For Black ladies, our hair isn’t simply hair; it’s an integral a part of our tradition and id. Depending on who you speak to, it may be an emblem of delight (as seen with the Black Is Beautiful motion), a supply of ache and self-hatred, or a mix of each.
The Ms. Pat Show unpacks these sophisticated emotions round Black hair within the episode “Don’t Touch My Hair,” which is presently streaming with the remainder of Season 2 on BET+. In Episode 3, Terry makes a careless comment about Ms. Pat’s kinky hair, and that dredges up some painful childhood reminiscences.
“I was a little Black girl once and a lot of the pain and the misunderstanding comes when you’re a kid and how your parents comb your hair or what people say about your hair,” Patricia Williams — recognized by her stage title Ms. Pat — tells TVLine. “I went from Jheri curls to wigs, and my real hair was something I never really wanted to deal with.”
Williams realized that “a lot of the pain that I have behind my hair came from how my mom would comb my hair.” The reminiscence of sitting between her mom’s legs and being known as nappy adopted her into maturity, and the comic struggled with accepting her kinky coils.
Contemplating that, Williams approached Ms. Pat Show creator, author and showrunner Jordan E. Cooper about centering an episode of the Emmy-nominated collection round Black hair. Given that many reveals have already broached the topic — together with the black-ish episode “Hair Day,” through which Diane (performed by Marsai Martin) considers sporting her pure hair — Cooper knew he wished to do one thing totally different.
Using a mirror to attach the previous to the current, a grown-up Ms. Pat stares into the previous at her youthful self, who’s getting her hair combed by her mom, who retains complaining about her daughter’s “nappy” head whereas roughly tugging at her scalp. Confronting a troublesome reminiscence was emotionally tasking for the comic, and showrunner Cooper recollects a second the place she almost broke down.
“There was something about the journey of watching this woman do this episode. She’s looking in the mirror and she starts to cry, and she said, ‘Jordan, I can’t do it. I can’t do another one,’” the EP explains. “I was like, ‘I got you. You’ve got it. You’re sane. You’re here. You’re beautiful,’ and she pushed [through]… With her strength in being able to do that, so many other people are able to look at themselves and think about things they haven’t thought about.”
In one other second, Ms. Pat’s youthful self internalizes her mom’s feedback and cries within the mirror as a result of she doesn’t assume she’s fairly. It is just after Ms. Pat tells her youthful self that she is, actually, stunning that the grownup girl finds the braveness to put on her pure hair within the current day. But just like the mirror confrontation, it took some encouragement for Williams to lastly really feel snug.
“I felt so ugly. I just wanted my wig back on,” Williams says of the second she appeared on-screen sans the wig. “So many people were like, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t know you had so much hair. It’s so pretty.’ I remember standing there playing in the mirror. I was like, ‘Wow. I really do have nice hair.’”
With the episode, Williams additionally wished present that Black ladies don’t all the time put on wigs as a result of they hate their hair. “I don’t hate my hair now,” she notes. “[Wigs are] more for convenience now.” Ms. Pat explains this to Janelle (Briyana Guadalupe), stating that wigs are a protecting fashion and that sustaining pure hair is “too much work.”
Season 2 has been a therapeutic journey for Ms. Pat, who handled many painful reminiscences of her emotionally and bodily abusive (and now deceased) mom. With the present renewed for Season 3, Cooper says followers can anticipate to see extra of these lighter moments.
“Season 3 is a complete breath,” he teases. “We’re still doing the work. We’re still having hard conversations. It’s very, I call it ‘very I Love Lucy.’ There’s a lot of fun.” And in accordance with Cooper, that enjoyable will consists of visitor stars Marla Gibbs (The Jeffersons) and Jaleel White (Family Matters).
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