good stuff is because to me that's what freedom looks like freedom is the freedom to maybe not make the best choices, that's real freedom. I mean if that is, and it's like so the fact that we don't ever talk about how, like the things that we say to each other, because, like i knew growing up, i couldn't walk around, be a little girl with the afro, because aunties would not allow It like that hair is not getting pressed. It'S not getting relaxed like the only time is a little black girl that your hair can be really natural is if your mother's, putting it in like barrettes and little braids and stuff like that yeah, you were never walking around with an afro ever because, if you're Walking around with an afro, it's like, oh, your mama, didn't have time to do your hair. Why are you out here? Looking like this after the break, i want to talk a little bit more about that bo, derek situation and the kind of modern version of it with regards to the kardashians, and once you choose to go on a natural hair journey, i need to know how do You learn: where do you learn? Who teaches you who becomes your natural hair yoda we'll do that beyond the scenes? Chelsea, you just told us. Uh excuse me daily, show deep dive producer, chelsea williamson uh. You just spoke in the previous break about a black woman who lost her discrimination case with her employer because she had cornrows like bo derek which surely she only did because of bo derek right. Can we talk about how ridiculous that is, and also like? Wasn'T there like more of a present day version of that with the kardashians yeah i mean cultural appropriation of black hairstyles is nothing new um in the least, and i feel like it is something that we've been seeing for years and years and years and most recently Through the kardashians, like, i remember when kim first started wearing those french braids and they started calling them boxer braids, but actually they were box, it was just like they were taking and making all these new words for these things that, like black women, specifically have been Doing for, like hundreds, thousands of years, hey guys, this is my mound of hair, you mean afro, no mound of hair. Well, the thing is like, and i'm not always here to defend, because i mean i love them, not care what nobody says. But the thing that was like, because i remember as a little girl wanting like the french braids, because a little girl said french braids and then my mother kept putting cornrows in my hair, and i was like two french braids looks great. Two cornrows does not look cute right, especially it doesn't get the same effect right unless they're gon na be huge, and so because, like two cornrows is like this is utilitarian. Like i've got, this is i'm getting hair out the way cuz like i currently have on a wig, my hair isn't two cornrows going underneath it. I only learned how to cornrow decently during lockdown, and it was only to get my hair under a wig, because my protective style in the wintertime, because winter cold weather is too much for an afro is a wig. So when i started seeing because the reason i started calling boxer braids because those ufc girls were wearing them to keep their hair out of their face, because i guess a ponytail wasn't enough right and then all of these white girls started wearing these box. They call them boxer braids and we were just like they're just cornrows, and then it became a trend, so the kardashians started wearing it and they're like oh, my god. It'S cultural appropriation, wait! Wait. Why? Wouldn'T we yelling at them ufc girls because they started it because that's where a stupid term came from, because if it would have started with the kardashians, they would have been called boxer braids. They would have been called like. You know him something else. You see what i'm saying like chris jenner would have coined a term for this. You know the term came from girls in the ufc, so no one was saying that it was cultural appropriation on that side, but now we're yelling at the kardashians for doing cultural appropriations. I think the issue is that i don't think any of the ufc fighters knew that they were getting boxer break. They were just like just braid your hair, so they don't so you don't get knocked out and then it was called boxer braids by the people. The zeitgeist at large, if you will so i guess the thing is that the kardashians, because they've always aligned themselves so close to black culture, anything that they do that dabbles in black culture. I think there's an expectation or a demand from black people, that the kardashians have a knowledge of what it is they're doing and i think a lot of the time they don't. But when those girls who did ufc, they also grew up in america. So they know what cornrows look like, because if the option was they could have just got french braids, because the only difference between a french braid and a cornrow is how you turn your hands. It'S the same technique, except for a cornrow. You pull the hair under the braid and for a french braid, you pull the hair over the braid. It'S the same thing, because i literally did like a commission place in a communication class in college. We had to do a like a speech where we had to like teach how to do something and that's what i taught was like. This is a cornrow. This is a french braid and there were black girls and white girls in class. Like wait, a minute, we've been doing the same thing, the whole time like basically, but those girls knew they were getting cornrows, so they should have been getting heat too. Everybody should, if we mad we mad. Why are we picking and choosing the only difference? The only thing i'll say about the pick and choose it is people came for kim because she cannot fight. I think that a lot of people wanted to say something to those ufc girls, but they were like hey. She is covered in blood. She clearly doesn't have she's not operating at the same level like maybe we've got to let this one go like i'm sure i mean a lot of those a lot of those ufc fighters have partners and i'm sure one of the partners wanted to be. There might be, there might be a partner that just knew saw. The whole thing covers like baby. You may want to call them corals because never mind. You know what i'm gon na get uh. Don'T tell me what to do. I'M a fighter, i'm gon na go ahead and get dinner ready. Uh! Don'T don't worry about what i said so chelsea to dolce's point about learning, cornrows, basically as an essential tool for the creative evolution of her career? What was your journey like in learning? How to do different natural hairstyles and maintain like where did you learn like once you make the decision all right, i'm gon na be natural. Where do most people go to learn how to do that to the maxima, i feel josh. I would ask you josh, but you go to dulce's house, so i'm not going to ask you. I definitely learned on youtube university, which is what it was called in. 2015. um youtube university has been saving [, __ ]. Yes, i learned on youtube university and um. You know was just looking up various like natural hair youtube. Videos like that was like. I want to say. The like mid 2010s is like the peak of like natural hair youtube um. So i was just in honestly with like everybody else and all the natural hair blogs like, so there was just a lot of ways to kind of figure it out, but i tried everything most of it didn't work honestly, like i remember when everybody's like. Oh, you got to put the oil in the gel and then the and all this stuff that was taking like 20 steps and, like i had to go through all that pudding, like i remember you know, or at one point putting rice water in your hair, was Supposed to help and like you know, henna and rice fix everything, rice, water, putting henna on your hair, like just all this kind of stuff that like it, makes it stronger and it works so well for natural hair. I went through all of that um. Only more recently have i started like following natural hair stylists on twitter and i've like got down pat like in the past, like six to eight months. Would i say like now, i'm like okay, i have a generally like three-step rule, it's pretty quick and like i don't take all this time because it really used to be a wash day for me, and i was tired of it like. I was like nobody has time for this, and now i'm like it's like an hour and a half i'm in and out like because i was like. I can't do this. I think you get to a point, though, and it's also been taught to a lot of girls, because we do you learn from a lot of people from the internet. Is you think you have to do like these 10 to 20 steps to get your hair? To look a certain way, and it's like you really don't honestly for most of us, it's best to keep it simple, but you do have to kind of have that trial and tribulate like the trial and tribulations of it. I feel like every natural hair, like every girl with natural hair, has gone through it, where you were just at one point, doing a bunch of things and it was taking you seven hours to do your hair. Well, the other thing is it's like one. It'S that's! Why, like hair type started being such a big deal, because it's like my mother and i have completely different hair types. So my mother's hair is a much looser curl than mine, so my mother's hair grows differently than my hair. So i had to because like when josh came over when i deep conditioned his hair, i made the conditioner, because when i deep condition my hair, i make the conditioner and so like a party being put like during yeah when dulce was doing it. I thought she was cooking for a second like wait like like some of that conditioner be smelling, good dog yeah cause, she smells edible, she had the egg and she had the avocado and stuff i was like. Oh, i didn't, i didn't know it's gon na, be breakfast too. This is amazing. It was an egg and avocado and um olive oil because i didn't have enough. I didn't have enough of my sweet almond oil and i blend it up and then, if it's i make enough, where i'm gon na put it in the fridge, because this is all i'll take. Some of like my uh, regular, like the store-bought deep conditioner, because there's like preservatives and chemicals in it and i'll mix, some of that in sometimes if i'm making a big batch so it'll stay in the fridge, because, if you just put olive oil and egg, you Just basically fancy ass mayonnaise, that's not gon na last a month! So but it's something like the last time i did it. I took like a whole leaf of aloe blended that [ __ ] up too, because, like people were like making their own gel, so you have to customize it based on the texture of the hair, is what you're saying it's? Not even just the texture of the hair, it's you know, my like josh has low porosity hair, meaning that josh's hair her hair is uh ashy. His hair is always dry. My hair is hyper, so it takes josh's hair, a long time to get wet yeah and then it dries very quickly. My hair gets wet quickly and does it takes longer to dry? So you have to know when you're conditioning it's like people kept talking about the lock method, the lock method. So it's like use like a liquid and then an oil and then a cream. And then i remember going well oil seals the hair. So if you're putting a cream on after you seal the hair, then you're just wasting [ __ ] products, it's not making sense, yeah, it's not making sense and then ever - and i remember i remember when everybody was putting hours like it - was like 2016., everybody was Putting coconut oil on everything oh oil, pulling. We was putting it on our skin, we was putting on our hair and it's like you had to learn that putting oil on something doesn't moisturize it putting oil on something, makes it oily. So people putting coconut oil on dry hair and then they just had oily dry hair. So then we had to go through this whole cycle with coconut oil, and then everyone was like okay. We should be doing this like this, so it was like okay, it was moisturizing, it was crazy, so there's every couple of years, there's a trend, it's a trend, but the reason that there's a trend in the way we treat our hair is because for so long We weren't allowed to wear our hair as a crew out of our head, so we literally lost the connection of how to take care of our hair because for how long up until like the 70s, they brought us over here in 1619 from 1619 to the [ __ ] 1970s, we weren't doing our own hair. We were braiding it up and putting it underneath something you weren't you know or like. If you look like the early 1900s, they were styling their hair to look like european hairstyles, so you were still putting heat on it. You know they don't like the marcel iron, hot comb and all that other stuff. We were putting heat on our hair to be able to do hair european hairstyles and black men, even though they wear their hair quote-unquote natural. They still had to keep it cut low, yep yep. They had to keep a cut low. It wasn't so it wasn't like black men were walking around with big-ass afros in 1935; no, they was putting parts in it in the 30s, looking like cat callaway and [ __, ], confident so cam calloway with the waves after the break. I want to expand on that point dulce, because i want to talk about the responsibility that we have to one another as a black community to foster positive relationships with our natural hair and what the resources are, and we need to talk about the legislation side of This and the crown act and exactly what that is and um i'm gon na tell you about a terrible haircut. I almost got in canada, but we don't talk about hairstyles. We regret we this. This is beyond the scenes. Yes, canada. I was up there. Let'S talk about the crown act, let's talk about the legal side of change on this issue with black hair and then let's talk about what we could be doing as a black peoples in the community chelsea break down the crown act for us yeah, so the crown Act was founded and it stands for um, creating a respectful and open world for natural hair um. If i'm not mistaken, and it basically was created to fight these legal battles and to try and make sure i'm sorry them letters mean something yeah. I just thought it was an acronym, it's an acronym, that's why it being all uppercase in all caps yeah, oh, i thought y'all was just always typing it wrong. Anyway. Continue all right! All right. We did our research [, __, ], no problem, but yeah. It'S created to fight against these um discriminatory, like practices and codes that are existing in laws and in workplaces and dress codes um, and i think it's been legalized in quite a few states, but not every state. It'S legal to like where your natural hair, as is, which is crazy, to say out loud, but is true um. So that's what the crown act is seeking to do. It'S like seeking to actually go and make sure that natural hair is legal in every single state, because that should be a no-brainer. The only time that that seems like a bad idea to me is when i see these football players with the long wrong locks. Yes cause, i was watching some football game and i saw a lock on the field. Oh yeah, no, they deliberately target your locks and then we'll take it off the field like a trophy like the predator, because they said it's not a part because, like grabbing the locks isn't concluded like grabbing the uniform right yeah, it's it's all part of your physical Being i can legally grab that if you're a football player, wouldn't you tuck your locks into the back of the uh? Oh because then how would you not know i'm a bad [, __ ] yeah, some of them do it? Oh gotcha gotcha, some of them that don't want a bald spot. They do it. But oh yeah, you gon na leave with a plug that ain't gon na have a plug, but do they make the guys with just like long hair? Do they make them tuck their hair, like detroit pomelo used to tuck his hair, i feel like palamalu, i feel like his. I feel like his hair flowed from under his head, but, like that's like he wanted a few nfl players with a with a shampoo commercial right. He had a head and shoulders ad full. Well, that's some gorgeous man, though wait. Is he tongan someone yeah somewhere over there? I ain't gon na guess i ain't trying to get canceled he from over there. Listen i'm making people with one of them i'll make some humans with that. I got a problem right there, so we can legislate some level of acceptance, but what are things that we could be doing as a people to create more acceptance within our community when it comes to supporting people on the natural hair journey? Are we not supportive? I mean embrace everything that you see because i feel like this is what's happening. When you're white, you can have like literally the same hair. Somebody else minus one thing and it's a whole different hairstyle, there's no there's no way to wear white hair. That is not considered a style like you can't like, even if it is unkept they're still like that's, where grunge came from like there's no situation with white people where they're doing something wrong with their hair, they may be doing something. That'S like unkempt to someone else, but everything is a style, and i think that we still have like a little bit of of um of ways to go when it comes to like there are the ways our hair grows. Naturally, so a lot of people naturally lock up a lot of people naturally get afros everything, but then there are some things where i think that kind of what dulce was saying before there is like some self policing in there where it's like. Well, why can't? He have like you know, a sort of like s curl to the side or what, like whatever goofy thing. It looks like because then the same way that fashion works, that'll like give rise to a thing, that's actually cool one day like it'll inspire because i think, but i think it's because we have been taught that we have to be presentable. And i don't know if this is all black people are just southern black people, but we have when you step out the house. Also, we are flashy ass people. We are flashy ass, get dressed like, like, i remember, being in vegas, and we were going on a show and the only people that were dressed up to go to because, like these are like you know, vegas shows like big ass. Vegas shows these hotels and stuff. These white folks out here it's cargo, pants and margaritaville t-shirts. Black folks was dressed. There might only been a few of us there, but we go we. When we go out, we go out, you can't even the most hood ass dude, his sneakers are still clean. You see what i'm saying so for us to get past the self-policing. We would also have to get back the fact that, like yo, if you don't come out the house looking a certain way, even if you have no money, you still come out the house looking decent, you see what i'm saying changing that definition of decent within our People right because you still have to come out the house looking presentable, because you already have to deal with all the racism and all the other stuff, no matter how many degrees you have, if you're a [, __ ] in a benz, you a [ __ ] In a benz it don't matter, you're still a target, so the mindset is, if i'm gon na be a target. I got ta look good. So it's like why, so i think sometimes i'll see certain people like yo. Why are you going if you out here with your head, looking like this and your clothes is a little unkept you're, inviting the cops to [ __ ] with you, and i think that's how sometimes we think, because even if you out here looking nice, the cops Are still gon na [ __ ] with you, but see what i love now about us as a people, they'll say to that point. If i can piggyback and extrapolate on your po to that point, what i love is that in the 90s in alabama, the perception would have been why he out here looking any kind of way, you ain't got no good head. You need to brush your head, whereas now i could see a black person with locks with dreads with the afro that they ain't quite figured out what they want to do, but yet and just respect that they on the journey. It'S almost in the same way the hoodie has become this accepted you, you didn't want to look like a certain type of person. If you wear this, where now it's like no, this is what i wear. I'M proud to wear it, and i want you to respect and accept me, no matter what i'm doing on my body, be it hair or clothes chelsea. How much does what what role do retail display? Because because y'all y'all know my girl y'all know my partner salon and salone like meets with other women with natural hair just on the street, like they just see each other, and just you got ta, add your hair. I got natural hair where you get your natural hair, stuff yeah. It'S like a conversation like it's like buying weed in 1982.. How much of a responsibility do retailers play in getting more hair care products and creating more shelf space for this style of hair? That'S becoming more prevalent, i think, they're a big part. I also think that a lot of them need to stop having an ethnic hair care line like aisle um, there's still a lot where it's literally called the ethnic hair care aisle the black. It'S like just put it in the hair care section and we will know here's your section negro, here's your section. I love that i love it. I don't want to get confused by pantene and all this other goofy [ __ ], how about [, __ ] over here i'll go okay, [ __ ] that you can segregate that i don't have time to be [ __ ]! Ah, i don't be going through garnier fruit trees, all that suave [ __ ] no put my [ __ ] over here. I know my hair gon na get moisturized instead of me getting tricked by bottles, looking alike and now, all of a sudden i got baby [ __ ]. I got johnson and johnson. My [ __ ] house keep my you can keep my [ __ ] separate chelsea. Excuse, excuse separate, but equal over there go ahead. I understand what you're saying i do understand what you're saying though duel say, and i also don't mind. Maybe if you have it in a specific section, that's fine, but i just don't think that needs to be called the ethnic section like i think, look at it yeah. It does not need a name. If we look at it - and i see cantu and shea moisture, i know where i'm at you know right um. So i would say, like that's a big thing and then also a lot of these companies need to be a lot more wary about what they're putting into these black hair care products, because haircare products in general have a lot of chemicals, but especially black ones, because They were made for, like a lot of them, used to be made for people with relaxers. They had to have a lot of stuff in them. Um that may not have been very good. I think that could also be um improved and then yeah also just depending on the different textures like. I think you need to carry stuff, that's for all textures of curly hair um, not just for women with looser curl textures and just so everybody is being included. All i know if one more white person comes up to me talking about diva curl, i'm going to jail. Do they try to touch your hair? Are white people still trying to touch black women's hair in 2022? Is the memo been spread still trying to touch women? Um in any year, in any decade, no it's white people all of a sudden are now wearing they're curly. I guess it's trickled down to them, yeah! No, it has. It has now they're, not straightening their hair like they used to, and i don't know whose company diva curl is. I'Ve never met any black woman who has any type of four texture that uses it. I don't even know about the three that uses it. You know they're like yeah, diva curl and i'm like. I don't use this [ __ ], i'm not. I have 4c hair we're. Not we don't have the same needs you're still having to strip oil from your hair. I don't need there's no there. I have nothing to strip i'm just trying to cleanse and moisturize so now they're starting to triple down. So now there are, you know: non-black people of color and white people with curly hair that are now like shea moisture got in trouble a while back chelsea. You remember this yeah folks was mad because they had a commercial and it was some curly hair, redhead girl in the commercial - and i think the main thing was that was the first commercial yeah that shea moisture was going to put on tv, and it was a Curly haired white girl in it and black women were like yo. We'Ve been on board with y'all since day. One and y'all do y'all's, first commercial, there's a white girl in it, yeah yep, the hell are you talking about and i think they ended up pulling the commercial or something the store that always carried the most natural like black hair products. For me that wasn't the beauty supply store was walmart. I was about to say walgreens yeah, yeah walmart had it and then target all of a sudden started. Cuz like before you had to go, hunt down carol's daughter, yeah. You had to go. Hunt down shea moisture. You had to go, hunt down to leo with g 80s right and so now it's i can roll and target and go and get these products right, and so there has to be a thing where it's like we have to talk about. You know we have different textures of hair and different textures of hair have different needs because, like i can tell on with, if there's a black girl on tv that curl gon na be loose, we don't even have time to even get into that because the more Natural hair styles, you see on television, helps to normalize natural habit. Then that means that you have to hire people who know how to do natural hair so that you can get the right hair care for the actors and the actresses on set who have natural hair. Lord, this lady tried to cut my hair the wrong direction. One time on the show we don't even have time the wrong direction. I cut my hair to the front. She took them clippers and went to the back like i was getting enlisted in the marines. So to close out the show, let's stay right there in that pocket everybody one by one, give me your worst hairstyle you ever had hairstyle you thought was the [ __ ] and you look back on her and go. I should not have done that josh johnson. It'S fitting that i go first, i guess wow what an attack, what uh cause you said, all of it like you were ready right, like just your worst hairstyle that you thought was popping it was at josh like it was. It was all one breath once josh. I know you got six or seven in the clip come on. Give us one bless us well i'll, give you one. That was not my fault, so i got a haircut from a guy that while he was cut by hair, his fiancee broke up with him, and so then he still tried to finish the cut emotional. Like stressed out everything then at one point he like tries to call her so he's like. Can i can i just say i was like hey: do what you got to do and then he calls her doesn't win her back on the phone call. So now i just he has the now he's worse now he has the rest of my head to do and then i get i get on the bus, and i know i don't look good because he didn't offer me the mirror he was just like. He was just he was finished and it was like i pippin, like uh. I appreciate you coming through appreciate, you understand and everything but like he's still like so upset that he's not in the world and so then uh i leave, and there was there was someone who genuinely walked up to me all the buses when i was in chicago Watching me on the bus i was like uh, are you? Are you all right like do? You have somewhere to go and i was like you were homeless, a hundred percent, a hundred percent, and they gave me a a one love as they got off the bus, and i was like wow okay. This is the probably the worst haircut that i've ever had in my entire life. It was like you know what it you know. What the only thing i can compare it to is uh. It'S actually dual's like this is why i was so stressed out about getting haircuts. Was this this exactly, but it was the close that i can think to it is in the commercial roy. You might remember this in the commercial for the video game. I think it was ready to rumble where one of the guys, like the black guy with the afro guy, hit really hard and a piece of his afro came out. It was like that, oh bit of a piece of my brow chelsea give us a legacy hairstyle that you look back on with regret. I'M going to guess i feel, like you had finger waves at some point. No, i never had finger waves, but the first time, and only time i ever did twists on like when i was transitioning but pretty much natural. I got them done in a salon. I don't know what well my hair is fine and thin. Let me say that, because fine and thin girl girls will understand um, my hair's not made to be twisted, like that. I looked like an ostrich like i sent a photo to my father and he was literally like you look like an ostrich because it was just like all these curls that were just sticking out and it looks like like single curl like it looks so bad. I literally had to go home and wash my hair and do it all over again. They'Ll say i'm gon na guess, yours, i'm gon na say queen latifah, mother of egypt, high top fate. Okay, my mother would never forget permitted me to have a high top fade. Um, what i can say is that in like uh, the early 90s i lived in miami, we moved back to miami and the trend at the time in miami was to make every little girl look like a grown ass woman. So i remember being in p.e and me and the other little black girls. They were like we're playing flag football, we're like. Ah, these finger waves got to last all week coach, and so i have finger waves in miami. I have french rolls, so you basically had every hairstyle from the movie baps with halle berry, not that bad, but because i would have. I would tell you i look like i was 10 years old, 19 years old and i look like a young executive. That'S what i would tell you i had i'm talking about so basically, some of the hairstyles from like the movie uh boomerang so tlc right. So i had the finger waves that went to a french role. Like i looked like, i was running hr when really i was just learning how to divide. That'S really what i was doing, but the thing that i hated the most because i loved all them hairstyles, but my mama. So when a lady of rage came out, so it's like 94, i guess like the afro puffs was you know she came out with a reference stuff for her afro pups, but my hair was relaxed, but my mama wanted me to have afro puffs. So what she did is she gelled my hair up in a big two big ponytails and then got uh the two-tone black and burgundy weave and gave me afro puffs like the curly black and burgundy hair, because burgundy hair was really big. Burgundy and platinum. Blonde was real big at the time and gave me burgundy and black big afro puffs, and i absolutely i hated it burgundy. She an atlanta falcons fan, oh my god, that was the hair, because in miami at the time it was you had like a two-tone where it was like black that faded into burgundy, the kids call it like a balayage or own brain now, but this [ __ ] was two-tone hair, it started, black went burgundy or it was blonde, and since i was a little girl, they were like she can wear burgundy, but she can't wear blonde gosh. Dulce'S mama gave her a fast and furious paint job. First of all, what will not be allowed respectfully respectfully respect? Okay, listen! This was miami's in the early 90s, they was putting acrylic on people's toes. You understand it's a colorful time. It was a colorful time. My worst haircut is the one i ended up, not getting. I was doing a show in calgary and calgary for the people who don't know that's a part of canada. That'S very wyoming montana-esque in terms of what it feels like and the black population up there, and i was there. It was the last day of shows and i had an audition in l.a the next morning like as soon as i land i got to get straight to the audition, so i knew there wouldn't be enough time to get a haircut in la so i figured well. Let me just roll the dice and see if i can get a haircut here in calgary and i i asked one of the other comedians: hey where's it he goes, but there's a barber shop. He didn't say this spot. Does black care. He just said: there's a barber shop and it was in a mall that was strike one.