“I coulda did Halle’s hair in The Little Mermaid,” says Arlette Pender, Kitchen Beautician Turned Hairstylist to the Stars

This is second of two reflection posts made by Karen Lee on behalf of The Black Pledge about the organisation and the current state of anti-Blackness in the Toronto theatre scene.

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Arlette Pender, courtesy Roshan Spottsville

I started doing hair for $12 so I could be paying for my dance classes. So I like to say I’ve been a business woman since I was 12. Miss Arlette not only financed her jazz and pro class dance lessons in Brooklyn, but graduated beauty school, garnered a list of celebrity clients, moved to Arizona, and founded HAIRLOKS by Arlette, a natural hair care studio with her own product line and training program. My Hair is Beautiful, her non-profit movement, offers workshops and mentorships for girls ages 5-13. CURLYLOKS, is a community service to educate, train and help mothers of all ethnicities care for & style their African American or bi-racial children’s hair and skin. From kitchen beautician at 12 years old, Miss Arlette is now a Master Hair Care Pioneer, beautifies celebrity clients, is published in Essence Magazine, and is the author of A Suite Business: How to Obtain and Operate a Salon Suite.

Miss Arlette, was flown in from Arizona to Toronto, to be Adrienne C. Moore’s personal hairstylist for her character Det. Kelly Duff, in Pretty Hard Cases, CBC. I processed Adrienne’s hair every morning in 18 minutes. So seamless were Miss Arlette’s hair pieces, weaves and extensions that Production didn’t even realize that what they were seeing was not entirely Adrienne C. Moore’s real hair. Miss Arlette had to problem-solve, reportedly losing sleep while enduring hostility from the key on Pretty Hard Cases:

“In Season 2, they wanted Adrienne’s hair in tight ponytails or a bun. I was up all night trying to figure out how I was gonna get Adrienne’s hair into a bun because her sides and her back are cut very short. So, I had a wig I was trying to design…I asked one of the assistant hair stylists to help me cut the wig into a bob. And oh, my goodness! It was a big thing. She told the key…The key took me outside and she reprimanded me like I was a young child. And I was like well, if that wasn’t protocol, all you had to say was don’t do it, but she reprimanded me like I was a young child.”

While negotiating this hostility, here's how Miss Arlette delivered:

“Girl, I got her hair down in a rubber band, then I pinned these braids onto the back to make a bun and it looked awesome! And I was very pleased…Girl that was the hardest hair I did. Adrienne asked, “What kind of sorcery are you doing right here?” because I couldn’t blow dry her hair. She didn’t want any heat on her hair so I had to figure it out. ”

Even though Miss Arlette is a Master Hair Care Pioneer, specializing in undetectable hair pieces and hair texturing, she needed to be licensed to work on Pretty Hard Cases. The fact that she does not work with chemicals was irrelevant…going over to Canada, they were trying to make it an issue because they have a union… Skilled hair and makeup artists like Miss Arlette, face barriers getting into film and television unions. 

The George Floyd awakening impacted film, TV, and theatre in Canada and the United States, sparking many panels on anti-Black racism, DEIB interventions and surveys. One such panel, The Future of Equity in Hair and Make Up - Pt 2, features panelist Sarah Koppes, HOD Film and Television Stylist and Chair of Hair Department. She confirms that to become a permittee, you need 60 days plus a license…then you need 90 days on a production to become an IATSE member. IATSE stands for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada.

Angela Moore, the panel moderator, UBCP/ACTRA Executive Board Member, and Chair of the BIPOC Committee proposes, there could be a category that speaks to Barbers specifically that would allow them to be members within the department and not require makeup skills. 

Makeup artists don’t need a license. For all we know they could have trained on an Etch A Sketch, a disheveled Barbie or kid siblings. If you have ever been made to look like an ashy corpse, inexplicably blackened like some non-verbal Freudian slip or turned into a golliwog with watermelon lipstick too pink for dark skin, then you have felt these microoppressions deep in your craw.

Here are some Black hair basics: When our hair gets moisture in it, it swells up (Miss Arlette). Education would let some union hairstylists know that a fine-toothed comb and a twist out do not a happy marriage make. Or that a spray bottle of water should not be used within a 20-mile radius of a perm or hair styled with a pressing comb. Or that you cannot just shave a Black woman’s hairline to offset a jacked up wig placement.

This is what happens when folx don’t see colour.

We are the ponies that dance to make the man the money.
We are what brings in the money. (Samantha Walkes)

Shadrach, Gordon. “Brace,” 2022.  Toronto History Museum, Toronto. 

…shaving the face of a BIPOC individual versus shaving the face of someone who has very fine Caucasian hair is quite different. There are a lot of problems that can happen when people aren’t shaved properly. 

To see a makeup artist pull out a makeup bag that says Black on it is not cool. (Angela Moore)

I’ve walked into hair and makeup. You see how dark I am. Somebody has put baby powder on me, so I’m not going to look like anything but a corpse if you do that. 

If you’re not comfortable working on Black hair or Black skin, get someone who is. (Viv Leacock, actor) 

Just because you’ve been doing it a long time doesn’t mean you’re good at it. (Roger Cross, actor and producer) 

From: Panel: The Future of Equity in Hair and Makeup - Pt 1,

Shadrach, Gordon. “Sustain 2,” 2022. Toronto History Museum, Toronto. 

“So now I have to go on camera…I look exactly the way that I did 50 seconds ago and I have to pull it out of my ass to be the best new character. Whereas, you know, Miss Thing got three hours to prep and has a new hairdo and has a new look…and all these little details that influence the role. It’s also just proper human treatment, right? Like, why would you…have my colour in the bottom drawer in the bottom of the bucket and don’t even know that you need to mix that for me and that maybe I am three shades and not one. I just want even skin y’all. I just want even skin. I don’t have training in hair or makeup. They do, yet I am doing the work. There has actually been physical damage as well and also, a lot of trauma has gone on. ”

 (Mariah Inger, actress, and both ACTRA Montreal and National’s Chair of DEIB.) Shaping Black Characters on Screen: Hear from Canada's Top Black Hair and Makeup Pros.

Discrimination has been widely reported among BIPOC actors in film, TV, and theatre, who do not enjoy the same access to or treatment by skilled hair and makeup professionals as their white counterparts. It’s not just Black, it’s Indigenous and Asian people are having the same issues. People who are multi-ethnic, biracial are having the same issues in their hair and their makeup, our stunt performers…(Angela Moore). In December 2022, ACTRA filed a Hair and Makeup grievance against the Canadian Media Producers Association and their French counterpart, Association québécoise de la production médiatique, for violating protections guaranteed under the Human Rights Code. 

Black and texturized hair is not a requisite component of standard cosmetology training or licensing. The fact that Milady Standard Natural Hair Care and Braiding, is a separate textbook from Milady Standard, the holy book of cosmetology, is a case in point. IATSE Canada introduced a free weekend course called Black Hair Education in an attempt to address pervasive gaps in education. Mykaël Jackman, a Black, Red-Seal Hairstylist / Barber / Educator / Certified Teacher, taught the Saturday March 25, and Sunday March 26, 2023 course. He is an instructor at the Durham Hairstylist Academy, with 30 years’ experience. The course synopsis posted by IATSE Canada Local 822 reads:

This course will help to demystify some of the art of manipulating textured hair for a variety of styling purposes. It is about building knowledge and skills in the areas of product use, braiding techniques and silk-press styling as well as many additional tips and tricks. The students will learn how to identify various curl patterns, which products to utilize, how to perform a number of hair braiding extension techniques, how to utilize the hot-comb and flat iron to achieve the popular silk press results/dreadloc formation skills and black hair techniques for styling.

This demystification initiative is being funded by the Canada Performing Arts Workers Resilience Fund (CPAWRF). A cursory Google search at Skilled Trades Ontario, on how long it takes to become a hairstylist reveals:

Generally, the time-frame to become competent in the trade of Hairstylist is 3,500 hours (approximately two years) consisting of 3,020 hours of on-the-job work experience and 480 hours of in-school training.

480 hours of technical training is about 16 weeks long. A successful certifying exam would result in a Certificate of Qualification renewable annually. While the IATSE Black Hair Education efforts toward bringing hair professionals up to speed on Black hair are much-needed and long overdue, [1]one of these things is not like the other. The multitudes of our tender and fabulous natural Black hair, protective tresses, loctitian tactics and silk presses, can. not. be. learnt. in. one.  weekend.

 (Also, capital “B” for Black people please, IATSE.)

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[1]Cooney, Joan, et al. Joe Raposo and Jon Stone. "One of These Things (Is Not Like the Others).” Sesame Street, Season 1, Episode 1, “Gordon Introduces Sally to Sesame Street.” National Educational Television, November 10, 1969.

Before ACTRA filed a grievance against the CMPA, The Black Pledge was created by Sedina Fiati, Alicia Richardson, Chiamaka Glory, Diane Roberts, Jajube Mandiela, Janelle Cooper, Joella Crichton, Rita Shelton-Deverell, and Samantha Walkes. This multi-hyphenate collective of theatre professionals is committed to improving the experiences of Black actors in live performance and live performance spaces, and to assist live arts organizations in dismantling structural injustice against Black performers. The Black Pledge aims to address issues of incompetence and subsequent inequity in hair and makeup by centring Hiring & Casting as one of the CAPACITY-BASED COMMITMENTS while ensuring Appropriate Hair, Makeup, Costume, and Lighting Provisions. Five Theatre groups including 2b theatre company, Neworld Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Shakespeare in the Ruff, and Stratford Festival have signed with the Black Pledge, to right the wrongs committed, enforce equity and crush structural injustice.

Samantha Walkes, known for Nettie in The Color Purple, Neptune Theatre, Elle Monteiro in Cross, Amazon Prime/Paramount, and Rose in Kings of Napa, on OWN, recalls a fully Black hair trailer. On the FTW (for the win) end of the spectrum, Walkes had an affirming experience on Cross and Kings of Napa, the opposite of:

lack of imagination and lack of intentionality. Rather, I remember soca was playing, Motown, reggaeton, 80s R&B, old skool 80s, slow jams. Before they even touched our hair, they had created an environment…I felt rejuvenated every time I left the trailer rather than depleted…I was having to metre how much capacity I had left after these experiences, then do a whole show…I was a theatre baby…It was always do your own hair, especially in theatre. 

Black actors have reported experiences ranging from hateration to hair loss, damage and traction alopecia. Incompetence from structural inequity in hair and makeup should not result in on-the-job injury or illness. Jenn Paul, prioritizes safety and equity in her role as the ACTRA National Director: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, film producer, and creative. She puts it this way:

You would never hire an unqualified gun wrangler or an unqualified stunt coordinator. Safety is number one. So why when it comes to hair and makeup, do Productions feel that it is perfectly all right to hire someone who’s not qualified to do the job? 

Actors and hair stylists would like to experience more Black joy in live performance spaces and less depletion. On May 19, 2023, ACTRA and the CMPA settled the Hair and Makeup Grievance in arbitration. Jenn Paul says, there was goodwill on all sides. Everyone recognizes that it’s needed.

The Black Pledge recently launched Beyond Black Squares Anti-Racism Workshop Series. The first workshop was directed toward directors, coaches and choreographers on how to effectively work with Black artists and arts workers. True to their intersectional and inclusive ethos, the Black Pledge Collective was sure to hold space for D/deaf artists, arts workers and those among the Black diversity spectrum, with ASL interpretation and live captioning to boot. 

The workshop was sold out, with participants from across the racial spectrum and Deaf participants as well. The material consisted of anti oppression 101, an overview of the history of Black theatre in Canada and a case study. We found that the case study part of the workshop had a lot of engagement and seemed to be where participants wanted more time. As well, the workshop ignited a spark of curiosity for participants to learn more about Black artists and our work. We look forward to more workshops and to animating the Discord for workshop alumni. (Sedina Fiati)

Black artists and arts workers sometimes wish we could bypass some of the experiences that make anti-racism workshop series necessary. Miss Arlette experienced wonder, expansion, and connection on Pretty Hard Cases. However, she reports feeling resentment from the Head of Department for her higher rate of pay in American dollars, her unmatched hair expertise, and her Blackness. No. Wait! The HOD’s whiteness. Miss Arlette found herself shrinking away from the trailer and listening to gospel music, Jessica Reedy, From the Heart, and Marvin Sapp, Never Would Have Made It, to make it through. Miss Arlette recalls a moment when she felt her personal safety was endangered:

“I was sitting down in front of the door. I was sitting close to set. We had worked nearly 16 hours this day. She [Key stylist, HOD] made a stabbing motion at my head with the back of her rat tail comb. And one of the cameramen witnessed it and said, “that’s not nice.”  She said, “Oh, I was joking.” I went outside and called the producer. I said, “if I woulda done that, y’all would have gotten rid of me.” They would have fired me and called me an angry Black woman…”You guys are looking for a lawsuit because that’s threatening.””

This alarming scenario, as well as the experience cited earlier where Miss Arlette reports being reprimanded like a young child by the HOD, highlights the racism, depletion and precarity Black women face on the job. In Season 3, Miss Arlette had the benefit of Sedina Fiati’s support and enforcement of the tenets of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, in her role as Associate Producer on Pretty Hard Cases. Fiati recalls:

“Working with Miss Arlette was an absolute pleasure. She was a favourite of the cast and crew due to her humour, as well as the way she took a genuine interest in everyone she interacted with. During a set visit with a Black community group, Miss Arlette also shared knowledge about Black hair care and styling. It was a gift to spend time with her and for her to style my hair. I’m still using the knowledge she shared about hair care.”

Miss Arlette recollects:

“You know she has a head full of beautiful, thick hair. It’s so long…But Sedina’s not a hair girl, you know what I mean? She’s gonna pin those braids up with her undercut, right? ...Sedina was there as a voice of reason and helpful in me understanding the film world and the culture of it all. Sedina and I had many therapeutic conversation transfers during the time that I took during my lunch hours caring for her hair. In my opinion, her position was and is needed in high level and pressure jobs like the film industry to help the cast and crew members feel heard and represented. I loved spending time with Sedina.”

A Word on Mermaids

Many of us felt rejuvenated when we watched Halle Bailey shine in The Little Mermaid (2023). 

Halle, as Ariel, is stunning. Her skin glows. Her voice is fluid, out of this world. Her hair is a character. Down to her foot dem pretty! All the BIPOC actors in this film look flawless. Oscar nominated Camille Friend, head of the hair department, spent $150,000 on Halle’s 24-inch locs. Halle has had locs since she was 5 years old and has kept them despite the industry persistently encouraging her to cut them. Friend, "The Little Mermaid" Hairstylist, who has worked on The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) and Captain Marvel (2019), shares,

The process of creating the iconic red-haired princess took 12-14 hours. If we take hair and wrap it around her locs, we don’t have to cut them and we don’t have to color them…It’s three shades of red…I’m not guesstimating, but we probably spent at least $150,000 because we had to redo it and take it out.

Miss Arlette attests,

I coulda did that…Black Panther and Bridgerton? That right there is my flow. I coulda did Halle’s Hair in The Little Mermaid.

Miss Arlette wants to keep stepping through doors Camille Friend helped open. HAIRLOKs by Arlette products, training and outreach initiatives empower girls, stylists and salon owners to envision this world. Her celebrity clients, including Kelis Jones, members of the WNBA, Major League Baseball, and Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, and her book, model this world. 

One of the Black Pledge commitments for theatre, opera and dance organizations is, Increasing Black representation beyond tokenization. Representation is difficult for those wholly invested in whiteness and white supremacy. It seems that BIPOC folx often cannot just go where white folx have boldly gone, even when said white folx have less qualifications; thereby but for, in some cases, white bonding, exclusionary Eurocentric training and certification practices, and, of course, hard work…just not as hard as Black/BIPOC people as systemic racism would have it. The complaints are continuous when the melanated dare to take up spaces reserved for white people, with straight backs and the multitudes of our Blacktastic hair, natural or otherwise. 

Folx had the nerve to complain about Halle Bailey playing Arielle. As if we do not have mermaids in Afrikan, Caribbean, Indigenous, Asian, AAPI, Oceanian and South American folklore to include Moana-Nui-Ka-Lehua, Mami Wata and Yemoja. As if we do not know how to swim. Jasmine Mans’ poem excerpted from “The Little Mermaid,” in Black Girl Call Home, is instructive:

When they tell the Black girl

She can’t play mermaid

ask them,

what their people know

about holding their breath

underwater.

Karen Lee

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