In the first High School Musical film, Taylor McKessie, played by Monique Coleman, can be seen wearing thick headbands in the majority of the scenes in which she appears. This may seem like an intentional decision made by the costume designers, but Coleman recently revealed that there was a deeper reason behind this wardrobe choice.
What was the real reason behind this choice? The hairstylists on the set weren’t experienced with styling black hair. According to The Guardian, Coleman stated, “the truth is [the hair stylists] had done my hair, and they had done it very poorly in the front. And we had to start filming before I had a chance to fix it.” In order to cover up the job that was done, Coleman suggested that Taylor wear headbands throughout the movie, turning it into a fundamental characteristic of her onscreen persona. She claimed that the wardrobe department was open to the feedback from the cast, and she felt “lucky” that they were willing to incorporate her ideas. She also mentioned that, despite not having a stylist who could do her hair properly, she was grateful for the opportunity to bring representation by playing Taylor McKessie.
Although representation of people of color onscreen is becoming more common, black women are still facing difficulties with hair styling on set. Trina McGee, the actress who played Angela Moore on Boy Meets World, shared a similar experience as Coleman, stating, “I didn’t have a hairdresser on the set of Boy Meets World. All those little micro braids you see; I stayed up all night doing them right before I went on national television for myself.”
Actress Yvette Nicole Brown, known for her roles as Shirley on Community and Helen on Drake & Josh, weighed in on this topic as well, tweeting, “Most black actresses come to a new set w/ their hair done (me) or bring their wigs & clip-ins w/them. It’s either that or take a chance that you will look crazy on screen.” Actresses Vanessa Morgan and Ashleigh Murray from Riverdale, both quoted this tweet, expressing their agreement with the sentiments made by Brown. Also, Kat Graham from The Vampire Diaries made a video speaking about how she kept her hair in cornrows and threw wigs on to meet the expectations the crew had for her character’s look. There are many more black actresses who have weighed in on this issue as well, showing how common of an occurrence this is in the industry.
Summing up the issue and its solution, actress De’Adre Aziza of Passing Strange tweeted about how there are hairstylists out there that know how to style ethnic hair types, and “Hollywood simply [has] to care enough to hire them.”
In an interview for the 15th anniversary of High School Musical, Coleman told Insider, “We’ve grown a lot in this industry, and we’ve grown a lot in representation, and we’ve grown a lot in terms of understanding the needs of an African American actress.” But the consensus seems to be that there is still a long way to go.
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