Hair Love: Advocating and Representing

Matthew Cherry boldly tweeted, “I’m gonna be nominated for an Oscar one day. Already claiming it” in 2012. This year, “Hair Love,” which Cherry wrote and co-directed, won the Academy Award for Best Short Film. This gem of a film introduces something new to the movie industry as it depicts black culture in animation while focusing on the prejudice against black hair.

The film's story revolves around the significance and challenges of hair and is told through little dialogue, impressive animation, and effective background music. It includes both humorous, in which the main character's father attempts to do his daughter’s hair, and sorrowful moments, in which the mother becomes bald after battling cancer. Toward the end of the seven-minute film, the father and daughter pick up her mother from the hospital and in a moving scene, the girl gives her mother a drawing of her hairless and with a crown. The film is beautifully and charmingly drawn to convey this message of empowerment for black people regardless of their hair choices.

The film aims to advocate for black people to be able to wear their hair naturally. The directors and producers of “Hair Love” advocate for the passing of the Crown Act, or “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural hair,” an effort to normalize natural black hair by prohibiting discrimination against texture or style of hair in workplaces and schools. Currently, around 25 states are in the process of making or passing laws similar to the Crown Act, and some have already passed similar laws.

As part of their efforts to highlight the discrimination against black hair, the producers of “Hair Love” chose to invite DeAndre Arnold to the Academy Awards. Arnold was suspended from his Texas high school for violating dress code with his dreadlocks. He had been wearing his dreadlocks since seventh grade and had no intention of cutting them off, even when threatened with exclusion from graduation. Through “Hair Love,” Cherry aims to bring this issue into the public eye.

This advocacy is also clear in the mother's hairstyling video tutorials, the only voicing in the film, when she says, “all it takes is some confidence and willingness to get started.” In this scene, she teaches and gives black women the confidence to style their hair as they choose.

“Hair Love” is an everyday quandary for black women, as seen in a current viral social media video of a black girl named Ariyonna, who calls herself ugly while her mom does her hair. Many people are reposting this, including Michelle Obama, who said, “I want to tell you—and every other beautiful, intelligent, brave black girl—just how precious you are.” The overwhelming support for this girl is similar to that of the mother in “Hair Love,” combating the stigma and stereotypes associated with black hair with positivity and encouragement.

“Hair Love" embodies what Cherry said in his award speech: “‘Hair Love’ [was] born out of wanting to see more representation in animation, but also to normalize black hair,” he said. He has achieved more than his goals: not only by getting nominated for an Academy Award, but also by bringing this issue to everyone's attention.