Hair's the Deal

Imagine this: you're an actor, determined to make a great impression on your first day, yet when you arrive at hair and makeup, you're told they don't know how to do your hair. Confused, maybe frustrated, you go to the producer or director, but you get scolded for holding up production. Sound unreal? For Black actors, it's such a common experience that many come to set with their tresses already done.

"I've seen the frustration of department heads because Black actors come in with their hair needing to be done," Rhonda O'Neal says. A hairstylist with more than 100 credits, she's worked on shows including How to Get Away with Murder and Dancing with the Stars, where she earned an Outstanding Hairstyling Emmy nomination in 2019. She's encountered vitriol for knowing how to cut or style Black hair when others couldn't. Upon leaving shows, she's heard how her absence left Black talent scared to speak up for fear of losing their job. "I said, 'Something has to be done.'"

In 2020, she launched Beyond the Combs Academy. Based in L.A.'s Leimert Park area, the school offers ongoing classes and online options, with more than a dozen instructors teaching not just hairstyling but also makeup, special effects, stunts and photography. There's even a summer camp to help kids six to eighteen prepare for careers in Hollywood, but the academy's bread and butter is a four-day workshop focusing on four key strengths: working with textured hair, barbering, wig application and period hair.

From 2018 to 2021, O'Neal was hair craft president of the Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists Guild, where she led courses for people of all backgrounds. "I thought being in that space with so many people would help make a difference," she says. The role left her longing, though, particularly since so few people of color were even in the union. "Once, I had a department head say, 'What if I have a Black actor? What do I do?'" she recalls. "I said, 'You hire a Black person.' They really didn't know."

So she decided to start at the root. At Beyond the Combs Academy she's arming stylists with the knowledge they need to do hair of all types — and to succeed in jobs on set. "I need to educate other people, because being on set is not the same as being in a salon. It's not the same as the MAC counter," she says, referring to the makeup brand. "You've got to be ready, and we want to get them ready."

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine issue #8, 2023, under the same title.