Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness (2022) s01e02 Episode Script

1
I have been obsessed with hair
since I first laid eyes on a Barbie
when I was five years old.
Whether you admit it or not,
we care about the way our hair looks.
And people have been caring
about the way their hair looks
since the beginning of time.
I spent my entire adult life
being a hairdresser.
Doing everything
I can think of in the beauty realm.
But for someone
who did hair for 13 whole years,
I still don't know
all there is to know about hair.
In the '80s, it was big, it was texture.
In the '70s, honey,
it was disco, it was Farrah Fawcett.
In the '60s, it was Twiggy,
it was a gorgeous Afro.
How did hairstyles come to slay?
Was it power?
Was it money? Was it resources?
Was it because if you could look a certain
way, you would be judged less harshly?
I want to know:
Why is hair so major?
I have been handed
the golden ticket of museum tours.
Which is an exclusive, all-access pass
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
with a multitude of historians
who are experts in their field,
with hair history,
and honey, I'm gonna learn.
I'm gonna learn so much.
I'm gonna learn so much!
-Welcome to the Met.
-I am so excited to be here.
What I really want to know about is hair.
And by the way, your hair
is amazing, so-- and also,
-I love your glasses, I love everything.
-Thank you.
I want to know,
when did we start caring about hair?
Well, they cared about
hair early on. I mean,
we know that they used
hair extensions 6,000 years ago.
Six thousand years
we've been caring about our hair.
-Yes.
I want to see examples.
Tell me everything we need to know.
It's better to see examples.
Wow.
-Aah!
-Yes, a wig.
An Egyptian wig!
-And it's this well-preserved?
-Yes.
This one, not to brag,
but it's considered as one of
the best preserved Egyptian wigs.
I mean, brag away honey,
when it looks this good.
Because they made use
of beeswax mixed with resin,
hairstyling products of the time.
Because of that, the hair fibers
didn't become brittle. I mean, they
-Stayed hydrated.
-Yes.
They would use,
most of the time, human hair to make wigs.
Sometimes you
can find, like, palm tree fibers
-Mmm. Like filler.
-or even linen threads used as
Fillers, yes.
They were even
using weaves for their wigs!
Yes, either to give, uh, height or volume.
Height and volume. We needed it back
then. I can't believe they were doing it.
-Is this a sarcophagus? Oh.
-No.
I'm loving these, like, Egyptian beards.
So, it's, uh, the royal false beard,
and so it's only worn by kings.
So, in this rooms you have statues
of a female king, uh, named Hatshepsut.
She was first a queen,
and then she became king.
She represented herself
either as a female or as a male,
and so here she is represented as a male.
She wears the false beard.
So the false beard and this
headdress was reserved for male rulers.
-For kings.
-Yes. You can see it's false
because the way it was attached.
So she was gender-bending
in the Egyptian kingdom. I'm obsessed.
Egyptian men could show
importance, power, and economic stature
with how long their beards were.
Fascinating.
We've been using,
like, the length of things
to measure how
cool we are for thousands of years.
But ancient Rome?
Honey, I feel like
I just walked into a Great Clips.
And it's kind of amazing that we've been,
like, "Yeah, I'll take the high and tight,
a, a three on the sides and a six on top,"
since, like, before there was clippers.
So, we've arrived in Ancient Rome.
He's missing his eyes.
-I know. No.
-That's okay, it wasn't his fault.
But his hairstyle helps us
actually to be able to date the work.
This young boy is emulating the
style of hair worn by Augustus's grandson,
by the way that
the curls fall on his forehead.
It seems like he
would've had, like, a haircut,
'cause it seems like it's,
like, cropped over the ears.
Yes. Men actually
went to barbershops in Rome
-and could get their hair cut.
-Ah. Gorg.
Do we see other evidence
of other hairstyles in this era,
or is this the main,
most popular one for boys and men?
Because it was
the style worn by the emperor
and a kind of
variation on the imperial theme,
this was very, very popular
at this particular moment in time,
which is about 10 BC to 10 AD.
Wow, male hair trends, I love that!
-Now we're gonna meet Epicurus.
-Hello.
And we know that he's a
philosopher because he has a beard.
Yes.
That was a look
that philosophers cultivated,
and in part, it kind of sent the
message, like, "I'm too busy thinking
to, like, worry about
what my hair looks like."
-Oh.
-But he was wearing a beard
as a throwback reference to a period
when there was
still a democracy in Athens,
so it was a political statement
for him to wear a beard.
I love a political statement through hair,
and it's fascinating that we were making
political statements
with our hair that far long ago.
That's so interesting. I almost
see like almost a straight-ish hair
on top of his head.
It's amazing how individualized
they would make these sculpture
and what a role hair played
in conveying individuality.
-That's so cool. It really does.
-Just like it does today, right?
What is so fascinating here is,
is this idea of uniqueness and
self-expression through hair is not new.
And what does that say?
That we're all kind of sill-sills.
Most of the
portraits you're gonna see,
people are gonna be in wigs.
And so this is a wig?
It was always
a combination of a wig,
-and kind of extensions.
-Mmm.
She also stayed up to date with fashion.
So this was painted in 1761,
but we've done some kind of
technical analysis over the years.
Originally, her hair stopped there,
'cause that was 1760.
Ten years later, the fashion was, whoop!
-So she had it raised by a foot.
-I love her.
-Isn't that kind of great?
-Yes.
She didn't have to pay for a new portrait.
-She just, you know updated--
-So you could see more.
What is it that made the hair go higher?
One of the things that happens is a real
consumer culture like we have now.
So just like Vogue or whatever,
you've got prints that come out each month
and so the women look,
they see what to do.
So she's responding to that here,
but the other thing is definitely expense.
Poorer people used goat hair, horse hair.
Someone like this
is probably using human hair.
The more-- the bigger it is,
the more expensive it is.
So it's really a way of
distinguishing the haves, the haves-nots.
It's a-- It's a class move.
And they show their alliances that way.
They also show that they
have many hours in the morning
where your hair person comes,
your makeup person, your dressers come.
It was a semi-public thing.
So they would hold kind of visiting hours.
-Getting ready Yeah.
-Is a big deal then.
Technology has changed,
styles have changed.
But the way we treat our hair,
and our desire to seek out better hair,
is something that is akin to being human.
Where is my one true love?
If only someone could come rescue me,
I've been up here for years!
Hey, I'm right here!
Hey, girl, how are you?
Where have you been?
Come on, girl, I'm not even
wearing a watch. I'm sorry I'm late.
I'd really love for you to rescue me, but
you're gonna have to climb up my hair.
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!
My hair
really has gotten quite long.
-Okay, ready? I'm coming up!
-Okay, come on.
-Here we go.
-Okay. Oh! Oh! Oh!
-Ah.
-What is this?
It's no big deal.
All good hair is fake anyway.
People have been styling hair
for thousands and thousands of years.
Everybody's using
a little bit of an extra zhuzh.
Yeah, we did spend a lot of time
for us to wake up looking like this.
Yeah, maybe it's a wig. Wigs are a tool
that can make us
feel more confident, more beautiful.
But are we using that tool transparently,
or are we using that tool to further
an unattainable expectation of beauty?
Thanks for calling Cut Loose. This is
Jonathan, can I book you an appointment?
Did you want an appointment
with Tera, Bobbie, or Kendall?
Perfect. Um,
our computers are down today. One second.
Kendall, Bobbie, Tera,
I'm so happy you're here.
This is really just like a
gorgeous summit of hairdressers.
Kendall is a celebrity stylist
to the likes of Lizzo, Christina Aguilera,
Solange, and literally Alicia Keys.
Tera is the head of the
Wig and Makeup Department
of the Metropolitan Opera House.
Then we also have gorgeous Bobbie Pinz,
who is a Broadway wig stylist.
Like, several Broadway shows
going at once,
such as Wicked, Mary Poppins, Jersey Boys.
Cannot wait to learn.
Okay, so let's start styling.
We're going,
we're backcombing, we're setting.
I love doing wigs
because you can create anything.
You're able to take plastic
and turn it into something that looks
like it grew out of someone's head.
I've seen wigs made out of feathers.
I've seen wigs made out of leather straps.
I've seen wigs made out of beads.
All these different kinds of things.
The limit does not exist.
Are wigs about
covering up our natural hair?
Is it about just wanting
to be something, something different?
It's everything.
Some people wanting
to be more "beautiful."
Or, "their version
of beautiful," or, "unique."
It's about self-expression.
And it doesn't always have
to be about covering up something.
It can be about accentuating something.
Or living your life, be--
Wearing this purple wig tomorrow.
-Just 'cause you fuckin' feel like it.
-Yeah
I think it's really
about, like, multiple identities.
-Yeah.
-Yes.
Like, you have women now
that talk about on social media, says,
"I'll wear a wig for breakfast,
but then a different wig for night."
-Mmm.
-You know,
-she wants to be a different person.
-Yes.
'Cause I know, like, if I were
to try to lift my hair to do this,
I couldn't. Like, I could never
get my hair this color purple.
-I could buy that color purple in a wig.
-That's true.
In my world, those actresses and models
and artists are busy every single day.
The hair can't handle that much,
so they wear it to protect
their hair, it's protective styles.
And protective styles
for Black women are major,
because before wigs became the forefront,
women were sewing their hair in.
They were sewing the hair in every six,
eight to 12 weeks and it was a thing.
If you wake up tomorrow and you want
to be a redhead, throw that wig on.
And you don't have to, like, do so much
on your poor little baby natural hair.
I mean, this is like the
ultimate self-expression,
and I think that's where we're going now,
it's the person
behind the hairstyle, you know.
This is what makes me obsessed with
Lizzo, Solange, and Alicia is probably,
that felt weird that, like,
Alicia, it's like that's not her.
It's like Solange is just Solange,
Lizzo is Lizzo.
But then Alicia is Alicia Keys.
-I'm not gonna be on a first-name basis.
-Alicia, Alicia. Alicia Keys.
I don't know her like that.
Royalty. But it's like
the person behind the wig
we're obsessed with.
That's what makes sense.
You have to embody it.
Know that you are the beauty already.
-You already are embodying it.
-Encapsulate, embody it.
The thing that unites
these hairstylists is a desire
to make people feel
more confident and look beautiful.
Wigging Out!
I rule for the plaintiff.
Gorgeous!
Santa slayed this look!
Better red than dead!
Oh. Blondes do have more fun!
Now comes
Gentle-Treatment, the ultimate relaxer.
I loved a shampoo commercial
so much growing up.
I loved the glossy, shiny hair.
I loved how happy everyone looked.
But I never knew
that they were literally lies.
You don't wash your hair and lather it up
and then pop out with a perfect blow-dry.
A lot of steps went in there.
A lot of people feel bad
about themselves and about their hair,
because they don't look
how these commercials look.
Uh! The beauty, the majesty, the research.
-Mmm.
-Michelle!
-Yes.
-I'm doing the most.
-Ooh! I love the most.
-Come, come, I've got commercials aplenty.
I'm really just like, giving you
that journalistic realness.
I'm here for it. You're like
Carrie from Homeland, but with hair.
Hats off to new Breck
for giving me clean body!
-Okay.
-Oh, she's sassy. She's-- Oh.
They're all whipping it around.
You better whip it around.
A lot of my friends
with fine hair were like,
"I wish I had fluffy hair."
And I had fluffy hair.
-I was like, "I wish it was fine."
-We always want what's on the other side.
My mom says, "The grass is always
greener when you're standing in shit."
-Uh!
I always start with Afro Sheen Shampoo.
I don't worry about my--
-Oh!
I love those big '80s hair. Like,
from just sitting here and watching these,
I want every
single one of these hairstyles.
That's so interesting.
I always wanted dreads like Lisa Bonet.
-So, these ads aren't making you want--
-No.
No, you know why, because I watched my
mom go through all this corporate nonsense
of trying to fix her hair
to like, what was sort of acceptable,
and so our bathroom was
always full of crazy hair products.
And even my dad, who had a beautiful Afro,
started to, um, Jheri curl his hair.
But that's devastating because
I bet his natural texture is gorgeous.
Yeah, but they didn't think so.
So they did what they had to do.
And sometimes when
he'd drop me off at school
when it was raining, he did not care.
He'd put on a shower cap and drive me.
Okay, I love that, though, because
it is kind of like, "Eff you, binary."
Like, "I'm also gonna
keep my set together."
There's always something
for sale to make her more beautiful.
As beauty and
advertising started to work
together much more in the 20th century,
we started to have beauty expectations
that did not fit everyone.
And because of that,
we're still dealing with the consequences
of such a narrow definition of
what is beautiful, what is professional,
and what is acceptable
in ways to wear your hair.
-Look at this view!
-Yeah.
This is your house.
It belongs to the people.
I have been a
gigantic fan of Ayanna Pressley ever since
she became the first Black Congresswoman
from the state of Massachusetts.
I'm ready to give you my best Ann Curry.
I'm ready to just do like
a gorgeous sit-down interview
-and chat.
-Let's do it.
I love her so much, and
I'm such a fan, and I want to talk to her
about how she made the decisions
that she made to live so authentically.
She has such a unique perspective on
the world that we could all use more of.
What do you think it is
about this idea of hair that has caused
such an emphasis of attention on it?
Well, I can't speak to it writ large,
but I'll tell you
my experience as a Black woman.
Um, you know my earliest
memories of being aware of my hair
is my mother early on saying
I would be going to, uh, the salon.
Sitting on a telephone book, so that the
stylist, you know, could reach my head.
And holding my ear
while my hair was being pressed.
And so, the smell of burning hair,
being willing to sit through that,
and to risk being burned,
because you wanted your hair
to be as straight as possible.
And I remember having
literal scabs in my head.
But I never considered that
there was an alternative to that,
because my mother was giving me this
message that had been handed down to her.
Your crown is your hair,
and how our hair just naturally
and organically grew out of our head,
that coils, and kinks, and naps,
-um, were not acceptable
-Mmm.
were not professional, were not pretty.
And then, um, fast forward.
I said, "I want to get braids."
And I looked in the mirror and felt like
I met myself fully for the first time.
I had these
waist-length Senegalese twists,
and I loved them.
What I saw in the mirror
was in alignment with, like, my soul,
and I felt powerful and beautiful.
And then I started
receiving all these notes,
and posts, and emails from people,
about what it meant to them,
that I was in this position and wearing
my hair in this ethno-Afrocentric pride.
I think for a lot of people,
they don't take that leap.
They don't try the thing that made them
realize, like, their full authenticity
because they received messages
-from culture, society, others.
-I know. Isn't that sad?
How can people learn to step into--
I mean, you had some of your--
I think it's a journey, though.
I would just wonder like,
"Why did I wait so long?"
I felt deprived, you know, from just
being connected to myself in that way.
So, when I was diagnosed with alopecia,
this was a real struggle,
because it had taken me thirty-plus years
-to feel this perfect alignment.
-Mmm.
I was losing my eyebrows,
and my eyelashes, and
I just dreaded waking up every morning.
And the night before
the impeachment vote, the first time,
I just went completely bald.
You know, I wanted to be
in a fetal position, and not be seen.
I felt, um, like a freak.
I felt, you know, ugly.
We did for a moment consider me just going
to the House floor the next day bald.
But to the point that everything
that a Black woman does is political,
we feared that people
would think I was making a statement.
And on the House floor,
you can't wear a head covering.
You know,
there's one exception, and that's for
Representative Omar for religious reasons.
I just cried, and I said, "It's over."
And they actually had to call
Democratic leadership and say,
"We need to have permission for her
to be on the House floor with a hat on."
-And did they?
-Yes.
I just knew in that moment, I was going to
want to be transparent about my journey.
I respect that and love that so much.
Since you've come out and lived
your gorgeous truth authentically,
what has the feedback been like?
I've been, you know,
overwhelmed by, in the best of ways,
by the encouragement and the support
and the affirmation that I've received,
including from people like you.
But it's like I have days,
uh, which is very common
for many people
living with alopecia, where
I'm tired of being bald.
I just don't want intrusive questions
-and unsolicited medical advice
-Mmm.
and rude stares.
I mean, this is
a transformation that I didn't ask for.
The reason why I don't
wear a wig is that I was resentful.
To have to spend 45 minutes
just trying to draw eyebrows on,
you know when you have nothing,
applying lashes, and then to put a wig on,
and try to make that
look the same every day,
it just felt like the kind
of armor I didn't want to put on.
I have so many chills right now
I can't even take it.
But one of my
favorite things that you say is that
policy is your love language,
because that is like-- What a quote.
-It's so good.
-Thank you.
What have you been doing legislatively
to deal with some of this discrimination
and how it relates to hair?
So the reason why I say policy
is my love language, Jonathan,
is because injustice was, um,
legislated, it was codified in law.
And so if we can legislate hurt and harm,
I do think that we can legislate equity,
we can legislate justice,
we can legislate healing.
So I introduced this legislation
called the CROWN Act,
and that addresses specifically
the discrimination that, uh, Black women
have disproportionately
experienced in the workplace.
Fifty percent of Black women
recount being sent home
from their job because of wearing
their hair in a protective hairstyle,
uh, like braids, or twists, or wearing
their hair locked or wearing an Afro.
And so this bill
would create that protection
and guard against
that kind of discrimination for hair.
What do you want people
to know about that intersection of
power, hair, acceptance, autonomy,
um, and what that means
to navigate the world now?
Hmm.
I think the only thing
that I could just say is that, um
you are enough.
I can't think of anything else to say.
That was so powerful.
I-- I love you so much.
Oh, Jona--
Jonathan, I do want to say this, though.
We often use that Shirley Chisholm quote,
"They don't give you a seat at the table,
bring your own folding chair."
But I amended it because I realize that
if we bring a new chair to an old table,
-things remain the same.
-Mmm.
So I think what we're doing is we're
creating a new table
and you're a part of that.
-Oh! I want to be at your table.
-Yeah!
I love that. I love you.
-Can we hug? Just one little hug.
-Yeah.
-Thank you so much. Oh my God.
-Thank you.
-I appreciate you.
-I love you, I appreciate you too.
Sometimes, we don't
have to reform something.
Sometimes, we can say,
"We want to build something new."
And so making your own system,
making your own way to celebrate
your own beauty is amazing.
I just think that it's time that
we embrace our own unique beauty
as if we were really just the stars
of our own commercial this whole time.
Yes!
Our security or
insecurity and sense of beauty
and how that relates to hair
is as old as, like, ancient cultures.
Wouldn't it just be so much fun
if we could make a commercial
for a product where it is
just about being yourself?
That would be amazing and so dope.
I love to celebrate
the beauty behind hair.
What I don't love is
when we start to use beauty
as a tool to feel bad about ourselves.
We don't need to have any
commercial or any advertiser or anybody
tell us how we can be beautiful.
We already are beautiful.
We already are worth celebrating.
And that is the
table that I want to sit at.
It's You Do You,
but there's nothing in the bottle,
and you're really just paying for
like a really chic, cute bottle.
Reusable, recyclable, not plastic.
Yes.
Hit it, girl!
Warning:
You still have to style your hair.
Please stop going to salons
asking to look like photos
that have Photoshop,
color correction, extensions.
This product will give you the ability
to love yourself and your hair
and not acquiesce
to silly beauty standards.
You Do You!
The hair product
with nothing in the bottle.
-What?
Night, ladies!
Ooh, someone was a hair off-key.
Tell me you love me.
You know, we've had this conversation.
I'm not comfortable saying I love you.
-Please!
-You know that's hard for me, right?
-Tell me you love me.
-We've talked about my intimacy issues.
-Tell me you love me.
-I love you.
-I didn't hear you.
-I love you.
-I love you.
-One more time, I didn't hear you.
Alright, alright, alright. I love you.
What? Tell me!
I love you!