- On tour in Australia,
stopped in Fiji, got in the ocean-- - Oh boy.
- Woo! The weave locked.
The weave-- - And you couldn't get it out?
- It locked like a cement hood on my head.
As soon as it dried, it would, like, be a block
on my head. - Oh, my God.
- I had to have emergency weave assistance.
[both laughing]
Emergency-- - Wait, that's amazing.
- Emergency weave assistance. - Like, they couldn't get at the roots.
You could not get it out. - You couldn't.
- That's, like, my worst nightmare.
- It is a nightmare.
TRACEE ELLIS ROSS: Every kink, curl, and coil
in a Black woman's crown has a hair tale.
Who did your hair?
OPRAH WINFREY: So, that hair journey
started on the porch with my grandmother braiding my hair.
TRACEE: We created a place for us to gather our stories.
- I never know what my hair will do.
TRACEE: Honoring our identity, culture, beauty, and humanity.
- Braided. - Locks.
PERSON 1: Cornrows. - Twist-out.
PERSON 2: Hot comb. PERSON 3: Relaxed.
PERSON 4: Any style you want.
- Big. PERSON 5: Versatile.
PERSON 6: Lush. - Beautiful.
PERSON 7: Resilient. - Hair.
- What version of myself do I wanna be?
- You do not need hair to wear a crown.
- Whoop!
- My hair is like lace, so.
[laughing]
TRACEE: I'm Tracee Ellis Ross.
Join me as we celebrate the truth of who we are
through the wondrous world of our hair.
♪ upbeat music playing ♪
So, my hope is that these conversations that we have
create more space for, um,
belonging, um, self-actualization.
And I think there's so much about our hair that is about community
that sort of centers through our hair.
And it can feel like... it's just a conversation about hair.
But it's not, especially not for Black women.
- It never is. - No.
Oprah Winfrey is the fulfillment of possibility and purpose.
ANNOUNCER: Oprah Winfrey and the Eyewitness News team.
TRACEE: From her beginnings on her grandmother's porch
to creating a life, career, and vision beyond expectations.
She generously invites us all to discover a life
bigger and more brilliant than we can imagine.
[all cheering] - You get a car, you get a car, you get a car!
TRACEE: Oprah Winfrey is Beyond a Wild Dream.
Can you take us back to Oprah, seven or eight,
sights, smells, sounds, hairstyles.
- So, that hair journey started on the porch
with my grandmother braiding my hair.
♪
Actually, when I think about it, it's one of the most loving times
that I ever spent with her because she was proud of my hair.
That was my claim to fame.
For the earliest years, we'd just sit on the porch, wash our hair.
So the washing process is, literally, your head over a bowl...
- Uh-huh. - ...and you are--
and they're using a big pitcher. - Oh, like a pitcher.
- Yeah, yeah, to, to rinse your hair out.
So, that only happened, like, once a week or every two weeks.
And then my grandmother is, you know, combing it out and braiding it.
And it was a big deal.
♪
- It made me think of, like, the sisterhood around it, right?
[group agreeing] Like, goin' to someone's
and they washin' your hair in the kitchen sink or the bathroom.
You know? Or even college.
I think about first time gettin' a roller set for the first time--
- Hold my hand through it. - You know what I mean?
[all laughing] - 'Cause it's, it's, it's a sisterhood.
- You know, you see someone, you ask questions about their hair.
It's a story behind it, you know?
- A lot of us remember growing up
and there was a, a Saturday or Sunday,
and that's when your parent did your hair.
Black hair takes a long time to do.
And that is not a negative, even though we're told that it is.
It takes longer to detangle. It takes a while to wash.
With the styles that we do,
it's not going to be, like, a Tuesday after dinner before bed.
Whether it's with our grandparent,
or our parent, or the aunt who's good at hair,
you are spending a lot of time with that person.
And you're talking and you're sharing stories.
You're forming your own mini culture
in this bigger Black hair culture of it being hair day.
♪
OPRAH: I started out with the cultural,
Southern, rural upbringing that, "Girl, your hair is your crowning glory."
- Mm-hm. - And that to even cut your hair was like
a s-- a, a sin.
- Yeah. - Like, to cut it, like, you wouldn't.
And I remember wanting to wear bangs.
That's why when I saw you with your
little rolled-up bangs today. [Tracee giggling]
I wasn't allowed to have a bang. - 'Cause that meant cutting your hair.
- Yeah.
- So, we would take my hair and do that.
And then roll it up. - And how old were you?
OPRAH: Oh, from the time that I ever saw anybody with a bang,
I wanted one, so I was, like,
two years old, three years old... TRACEE: So, when you were young.
- ...four years old with this idea that, "Never cut your hair."
Like, I don't know what would happen to me,
so when I finally did cut my hair as an adult,
not until I was-- - Did anything happen?
- Nothing happened, but, ooh,
I was waiting on the Earth to move. - Yeah.
- Because of what I'd been told about, "Your hair is your crowning glory."
- Hm. - And, fortunately, I was a young girl
who had very thick hair, so my identity was my thick hair--
and sitting on the porch with my grandmother braiding my hair.
And I never wanted more than three.
I wanted the classic two in the back and the one on the side.
- Aha. I thought you were gonna say the two on the side
and the one in the back. - No, no, no, no, no, no.
[laughs]
No! It's the two in the back. - And then the one that goes--
- The one that goes here-- - Well, the two in the back
gives you the length. - Yes, it gives you the length.
And they, they do this. They move. - Yeah, they move.
OPRAH: And I've seen every Black girl with this hair.
TRACEE: Isn't that interesting? The, the movement of the hair.
And I just wonder, does that come from
the easy, breezy, beautiful, the bounce-- - Yes, it does.
- So it comes from that, right? It comes from that.
So we're still within that system
that tells us that-- - But even now,
you know, with my own hair that we, like, twist it
and twist it and twist it.
I, you know, was saying to my hairdresser this morning,
I, I, I want some air in it.
I want it to be able to, like, move, move. - Move.
You mentioned this 'cause you said your hair was your crown,
but what, from your childhood, what were you seeing around you?
What was the experience other than being on the front porch?
- Seven or eight, I was already in Nashville, and by that time,
I was allowed to wear the two pigtails, which I also really loved.
The photograph that sits on my desk now
is me at eight years old with those two pigtails.
I think the pigtails and the-- what they represent
of me coming into my own,
feeling smart... - Mm-hm.
- ...feeling, um, like I was gonna be able to do something with my life.
- Did you already know that at seven and eight? - I knew it at eight years old
'cause I discovered Christ at eight years old.
I joined the church.
[choir vocalizing]
I would literally sit in the church on the second pew from the left.
I would listen to every sermon.
I would take it in, then I would go back to the playground.
I would preach to the children.
- Oh, is that true? - Yes, it is very true.
They used to say, "Here come that preacher girl."
So, I was feeling-- - That's amazing.
- Yeah, they would, like, run.
"Here comes the preacher girl. She gon' tell ya 'bout Jesus."
- Is that where you started to fall in love with language
and the, the, the power of language? - Yes. Yes.
I started to fall in love with language really early, early on
because I was brought up in the church
and my first encounter with a public speaking audience
was in the church. - Yeah.
- Like, three or four years old.
"Jesus rose on Easter day.
'Hallelu, Hallelu,' all the angels did proclaim."
That was my first Easter piece, uh, that I was given.
And I had such a strong reaction from the audience,
I thought, "I wanna do this again."
- Ahh. - And so, by the time I was
seven, eight, ten,
I was memorizing all of James Weldon Johnson's
God's Trombones.
- Wow. - I was going from church to church
speaking at different churches
and they'd say, "Little mistress Winfrey will present the Judgment Day."
♪
KIM: Grandma used to press my hair, grease was burnin'.
She put those pin curls in my hair for church,
you know, before church.
- Oh, yeah. It's a special occasion
at the-- - Easter, picture day.
We all love a good slay.
But now, I still feel the same.
When I get my hair done, I still feel just as cute as I did at Easter time.
- Yes.
♪
JESSICA CRUEL: Church hair for me, I'm thinkin',
you know, two pigtails on the side
with the little snap barrettes.
Maybe some, you know, bobble ball barrettes.
So much hairspray.
The church, it was a place where Black culture thrived.
Where we could truly... be ourselves.
- This desire to inspire came from standing in front of the church
and seeing people being moved.
- That's really a beautiful image to understand sort of the journey
of language for you. - Yes, mm-hm.
- And sort of the power of it
and how it can really pull you into another place.
- Evoke you into wanting to inspire people.
- It's really interesting but also really special
the way you talk about your hair, the way you talk about who you are,
the way you use language, it's wonderful.
You were who you are.
There's something really comforting when you go back
and see-- I'm like, "Oh... she's been Oprah forever."
That's the thing.
I think hair is like a portal into our souls.
- Yes.
♪
TRACEE: What, from your childhood, did you learn about hair?
- I learned early on that straighter was better.
- Mm. Was there a specific place you learned it?
- In my grandmother's kitchen in Mississippi,
when my Aunt Kate would come
for special occasions... - Mm.
- ...and you'd get your hair straightened,
and you'd sit there with that Queen Bergamot
and the straightenin' comb on the stove.
[makes sizzling sound] And, and straightening the hair.
TRACEE: Mm-hm. - Straightened, greased.
- And that connected with the good event.
- That connected with the good event. That c-connected with something special.
That connected with, "Now your hair is the way it should be."
- Now you're presentable.
- Prettier.
Prettier.
♪
- When I was growin' up, we were in North Carolina.
Everybody was tryna straighten their hair.
Everybody was just tryna fit in with the southern culture
of just being straight and flat and everything,
so my mother definitely burned me with that hot comb 'bout 50-11 times.
I feel like in America we think that the standard of beauty--
is other cultures' straight hair,
not our coils.
♪
- I can distinctly remember being in high school
and my best friend and I havin' competition on who had the longest hair.
I want it to be long. That was the thing that we wanted.
But that's because everyone that we emulated:
Beyoncé, Naomi Campbell,
Oprah, everyone had straight hair.
♪
- And that messaging continued.
I mean, 'cause, you know, you learn that in your kitchen,
but then you go out into the world and it's being mirrored back everywhere.
- Everywhere. Ideally-- Oh, my God. What I really wanted was that.
What I really wanted was a ponytail. - Mm-hm.
OPRAH: And so, to this day, that is my favorite way to wear it.
It's just harder. TRACEE: Is it?
- Yes, because I so wanted a ponytail
that would do-- That moves. - That moves.
JESSICA: Media is so important
in how young women view themselves and view what is beautiful.
♪
When I think about the magazine and brand that I'm trying to create,
it's one where you can open the pages and see a woman with locks,
a short, cropped afro.
You can see a bald woman.
It's so important that we show young women that variety
because otherwise, they'll think they need to fit into something that they're not.
- When we diversify this hair game, it's not just the afro kinky look,
it's not just locks, it's not just braids, it's, it's not just relaxed hair.
It's a plethora of different styles that we can achieve.
- Do you remember the first time you did your own hair?
- I specifically remember doing it myself
is once I got a job in television
in Nashville and Baltimore,
I was doing the wash and set,
where you literally wash your hair,
set it on the rollers, sit under the dryer.
And, for me, in Baltimore, I had this little Chevy Chevette,
and I would just literally wash my hair, set it, roll the windows down,
drive to work with all the windows down.
- Wasn't it cold? - Well, in the summertime.
- Okay, okay, okay. - In the summertime.
[laughing]
Driving with the-- And then, by the time I get--
Take the rollers out, leave 'em in the car.
I literally did this in my car.
- Wow, I mean, that's a good hairstyle for the car.
- [laughs] I literally-- - That's top line.
You would've thought that was a salon.
- I remember literally in Baltimore, everybody saying,
you know, "It's a wig. It's a wig. It's a wig."
- You were like-- - Uh-uh, it's my own hair.
- I feel like there's, um, my mom, my aunt, I--
The roller set was just--
It was a look. Yeah. - That's what we did.
♪
DR. NOLIWE ROOKS: Consistently through history,
Black people learned how to style our hair when everything was denied us.
It's, like, if we just start with the U.S. on these plantations,
you're, you're making combs out of whatever you have.
You don't have a brush.
These are not priorities for people.
Ain't no time to be braiding and styling each other's hair.
We used to tear up these little strips of cloth,
tie 'em around our hair with whatever it was.
Working in the sun all week
meant that when you took these little strips of cloth out,
between the sweat and the grease and the--
You had curls, you had curled your hair.
And you would pull your hair out on Sunday and you would go to church.
It was hair in its natural state,
but we still figured out how to work with it.
The next big moment is when there's groups of hairdressers.
In the same way that it's almost impossible to think about,
how do you style Black hair with no utensils?
Think about there's no options for work
for Black women in the South and in many parts of the Midwest.
There are laws in these states saying you can't be anything
but a domestic or an agricultural laborer.
Madam C.J. Walker was a member of an entire community.
In fact, she worked for a woman named Madame Annie Malone.
They determined that they were gonna turn hairdressing into a career.
There were thousands of Black women who turned to hairdressing as a career.
And hairdressing
was working with and for other Black women.
They sent kids to school. They paid mortgages.
They got outta bad marriages, one after another,
because there was something for them to do.
The genius, the genius of those Black women.
♪
OPRAH: I've understood for a very long time
how political hair really is
and how when we, as Black women, move through the world,
we are making a statement,
uh, in however we choose to wear our hair.
And because my own hair journey has been
so fraught with my own identity
and how I chose to be in the world.
♪
OPRAH: I was a young reporter. I've been in television since I was 19.
And in the early years,
I was sent out on assignments to interview people.
And I would always do this with Black women.
I remember once a woman's, you know, house had caught on fire
and she is, like, out in the yard in rollers.
And I ask her to-- [whispers] "Would you mind--
You wanna take the rollers out?"
"Do you wanna take the rollers out?" - Like, like, like,
maybe that's a good idea. - Yeah, to take the rollers out.
You know why? - Like, I'm, I'm with you.
- I'm wit-- Yeah, because I
understood that the image of this woman standing in the yard
with her rollers was somehow going to--
She would be perceived as less because she's standing here in the yard
with, with, with the rollers in her hair.
Even though your house just burnt down.
Now, that's why I ended up getting fired as a reporter
because I'm always trying to help the people out in the situations.
Like, we do these-- They're called "Man on the Streets."
And you'd have somebody who-whose hair wasn't combed
as well as I thought it should be,
or she wasn't groomed as well as I--
I'd say, "I'mma give you a moment to fix your hair."
"Gonna give you a moment to fix--"
Because I understood, you know, innately, that,
"Oh, the perception of you with your hair standing all over your head
"is gonna be that you're not educated,
"that you're not worthy,
that you're not, somehow, uh, ready for this moment."
- Yeah, the perception, the perceived idea.
- The perceived idea. - Yeah.
But interesting that you, you found a,
a, a congruous... place for you to have that care in--
- Well, it's, it's just that I understand, understood that images are political.
- Yeah. - And I understood that
you're gonna be perceived a certain way
if your hair isn't combed, if your hair isn't right.
So, I wanted to give you a chance to get that right, sista,
because I want the best perception for you.
- And you want the story to be able to be heard.
- And you want the story to be able to be heard
and not you be immediately dismissed because--
- Yeah, because of the physical appearance.
It's an interesting thing to unpack.
- Yes. - You know?
And I feel like, as Black women,
we are constantly negotiating... - Mm-hm.
- ...all those pieces.
♪
- Our hair grows out of our head in a way that cannot be denied.
We straighten it, we braid it, we curl it, twist it,
but it has a life of its own.
It has an emotion.
Often when I talk about my hair, I call-- It's a-- It's she. [chuckles]
She's ready... she's hot.
She actin' crazy. [laughs]
♪
But, you know, there's a resilience to our hair
that is also indicative of our culture, and our personalities, and our history.
And that is why I think it's our crown, right?
Crowns are very hard to break,
despite when they fall on the floor, they get passed around,
or empires might be toppled, but the crown remains.
When I think of our hair, I, I think of that.
♪
OPRAH: So shortly after I came to Baltimore with my lovely wash and set
that everybody thought was a wig.
I was told that my hair was too thick.
Now, it was the first time I'd ever been called into
someone's office or called and reprimanded
because my hair would-- Because-- - That's your pride and joy.
- That's my pride and joy.
So now I'm being called in to say, "Your hair is too thick.
"It's interfering with the chroma key in the news
"and it's interrupting our ability
"to, you know, uh, portray you well on the new--
"because we're getting this whatever, a ring around the chroma key.
So you need to n-- Your hair needs to be different."
So... I said, "Well, this, you know, this is, this is my hair."
And he was saying, "Well, is there anything you can do about it?
Is there any way you can get it straighter?" - Oh, wow.
- "Is there any way you can--"
And so, they recommended a hair salon in New York City.
So I'm in Baltimore. They were saying,
"We have this place for you to go in New York City,
and... they're gonna fix your hair."
So, I am 22?
- Wow. - Twenty-two... um.
- They're gonna fix your hair. - We're gonna fix your hair.
- 'Kay. - They also asked me at the time,
"Would I consider plastic surgery?"
- What?!
- Yeah. - Did they say specifically
what they were suggesting? - Uh, yes. They, actually, said--
He, actually, said that, "Your... eyes are really--
You know, your eyes are really far apart--"
- Uh-huh.
- "And your nose is a little thick." - Uh-huh.
- "Would you be willing to do something about that?"
- Wow.
- Wow. And I said-- - Wow.
- In my 22-year-old naive self, I go, "What do you mean?"
- Wow. - Yeah, I know.
Makes my eyes water now. "What do you mean?"
"Well, would you consider, like, getting your nose done
or plastic surgery or having your eyes done?"
"I-- No. Like, cutting on my face? Like, really cutting on my face?"
True.
True story.
So then, they settled on,
"Well, let's send you to this place in New York.
"'Cause they can
do something to help fix it." - It does make my eyes water--
- Yeah, makes my eyes water now that I think about it.
It's interesting because I was just saying to someone recently,
"I never thought anything."
Like, now, everybody thinks everything's racial.
That didn't even occur to me that it was racial.
You know what had occurred to me?
I thought I just wasn't pretty enough.
- Yeah, it's exactly right. That's what makes my eyes water.
- I did not think, "This is happening to me 'cause I'm Black."
I thought, "This is happening to me 'cause I'm not pretty."
- I was told that my hair was too thick, so your hair needs to be different.
And so, they recommended a hair salon in New York City.
- Mm-hm. Mm-hm. Mm-hm. - I go to New York... to the hair salon,
French hair salon.
- [scoffs] I can't. - Yes.
I walk in and I am like, uh, "Hello, I'm here,
and I was sent by the station of Baltimore."
But not one Black person in the place, so I say,
"Excuse me, but do you all do Black hair here?"
And-- true story- the guy says,
[French accent] "Oui, madam, we do Black hair,
we do blonde hair, we do, we do red hair, we do your hair."
So, I sit in the man's chair,
and I let him put a French perm on my hair.
And I'm sitting there
and it is, like, burning through my cerebral cortex.
I am like... "My head's on fire."
And I say-- I-I-I'm looking around for somebody, there's nobody.
And I finally say... "I gotta get this off my head."
And he says,
[French accent] "Oh, no, it says eight more minutes."
I shall never forget, [French accent] "Eight more minutes."
I got-- I-I-I'm not gonna last eight minutes.
So, anyway, they ended up... putting me in the sink
and my hair is held on by scabs.
- No. - Yes.
Yes.
So I leave the salon and my entire head is a scab.
- All that gorgeous hair. - All-- It-It's just a scab.
It's, like-- And the hair is being s-- being held together...
- By... the scabs. - ...by the scabs in the hair.
So, the first time I wash my--
Every time I'd comb my hair,
a scab would come-- hair would come out. - Hair would come out.
- Every time I wash my hair, comb, it would just fall into the sink.
So, I am, literally, falling apart because... that is my identity.
That is my crowning glory.
♪
- Going to a salon where they've never done curly hair,
it's not okay... because you are going to have a problem.
Black hair is its own entity.
And by Black, I don't mean the color black,
I mean ethnic hair that curls.
It cannot be handled in the exact same way as other hair types.
And the knowledge of how to use these chemicals on hair,
it's very specific and you have to be trained in that.
You have to understand the nuances of what happens when the hair grows in
and that the texture is different from the texture of the relaxed hair.
You also have to understand how sensitive the scalp can be.
And applying these products, like relaxers, directly to the scalp
can cause burns.
You need to know that you have to base the scalp
with something to protect it.
Or at least base the edges to protect the edges from burning.
♪
- So I had to be taken off of air 'cause my hair's falling out.
I had to be taken off of air because there was not a wig, at the time,
this is in 1977, big enough to fit my 25-inch head.
We could not find a wig in a store
and they were not gonna allow me on the air with scarves.
- What I-- What I would like to say...
- Yeah. - ...is I'm very sorry that happened.
Um... and I think you are not the only one
that has stories of this nature,
of moments in our lives where you don't know the context.
- Right. - So, all you hear is the "you."
- Yes. The fact that I was sent to, you know, change the way I look
because my hair was too thick,
even in a, you know, semi-straightened form,
that that was not appropriate in their minds.
I mean, if I had made the decision early on in my career
that I'm gonna wear braids regardless of what you think,
I-I-I would not have been where I am today.
I would just not have been afforded the opportunities I've been afforded.
♪
- In my day, when I started, 1995, wearing natural hair and twists,
it was not mainstream in corporate America.
And what I love that we're mainstreaming today, as well,
is that we can change our hair.
One day, I can wear it in locks,
one day, I can wear it in braids,
one wear-- one day, I can wear it as a natural,
and one day, I can wear it pressed if I choose
because... that's what our hair does.
And, and what our hair does is an extension of the many attributes
that I have and, and can contribute.
- I, Ketanji Brown Jackson, do solemnly swear--
- That I will support and...
ESI EGGLESTON BRACEY: Thinking about the impact
of the first Black woman Supreme Court Justice
having natural hair moves me
because what people see at the highest level
in the highest court and express their truly natural hairstyles,
I know the impact that will have,
for not just young girls and Black women,
but all people around the world who are watching.
- Women should be able to wear their hair in whatever way that makes them
feel most confident and most beautiful. - Mm.
- That, certainly, is
not an opportunity that my generation or your mother's generation had.
- Was afforded. No.
- We have just been raised
to know that the value that is placed on your hair
is also connected to the value that people hold for you.
And that's unfortunate, but it certainly--
it has been the way I experienced growing up.
- When everything you've been told about your identity--
I mean, that was my big identity was the hair.
And then, now you don't have the hair anymore.
I, literally, was like, "Okay then, who am I?"
- Mm-hm. - So, I remember this so well, at 22,
woman named, Lydia Lively, who was on the assignment desk.
She was a Black woman. Her official job was Assignment Editor.
And one day, I was walking through the newsroom,
and she said, "What are you doin'?"
I go, "What do you mean?" She goes, "What are you doin'?"
'Cause, by this time, I was, like, doing a little comb-over.
I had a little Dippity-do little gel, little whatever.
And I was trying to-- And then she goes,
"You don't have any hair. Your hair's gone."
I go... "You think so?"
She says, "No, your hair is gone.
And let me help you. Let me take you to my barber."
So, Lydia had an afro.
She took me to her barber
and the barber shaved my head,
which was... major.
- That is major.
- Major.
So now, I have a shaved head.
But at least it was better than
pieces here and pieces there and trying to hold on to what wasn't--
Yeah [stammers]. It's over.
You know, after a couple of weeks, it started to grow back.
And so, I had this teeny-weeny afro
and then a little-bitty afro and little--
And then, for years, like, for eight years,
I didn't let anybody touch my hair.
- That's the way that happens. - That's the way that happens.
♪
- There's something about the freedom to style ourselves.
There's something about how we know we look good.
We don't ever think we look good if our hair doesn't look good.
And it's not even a sense of,
"Your hair has to look like what society says, like the latest style."
I have never talked to a Black woman
that doesn't have a personal sense of when your hair has clicked in.
And that that is the first thing that has to happen
for you to know that you're about to go out and slay,
as the young people say.
I don't know if they still say it, but I like it,
so if we are going to slay [laughs]
our hair has to, uh, make us feel good.
♪
OPRAH: I loved seeing Cicely Tyson on whatever show that was
when she had the little afro. TRACEE: Mm.
- And I remember my father saying,
"That's just a shame.
Woman walkin' 'round with her hair lookin' like that."
And I'm thinking, "Wow, I think that's pretty amazing that she could do that."
And she was wearing her hair as herself. That's the first time I'd ever seen it.
- Yeah, and you see the generational difference--
with your dad and his response, yeah.
- Then the hair grew back, then I had an afro,
then I wouldn't let anybody touch it.
And... that was it. I would just go to the barbershop.
Back to you, Rich.
This was such a big deal to be able to be sitting on the air
with this afro at the time. And he always used to say he had one, too.
Especially since they had always wanted--
You know, I got sent away to try to get it straightened
and to look like somebody that I wasn't.
And then, to be able to be allowed to sit there and...
- On camera. - ...on camera in my fullness,
that was a big deal.
That was around 1977, '78.
Black culture, at the time,
was also mirroring that wearing an afro was an okay thing.
TRACEE: Mm-hm. - That, um, it-- I was allowed
to keep that afro on the air, otherwise, I would not have.
And I'm Oprah Winfrey.
We'll help you make it a great Labor Day weekend.
Join us Monday for People Are Talking...
For the longest time, I wore the afro
and I remember coming into Chicago
with, like, a little Jheri curl situation
and still not wanting
anybody to touch my hair. - Mm-hm.
- And I ran into, um, a hairdresser, Andre Walker,
who became my hairdresser
for over 30 years. TRACEE: For so long.
OPRAH: Yeah.
And he said, "You should try doing your hair.
You should try blowing out your hair."
And I was like, "Well, nobody's touched my hair."
And he became a trusted friend
and someone who, literally, every other day of The Oprah Show,
blew dry my hair
and managed, in all of those years,
never to have my hair fall out again.
- Well, that's a sacred relationship. - That's a sacred relationship.
TRACEE: It really is. OPRAH: Yeah.
Be able to maintain healthy hair? That's a very difficult thing to do.
- That's why you need the same person who knows your hair
doin' it all the time, as well. - Well, Andre, your job is secure.
[all laughing]
Your job is secure!
SHARDE: Since I do feel like this is just a safe space,
I'mma share a story with you guys. - This a safe space.
- Um, actually, I went through a bout of, um, depression at the end of 2021
and I did not comb my own hair, uh, for some months
and I was just, you know, wiggin' it up.
I was kinda, like, slickin' the front, but the inside was just a matted mess,
and I was ready to just, you know, take it to the studs,
like, just shave it all off
and we was just gonna have to start from there.
And one of my really good girlfriends--
I asked her to come over and cut my hair off for me
and she showed up with all these combs and brushes
and products and she spent four hours detangling my hair.
I'm telling y'all, I had freeform baby locks at that point. - Yes, she did. Yes, she did.
- Right, right. - Do y'all-- I have-- I felt so loved.
I still-- I get chills. Even this moment, me being able to get my hair done now,
it's on my head because... she wanted me to,
if I wanted to cut my hair, it'd be because I wanted to cut my hair
and not it be, you know, in response... - Sure, right.
- ...to some traumatic things that I had gone to.
And, I mean, who's gonna get that but us? [all agreeing]
- We understand that these hair stories and these hair tales
are communal.
We all know that we have to feel good
about who's looking back at us in a mirror to get that confidence.
That really becomes a communal project.
And if you got friends who will let you go out the house lookin' any kinda way,
you need to reevaluate those relationships.
That is one of the ways you can tell
who is gonna be with you for the long haul and who's not.
OPRAH: I was interviewing Elizabeth Taylor...
TRACEE: Oh, I remember this. OPRAH: ... and my--
Do you remember it? TRACEE: I remember this.
- Gayle is the one that called me and said, "You-- This is not the look."
[Tracee laughing] Says, "This is, this is not the look."
And I was goin', "No, I really like this."
First of all, I have on enough makeup for all of us.
- But it was... - It was out--
TRACEE: ...really alive. OPRAH: Yeah, and yeah, it was alive.
And, and Gayle is like,
"You look like you stuck your finger in a socket."
[Tracee laughs]
Going, "No, I think it's, like, natural--" "You go back and look at it."
- And you're like, "Oh, goodness." Yeah. - Yeah, yeah. You're right. You're right.
That's why you need friends.
♪
DANEHSIA: There's so many different eras of Oprah.
Like, for me-- O-Okay.
My favorite era of Oprah is, is straight hair Oprah.
It's, like, when she had a little bit of a bang.
It was, like, early '80s.
- When Oprah went-- Okay, first of all, Oprah had some looks.
We were talk-- You were talkin' the feather.
Oprah's feather was iconic
and then when she came with the big body curls.
When she came with the big body curls,
I was like, "Okay, Oprah!" [crosstalk]
- And she would kill a ponytail, too.
- You better let us know. - Yeah, we've seen her hair journey.
- Listen, I love every stage of Oprah.
♪ All at once ♪
♪ Show your crown ♪
♪ Don't you ever let the world make you put it down ♪
♪ 'Cause they never gon' do it, they never gon' do it ♪
♪ Like you never gon' do it, they never gon' do it ♪
♪ For my queens, take your throne... ♪
- Describe your hair in three words.
- Strong... Ooh, I got some strong hair. - Mm-hm. Mm-hm. [chuckles]
- Um...
it's resilient 'cause it's been through everything.
Strong, resilient, purposeful.
- Woo.
- Strong. BOTH: Resilient, purposeful.
- Just like me. - That is exactly right.
♪ Shades of brown ♪
- I had been filming the movie Beloved
in 1997 and had discovered wigs
because every single person in that movie Beloved
is wearing a wig. TRACEE: Mm-hm.
OPRAH: And the wigs were made by the esteemed Peter Owen,
who's now, you know, won, won Oscars and all that for hair.
I-I-I didn't even know you could have wigs that,
like-- - Look like your hair.
They come and they do a mold
of your head and the whole thing.
And one at a time, they put the hairs in, and, oh, my God, these extraordinary wigs.
I ended up getting a weave to do The Ellen Show
for The Puppy Episode.
It was the first time I'd worn anything other than my hair.
Has there ever been anyone you felt you clicked with?
And what was his name?
- Susan. [audience laughing]
- In, like, 1997, I was like, "Well, this was convenient."
- Mm-hm. - Who knew you could do this?
Although I'd been hearing a lot about weaves,
I always thought it was, you know, a choice that women made
just because they wanted, you know,
more hair, different hair... - Different hairstyles.
- ...different hairstyles.
I didn't know that you could, actually, use it as a protection.
So, '97 is when I started experimenting with other hair.
Oh, my God, girl, let me just tell ya.
I haven't had a weave since 2015.
Let me tell you this funny story.
Had a weave on tour in Australia. Weaves, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun,
doing very well, stopped in Fiji,
got in the ocean. - Oh boy.
- Woo! The weave locked!
The weave-- - And you couldn't get it out?
- Couldn't get it out. It was hard as a rock.
We put an entire case of cream conditioners on it.
You could unlock it and then, as soon as it dried,
it would, like, be a block on my head. - Oh, my God.
- I had to have emergency weave assistance.
[laughing] - Wait, that's amazing.
- Emergency weave assistance. - Like, they couldn't get at the roots.
You could not get it out. - You couldn't!
It was, it was-- - That sounds terrifying.
- It locked like a brick cement hood on my head.
[laughs] He was like,
"Don't go in the ocean
with a certain kind of weave." - Well, what--
- I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened.
I know the woman who put it in had some, like,
"Well, I think the somethin' somethin' got stripped
in the hair follicles." - Oh, my God. Or maybe there was a glue
that she had used. - I don't know, but that--
The hair locked on my head, had to fly somebody in to cut it out!
- That's, like, my worst nightmare. - It is a nightmare.
Luckily, we're on vacation, but, oh, my God, I'm now scared.
- Well, that's understandable. There is a real freedom with wigs,
but I love that you're at peace with the...
- With all it. - ...the variation.
♪
OPRAH: I love my own hair.
TRACEE: Mm-hm. - I love the opportunity
to line up all my girls
in my [chuckles] da-da-da and I have them all named.
- I love it. - I have one after your mom.
- You do? - Yeah, I have a Diana,
I have a Beyoncé, I have a Michelle,
I have a Cicely, I have the blah, blah.
So, I have made peace with it all.
I love it when I can wear my own hair, but it is, it is a lotta work.
- Mm-hm. There really is so much pride in--
- This is my own hair. - "This is my hair."
- I have made complete peace with my hair.
- What a beautiful liberation.
- Mm-hm.
- What about you is beautiful to you?
- Mmm. My generosity of spirit. - Mm.
[cheers, applause]
- Anything that I have
feels better to me if I can share it.
- Mm. - And that comes from
being that little girl... on the Mississippi dirt road,
sitting on the porch with my grandmother.
And... so seldom would we ever, you know, have sweets or candy or anything,
but whenever I would get some, I would save it...
- Hm. - ...for when the kids down the road
or my cousins, Willie Mack and Lonnie, came
because... a Snickers bar, a Three Musketeers
always tasted better if you could say,
"You want some?" - Oh.
- "You want some?" - Mm.
- Or to be able to say,
"Isn't it good?" - Mm.
- I wake up every morning
and I--
Literally, some days I go,
"I can't believe... I live here." - Mm-hm.
- I feel that I'm living in, um--
Like, I'm living in a painting.
- Mm. - And I feel like
even though I worked for it...
- Yeah, but still. - ...I earned it,
I feel like it's a gift.
I feel just like I'm--
I, I live in God's dream for me.
I really do. - Stunning.
- Yeah.
♪
TRACEE: Next on The Hair Tales...
- And I tell anybody now, anybody who comes to me
and is like, "I'm thinking about choppin' all my hair off."
I'm like, "Do it, your hair-- your life's gonna change. Like, that's it."
- For me, that's been the beauty of getting older
is the realization that, like, you don't have to be the same person forever.
- No, you don't.
A lot of people don't know that. - Yeah.
- And you grow and you change and you evolve.
There's a specific validation of just being and living in you.
♪