Watching Detangling the Stigma

Director Jzayla Hughey opens up to her experiences growing up in New Zealand. Where her natural hair has been written out through policies. In New Zealand there are many schools whose dress codes penalize natural hair. Things like braids and puffs result in infringements. From an early age there is a policing of a natural appearance and the requirement to contort self to fit. The unsaid yet loud message being; you are not enough. We see footage of Jhayla and her sister as toddlers. The time before they knew how the world perceived their hair, juxtaposed with Jhayla now, embracing her crown. Like so many Black girls, she is learning how to care for herself as she was made.

Watching Layla Pitt style Jhayla’s hair is such a touching moment. It is intimate allowing someone to tend to a part of you that has been the source of trauma, be it big or little t. Combing out the tangles of all the work of the world through messaging and policy, to craft a renewed sense of self. The story is wrapped within beautiful imagery and a soundscape that seamlessly moves between ASMR, dialog and music. The pieces of this film weave together to create a full immersion into this vulnerable story. A story that speaks directly to the challenges faced by textured hair while poignantly exposing how we all have something we have hidden or changed about ourselves in order to fit. This is an experience many of us hold in one way or other and that owning our parts of self takes practice, time, love and attention.