Find a salon near you

Lights, camera, flat irons

Healthy Hair

Thursday, 19 August 2010 00:00

Okema T. Moore, actress

Hair Chronicles

Celeb hair-nista learns to come prepared for the unexpected

By Okema T. Moore, guest writer

My name is Okema T. Moore, and I am a singer, writer and actress. Being in entertainment, my hair is the accessory I feel allows me to stand out from others. Not many young, brown sisters who rock short cuts are in the business. However, wearing a short cut on the set presents one main issue: Will the hairstylists know what they are doing?

Recently, I worked on a new pilot called Voices. I just wanted to ensure I killed my lines and looked great on camera while doing so! On the first day we arrived in New Jersey, we were ready to turn this show out. We had a makeup artist and hairstylists available to us on set. I arrived with a freshly washed head of hair. My very fine and very soft hair was laid and ready to be coiffed. I hadn't put any product in it since it dried. My normal regimen is to wash and deep condition my hair. Then, apply leave-in conditioner, a little pro-shine and olive oil mousse. Once I put in my concoction, I get a fine-tooth comb, part my hair on the side I want to wear my part on that week and comb back to set. Then, I cover my tresses with a silk scarf allowing my hair to air dry as I sleep.

On set that day, there were about six people on hand to do hair who were from an area beauty school. Aside from the students, there were two veteran stylists as instructors also on-hand. Once I heard "beauty school," I gave my director the wicked side eye thinking, "Ummmmm, I don't know about this."

But, I was willing to try. The moment I sat down, a stylist descended upon me like a vulture. She asked me to remove my hat. I did revealing my short cut. She fingered through my hair, seeming to size me up along with my face shape and the circumference of my head. She seemed very excited and confident. After getting a character description, she stated that she was going to "work me out." Not worrying about anything, I sat back and relaxed. That's when the problems began!

Moore on the set of Sesame Street.

She tugged and pulled as she combed my hair—truly upsetting me. I'm a bit tender-headed and had to tell this woman to be gentler. She took out a set of small half-inch and one-inch tourmaline plug-in flat irons and proceeded to get to work. As she curled me, I could tell that my hair was flat. I didn't feel her adding any volume or height to the top, which was the longest part of my haircut. But again, I didn't say anything. By the time she was "done," and I use that term loosely, one of her more-seasoned counterparts critiqued the work. She must have seen it was poorly done because she proceeded to take a boar's head brush and pull my hair back, sans any product. I thought of the possible flyaway strands and my stomach flipped.

Looking in the mirror, my heart sank. I dug into my bags to see if I had brought any of my personal flat irons, but found none. Now, I grew even more insecure! I marched out to the set snatching one of the team's brushes and some gel. With some smoothing of the sides and a few quick passes of their flat irons through the top of the hair to add height and volume, I didn't have the look I wanted, but I did have a style I could live with. Thankfully, I was able to return the following day with my own tools and products to achieve the look I wanted.

In the end, my hair turned out great! The episode was amazing and I was able to save face. However, the moral of my story—to all of my hair-nistas who have jobs that require them to leave their hair in the hands of others—always be prepared with a hair repair kit, complete with your personal favorite styling tools, products and quick fixes.

Okema T. Moore is the co-owner of www.ximagonline.com. If you want to see the trailer of Voices and her tamed tresses, go to YouTube.

Comments (2) Add Comment

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Director of Entertainment
written by Okema, August 23, 2010

Looks great ladies! Thanks so much for allowing me to be a hair-nista and guest writer! Can't wait to do it again

...
written by Krishna D, August 23, 2010

OH MY! I would have been tight but that is good advice. I started keeping hair products in my mommy bag when I went natural you just never know when you will need a good brush and pro-shine