‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’ is a Celebration of Black Hair and Sisterhood: Review

The cast of “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” now playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. (Charles Erickson) The cast of “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” now playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. (Charles Erickson)

While Jocelyn Bioh’s “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” takes place within a span of one day confined completely inside the walls of the titular character’s salon, the play is larger than life, transporting the audience into a colorful world known well by Black women.

The 90-minute Broadway comedy recently made its regional debut at The Yard at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where it’ll run for the next two weeks.

Jaja’s shop feels like its own character, a staple in the Harlem community that at any moment could be blasting familiar Afro-pop beats or playing beloved clips from Nollywood films, helping to move the story along while clients get laborious styles like Beyonce’s “Lemonade” braids or, even worse, micros.

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Inside the salon’s walls adorned with Ghanaian flags and hair posters are the shop’s five stylists and Marie, Jaja’s 18-year-old daughter who helps run the salon.

We meet the women, and a couple of men who rotate in and out like recurring faces in a sitcom, on a hot summer day in 2019 — pre-pandemic, the country’s so-called “racial reckoning” just on the horizon and Donald Trump is serving his first term.

All the women have dreams: Marie wants to be a writer but feels restricted by her mother’s expectations and her immigration status; Bea, the older, pot-stirring stylist aspires to run her own shop someday; and Miriam talks with hearts in her eyes, hoping to one day reunite with a lost love she had back in Sierra Leone.

The crowd at The Yard on Friday was uproarious almost the entire show. One man cocked his head back and shook with laughter after different variations of a pushy salesman, a common character in African salons, came by to sell the ladies socks, DVDs or jewelry. And audience members moaned, one even gasped, when a Black American client repeated negative stereotypes about West African women.

A scene from “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” now playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. (Charles Erickson)A scene from “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” now playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. (Charles Erickson)

On stage, each woman’s hair tells a story about who she is. Marie has youthful-looking box braids with gold jewelry accented atop her head; Bea dons a voluminous curly wig; and Miriam wears a fun style that begins as straight-back cornrows that transform into large, flowing twists.

“In so many productions, I have seen Black women and their hair not done well or in a way that we would want to be reflected in,” said Nikya Mathis, the play’s Tony Award-winning hair and wig designer.

Mathis was an actress before she fell into the world of hair. Being part of the theater industry, she knew how small hair budgets were in comparison to things like costume or set design. The inattention to hair often leaves Black actors in uncomfortable positions considering how much more time, energy and money goes into Black hair care.

The designer wanted to make sure that each character’s hair represented who they were while also displaying a variety of styles and textures.

“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” is a celebration of Black hair and salons, a kind of sanctuary for Black women where societal expectations on how to present and perform no longer exist.

“Salons are everything,” Mathis said. “Salons are the therapist’s office. It’s like your sisterhood space to talk about your favorite shows or to unleash about your relationships. Salons, for some people, are the only self-care moment that they have. Like, this is the moment where I’m allowing your hands in my hair to wash off all the pain and stress of my week.”

“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” is at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater until Feb. 2.


Video: Playwright Jocelyn Bioh discusses her play “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” on “Chicago Tonight: Black Voices” on Jan. 22, 2025. (Produced by Shelby Hawkins)


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