Hi, I'm Alisha Brooks.
And I'm Elizabeth Austin-Davis.
And welcome to New Growth, presented by Strong Black Lead.
We are so excited to have you at The Black Hair Experience in our DMV location
as we have a conversation with two powerhouse women who are
navigating the ever-changing Black hair space.
We'll be joined by celebrity hairstylist,
Cheryl Bergamy and Oscar winning hairstylist, Mia Neal.
I just think about when I first met you during the time that we were in
corporate America, trying to really figure out how we were going to do our hair.
It started out with relaxers. We dealt with micro-aggressions in the workplace,
feeling like we had to do things to our hair to help us fit in.
But because of our friendship,
we were really able to navigate and create that support system together and our
decision to go natural.
And that's why we're going to be having conversations about our hair
experiences, about the Crown Act and celebrating this year's Crown Day.
So we're joined by New York celebrity hairstylist,
Cheryl Bergamy whose work has been featured all over Broadway,
in print media and styling some of your favorite celebs.
We're also joined by Mia Neal,
who's one of the first black woman to win an Oscar for hairstyling.
Her work has been featured all over TV and media,
and she's known for some of her amazing wig work.
Welcome ladies. Thank you so much for being here.
So I want to ask you Mia,
to give us some background on how you got to the Oscar. The journey before that.
I was born and raised in Gary Indiana. My aunt had a salon there...
Jackie's Hair To Dye For.
I was a shampoo girl, but if you showed up late, or if you made Jackie mad,
I became your stylist.
And I was like 12 years old. I was like,
I gonna do a French roll with a finger wave standing up. And the person
is like 75 years old, right? With the waterfalls coming down.
Like I did all of these like really elaborate hairstyles and, um, you know,
that's how I like, started off.
Love it. I love it.
My first time interacting with hair, I was around eight,
nine years old and my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer
and she got to a point where she was too weak to do my hair.
So she said to me, Cheryl, I can't do your hair anymore.
You're going to have to do your hair for yourself.
And so the first thing she taught me was braids.
I learned how to braid on all my dolls. Soon after, she passed away.
And so, I saw myself doing hair more. It relaxed me.
It was a form of therapy for me.
So I started doing hair at school,
the proms and it just like, kind of like grew from there. You know?
Ultimately like, your passion is your passion. You know what I mean?
You're always going to be led back to it. Now, I had no idea about like,
film and TV and you know,
having a pension and being a part of a union and not working in a salon
necessarily. So when people say, well, you have this Oscar, it's like, no,
that Oscar is everybody's Oscar. You know, that Oscar belongs to all of us.
It's like, everybody's put that work in.
So all of this kind of makes me think about Cicely Tyson and her just,
unapologetically being herself on set. You know,
it's crazy to think that in the sixties,
she was the first black woman to rock her natural hair. Who would you say now,
in modern times,
that you would think is influential when it comes to rocking their natural hair?
I mean, I really love Viola Davis. I mean, we all do right?
That's how she rolls. She gives you Afro. She gives you loose curls.
Like the flexibility is there.
I think for me, it's, Issa Rae. Like, I am a huge fan.
I love her energy and how she rocks her hair. And like,
what about Teyonah Parris? Like,
seeing that representation in the Marvel Universe. Come on, hands down, okay? I
never thought that I would see that growing up, but I'm happy to see it here.
Yes. And we can't wait to see her in They Cloned Tyrone.
I'm looking forward to that.
Yes.
Chloe and Halle. Yeah. Those two girls. I mean,
they absolutely wearing their locs and it just look amazing.
When I was in high school, everybody was just, you know,
worried about making sure that their hair was straight.
And nowadays, it's like, the youth are like, so give me that purple,
can we add another inch to that nail? I mean, that's the beauty right?
You can really do anything, right? You know, like right now, you know,
I wear my hair straight. But I also have had it in a big curly Afro, you know?
I've had locs down to my waist. You know,
my hair has like told the story of my life.
Like you could tell where I was culturally all throughout that process,
you know?
Okay, ladies. So we've been talking about being our natural selves.
And the first thing that came to my mind is the Crown Act.
And it was introduced in 2019.
And it's all about us being able to wear our hair as we please, where we please.
Um, so how do you guys feel about that?
When I first heard about the Crown Act,
I thought about my childhood and my grandfather telling me that
I will be the first generation in our family that would actually have
legislation to back up their rights. But hey,
I'm all for some legislation. Let's put it on the books.
I would agree with that. And I think for me, like, even in that journey of,
of going natural, like I really had to learn the power of our hair. Like,
an understanding that, oh, I could be natural and I can be straight. Or, oh,
I could be natural and I can have braids.
So it took me some time to like really understand like,
what that was like for me to be able to walk around with my natural hair.
So, I want to spend some time talking about our hair and how we were navigating
through this pandemic. I know for me, it was some trying times.
I was having a love hate relationship with my hair.
I spent a lot of time in crochets, a lot of time crying. Um,
so can we talk little bit more about like,
how that was for you guys during the pandemic, as a stylist.
When the Pandemic first started I think we all thought it was going to be short.
Yes.
You know,
when it hit about like four or five months and there seemed to be no end in
sight, that was like the moment where people were like, okay, hold up.
I need you to explain to me what I can do.
And that's when like a lot of my friends started calling and especially guys.
They were like, can you talk me through a haircut?
A lot of people started to like transition into, you know,
being more self-sufficient,
taking that time to experiment on something new that they wanted to do.
Like let the grey grow to see what you look like with that.
And you could kind of do it in the privacy of your own home.
Letting the relaxers grow out. Uh, trying something more natural.
It had a hard moment for a while where everybody was like, I just look crazy,
you know? And then they're just like, well, look what I did, you know?
And then people like calling me on Facetime. Girl, you like this? And I'm like,
yeah, that's cute! You know?
The self esteem around taking care of themselves, like became greater,
you know?
So, I think for me, like going through the pandemic,
I was totally wigging it out the entire time. I mean,
you know, braiding my own hair and, you know,
just trying to protect it during that time. Let it just be, you know? Like,
it is okay to be in this state. We're just gonna let it grow,
no heat and just let it be in this moment.
So that was definitely what I was doing, learning and like,
taking even more time with my daughter's hair. Like,
really trying to learn how to braid for outside braids, for her.
Right. Right.
You know? Even trying to learn... So like, us even bonding over, you know,
her hair and teaching her like, on her wash days and things like that.
It's still a journey for us and her to be able to wash her own hair and things
like that, because she's still small,
but it's definitely something that we did over the pandemic.
This has been an amazing conversation. And I think,
what better place to have it than at The Black Hair Experience?
The Crown Day is here.
And just like new growth is a sign of healthy hair. Ladies, happy Crown Day!
Happy Crown Day!