SHOW SYNOPSIS

Content warning: This production includes discussion around topics such as sexual assault, suicide, homicide, identity-based discrimination, and harassment.

Novelette Campbell runs a busy hair salon in town, where her customers are many and varied, demanding a host of styles, cuts, and colours. Coming from a family of hairdressers, she believes a woman’s hopes, dreams, hurt, and disappointments can all be felt in her hair.

With a gift for seeing into her customer’s lives through their manes, Novelette mentions that there are things she learns from them that make her want to laugh and cry, but she can also just keep those secrets in her own hair.

Sharmaine Richardson, once a regular, comes through the door. A popular actor, with her first feature shooting locally, she has decided to pay the shop a visit. Suzy, a young fan, has trailed her into the salon to fawn over her work.

The customers discuss Sharmaine’s attractive TV co-star and wonder if she is romantically involved, acting out suggestive actions. Sister Patsy, an uptight religious woman, walks into this scene with some surprise. Novelette wants Patsy to try a new hairstyle, but she insists on her usual conservative choice.

While getting her hair done, Patsy reflects on her son Jerome, whom she lost to gun violence at a high school dance. Noticing how thick her hair is growing, Novelette deduces that she is pregnant. At 46, Patsy is expecting a son, and Novelette celebrates by doing her hair for free.

Suzy says it’s been a long time since she’s had so much fun at a salon; Sharmaine offers up her own appointment time to her so she can do her hair, too. She reflects on her family life, where she’s been disowned for having a child with a black man. Feeling disillusioned and missing home, she attends a family Christmas dinner, only to hear her dad call her son a racial slur after a quarrel. Novelette absolves Suzy of her guilt and tells her she can still be the mother she aspires to be.

Sherelle bursts into the shop hoping to jump the queue given how busy she is, but Novelette won’t budge, resolute she must wait like everyone else. On answering a succession of calls after stepping out, she thinks about her predicament: working 16-hour days and skipping lunch to prove she’s not a token hire, Sherelle is burnt out. Treated as the “glue” that keeps her family together, she confesses she felt like she was physically falling apart, without anyone noticing. It is revealed she had committed suicide from the relentless stress she was under.

Miss Enid enters in a jovial mood—she has found love again in old age, after the death of her husband, Aston. Her younger neighbour, Charlie, was pruning tomatoes when she took a call from her daughter that her youngest had to go to the hospital. Having baked a sweet potato pie for them, she invited Charlie over instead and they connected over pastry and iced tea.

The customers talk about the worries they have, from romantic prospects to physical appearances, and how they go to great lengths to maintain their attractiveness.

Sharmaine asks Novelette if she’d be interested in going to Hollywood with her, but she declines, saying she’s happy with what she has. Reminiscing about her early years, she remembers wanting to be an actor from the age of eight. Her mom had been a great supporter since her youth, until Sharmaine began dating a woman. Novelette tells her to stand in her truth, and that her happiness makes her beautiful.

With the shop almost empty, Nia finally gets her turn after waiting the whole day. Novelette gives her condolences, as her mom had just passed away. Nia is indifferent about her death, as her colourism ruined their relationship and caused great emotional damage. She resolves to never do the same to her own daughter, and Novelette assures her that it does not take much to highlight her beauty.

Stacey-Anne rushes into the shop skipping and yelling, stubbing Nia’s toes. Novelette chastises her but they make up and Stacey-Anne asks if she can get a perm. She recalls coming overseas from Jamaica when her stepdad, Mr. Brown, sent for her and her sister Carrie after marrying their mother. Stacey-Anne is happy she can now enjoy Western culture and has her own room, but Mr. Brown turns out to be a pedophile and molests her at night when her mother’s away. Stacey-Anne swears vengeance on Mr. Brown if he violates her again.

Wrapping up, Novelette says she must get going as she’s late for a party. Embracing her figure, she advocates for health and time for herself, asking women to put themselves first and stand proudly in their truths.